Been lurking and finally joined. 1904 VH 12ga straight grip
 

Hi all, great site.
I have been reading here on and off for a year or so trying to figure out what my best course of action on my 1904 VH 12ga with 30 inch extra full & full barrels, straight grip and #2 frame. I put some bad quality pictures in an album to give you an idea of the guns condition. I will take some better ones tomorrow.
It has been in my family for a long time but we weren't the original purchasers. I have never seen or heard of anyone firing it in my 48 years. The bores are nice and shiny with one tiny dent on bottom of one barrel. Barrels are brown colored except under forearm where there is original bluing. Bottom metal on forearm shows good case hardening color but is worn off on receiver.

The stock appears to be loaded with oil as it is very dark. Serial number is 124988 and matches on all parts including stamped into stock under trigger guard. Action is nice and tight when locked.

My plan, if possible, is to use it as an occasional trap and upland hunting gun. I am concerned about the oil soaked stock, it is solid without cracks but has a broken toe and plastic butt plate. I think it will have very nice figure if refinished.
I am ordering a research letter on it.
I have gently cleaned the decades of yellow oil stains off the metal parts with oil and nylon scrubby pads, brushes.

As for me, I live in Rhode Island, have a 47 acre farm and work a full time job. I was an aircraft machinist/welder while in the Air Force. I shoot tactical high power rifle matches along with fun rifle/pistol shoots at our local club. am currently building a savage based 6.5-06 long range rifle for use at 1000+ yards. Claim to fame; I removed a broken bolt from the front landing gear of one of the Thunderbird's F-16's. LOL

Questions:
Does this appear to be a special order gun due to barrel chokes, length and straight stock?

Is refinishing the stock viable if the gun has more than standard value?

Can dent be removed and keep barrels brown or do they need to be re-blued?

Again, Great Site, and seems like a great bunch of enthusiast's.
Thanks, John

John welcome to the PGCA. Great you have a gun with family history.
Nothing about your description suggests a special order gun. More info might change that but the letter will hopefully tell the story.
If stock is oil soaked as you say it should be restored if you plan to shoot it to prevent damage to the stock. Fixing the toe and buttplate shouldn't be a problem. Show pic of dent and others will advise about removal. Again welcome, Erick

John that's a nice, detailed description. If, as you say, the dent is tiny it can easily be removed by a competent gun smith. Hopefully, someone in your area can direct you to a proper smith who is familiar with Parkers. Let us know what your letter states about your gun. You never know.

John, there is a very competent gunsmith near you in East Sandwich, MA. Give Dan Cullity a call, I'm sure he can advise you on all your questions related to condition and repair.

Dan Cullity
209 Old County Rd.
East Sandwich, MA 02537
(508) 888-1147

Hello John - Welcome!

I'll echo what others have said about your family Parker and will add that it would be a decent waterfowl, pheasant, and turkey gun but unfortunately, would be a disappointment in the grouse and woodcock coverts... too heavy and too tightly choked. :(






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John,

You have a nice looking straight-grip VH. Dean gives good advice that your Parker would be better suited for the game hunting he mentioned.

Now you have a good reason now to find another Parker to better suit your needs and add to the collection :cool:

On another note and noticing you live in RI, we have an annual Parker Spring Fun shoot at Addieville Sporting Clays in the spring. It's usually March or April depending on the weather until spring finally arrives after a long winter.

Stick around and check the Shows, Events, and Conventions. It's a great time and you'll get to meet some of the people on this forum and a lot of nice Parker Guns.

Thanks for the nice welcomes. I am going to take some more pics tonight, I tried late last night but the lighting in the kitchen isn't photo friendly. I am going to wait until the letter comes to decide the next move. I have the butt plate off and noticed there is 988 written in pencil on the back so it is all original. I noticed the brown color on the barrels is blotchy so unless the letter says something crazy I am going to send it out for a proper cleaning, dent removal, re-blue, stock soak and refinish. The gun hangs perfect when I shoulder it so it will be worth it to me to to have it done. Thanks again, I'll post some pics later, John

I saw where there is a shoot at Addieville, I am 30 minutes south of it. I have never shot there but would love to.
I was already thinking of locating a lighter Parker, a friend said he had one hanging on the mantle so I had him see what it was, turns out it was a T Parker hammer gun made in Belgium. I already have my late dads Belgium made 10 gauge hammer gun I have been slowly cleaning up, it's in the same class as the T Parker, he used to shoot it years and years ago with full brass shells. I will keep looking for a lighter Parker for upland. I might try this VH on ducks someday. John

PS. I just did the online letter request so the wait is on. LOL

Keep us informed about the PGCA letter. A straight grip stock on a VH Parker of the period is a bit unusual and to be appreciated.

