New Member From Upstate NY
 

I posted this to another thread and thought I would it would be appropriate to add it to this one. I've been around parkers all my life because my father collected them. I never actually owned my own but hunted with them often. About a year ago I became an owner/collector when my father passed away and left two (of his six) GHs to me. Both were originally 12 ga, 1 frame, 26 inch Damascus barrels.

One is a family heirloom that was my grandfather's. His name was Edwin Hicks and he left it (in a round-about way) to my father who was also Edwin Hicks. Now I have it, my name is Edwin Hicks, and I hope to leave it to my son, you guessed it...Edwin Hicks. It is in fair shape, a little loose at the hinge pin, a repaired crack through the wrist of the stock, and Dad replaced the Damascus barrels with steel; a Del Grego job I believe. But I will get the barrels back on face and hunt with it.

The other GH is a resurrection project that my father started and I finished. It was a disaster when he acquired it but he saw something in it and now it is pretty nice. Dad was a dyed in the wool grouse and woodcock hunter and he favored the shorter barrels and open chokes while hunting over his English Setters. This gun and a 0 frame 20 bore were his bird hunting guns.

I consider myself an upland bird hunter as well so my interest is in Parkers that are suited for that, and I like the simple elegance of the G grade. To expand my collection, I would love to acquire a 16 and/or 20 ga CH (who wouldn't?) but I may be priced out of that market. I would settle for a DH though.

Welcome Edwin III !

It sounds like you have a pretty good start in the realm of collecting and using Parkers.
Is that a 20 bore GH with 26" Damascus barrels you're restoring?


Please tell us about your Snowy Owl avatar pic. Is it perched on your hand?









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Dean - I've lurked on this site since becoming a member and your posts and other contributions to this Association have always impressed me. I've learned a lot from your expertise, thanks for sharing it so willingly.

The gun that I referred to as a 20 bore 0 frame was one of my dad's primary upland guns. Sadly, it went to my younger brother. The two parkers I inherited are GH 12 bore guns, 1 frame, 26" barrels. The family heirloom was made in 1907 and had originally Damascus barrels, but my dad had them replaced with modern steel barrels. It needs a little work to get into shooting condition and I will have that done before next hunting season.

The other 12 bore gun, I refer to it as a resurrection rather than a restoration because it has not been restored to exactly correct condition, was made in 1901. It still has its original Damascus barrels, but the trick here is that they've been fitted with Briley 20 gauge tubes, so now it is a 20 gauge gun that can handle modern smokeless ammo. I know this may be perceived negatively by some collectors, but this gun will not be sold. It has become my primary bird hunting gun. With its screw-in chokes...it is very versatile, and it looks great too! Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun.

Mr. Bachelder refinished the barrels for me last year which completed the resurrection. Prior to that work, it was restocked by a family friend, the receiver and other metal parts have had the case colors restored, and the remaining metal parts have been re-blued. The only info I could find out about who did the case colors is that it was a guy in Ohio who is dead now. Perhaps an outfit called Color Case Co Inc.? I'll post some photos of it when I can get time and figure out how.

Regarding the Snowy Owl...that is my catch and release bird hunting hobby. I am a Federally licensed bird bander and in the wintertime, the focus for me is on raptors. Back in 2014 there was an unprecedented Snowy Owl irruption out of the Arctic into Southern Canada, the US and as far south as Florida and even Bermuda.

Local to me (Saratoga Springs NY) we had one in Washington County NY near Fort Edward, that's the one in my avatar so, yes, I was holding it. The real hot spot near me was Addison County VT. where 25 - 30 of them could be found on any given day for several months. I ended up banding 4 of them.

I am trained to capture and band most species from hummingbirds to large raptors. The birds are captured using various safe trapping methods and then fitted with an aluminum leg band supplied to me by the BBL. I record information about each bird and the data I gather is reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory. I collect data for my own studies as well. Sorry for the lengthy reply.

Thanks for your kind words Ted.