John,

The New England Parker boys have been gathering at Addieville to shoot for several years in the spring of the year. It date and time is announced here, on the forum, so keep an eye out for the date (I assume we will have the shoot again this year).

It started out small, maybe 6 or 8 of us but has grown every year. Last year we must of had 4 or 5 squads of 6 or 8 people each. Most of us don't even keep score, it a fun shoot; lots of laughs and a little BS thrown in too. Some stay afterward and we grill some burgers & dogs and people bring dishes to pass around too. Lots of Parker talk and just good fun. Some wives that don't shoot tag along too, so don't be afraid of bringing along non-shooters.

I'm sure you would enjoy the day and we would enjoy meeting you there.

Details on this years shoot will be posted this evening

I have a late Parker of the same configuration but the chokes aren't quite that tight. It's the best duck gun I have. I love it. It's heavy enough to soak up recoil from stout loads.

Regarding the chokes on mine, I was going by what I was told years ago. I am not sure where they came up with full and extra full but I measured the diameters last night and came up with .695 and .725, which would be full and skeet according to what info I have read.
Did barrels come configured this way normally? Thanks, John

Not uncommon. A very useful combination.

Hi John and welcome. The left floor plate screw is not aligned with the long axis of the gun. The two screws may have been removed and not replaced correctly. The left screw will have a score line on the base. If the screw on the left does have the score, it has been over tightened.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=1476

Please ignore the comment about a + sign. I have long since learned that is on the middle screw when all screws are the same length. Need to revise this pic

Thanks for the welcome and the information guys.

I do a lot of duck hunting in small rivers where the first shot is always 20 yards or less and the second shot is further out. I think this Parker will work nicely for that, a third shot usually doesn't happen so only two rounds is fine.

I still remember my first duck hunt 35 years ago when I was 13 like it was yesterday, I had gotten an early 40's Savage Fox model B 12ga the previous Christmas from my parents, I can still see that green headed mallard with his wings set and orange legs hanging down reaching for the water. I shoulder the savage and fire, he's still in the air, I fire again, he flies off with not a feather out of place. LOL, I heard about for years after. Thankfully my wing shooting improved since then and have taken lots of ducks and geese.

I am patiently waiting with anticipation for the research letter to arrive. I have been reading all the past posts absorbing what info I can.
Thanks again, John

Early guns have the long rear screw like in Jacks photo. But later guns have a short rear screw (which is the same length as the front screws). On these guns, the rear screw was marked with an "X" on the bottom.

And then Jack says left side for the "-", he means left side of gun, which is your right side when you are looking at the bottom working on the screws.

Brian, my Trojan 20 has one front screw that is about 1/4 out of line. Do you see this on Trojans or are my screws probably not in the correct hole?

Alfred - knowing that even the Trojans had correctly aligned (timed) screws, two possibilities come to mind. They may be in the wrong holes, as you suggest, or that screw may have been over-tightened at some point.





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Thanks Brian, I was wondering which left was meant. I checked mine and the indexed screw was in the proper side, I swapped them and they were both off. It appears as though the left was over tightened at some point. I haven"t researched a fix for that yet as I am looking at a cracked wrist. I posted some pics in the Restoration section of it. I am not sure of my best course of action. Thanks, John

One more possibility comes to mind - replacement screw. Dean is correct. When leaving the factory, the screws are in line with either the long axis or vertical axis, with the exception of a few that are at 45 degrees to the long axis and those are somewhat intuitive. These pics are from the Grades Tab on our site - not mine (I wish ! ) Any of the standard screws not in this alignment have been completely replaced with a problematic screw or they have been removed and not returned to correct location or correct final resting position if in correct location. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it unless of course proven otherwise. Never say never. Never say always but... there is a high degree of probability this might be the case. Cheers, Jack

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=806
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=796
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=801
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=628
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=639
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=640
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=495
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...&pictureid=564

John: Is the screw quite loose if you back it off to correct alignment? Probably, but not necessarily.

If it is loose, I've seen them shimmed with a thin washer made from soda can aluminum. And professional repair is always an option. Cheers, Jack

Hi John---I'm late to this thread, but I live in North Kingstown and visit Addieville and my friends at Robin Hollow regularly. If you are ever interested in heading up there to shoot, let me know.

I am a member of Narragansett Gun Club, and you are always welcome to try your luck at trap, skeet and 5 stand there.

Best regards,
Jeremy

Hi Jeremy, Thanks for the invites. I shot a little trap at Narraganset years ago, it's about 10 minutes from me. I think I still have a couple trap tickets around here somewhere and would love to try it again. Would like to try Addieville also. I am hoping to make the fun shoot in April with my VH if I can get all the oil out of the stock. I am hoping to take a turkey with this spring also. When the weather gets a little better we should get together. I live in West Greenwich.
Thanks again, John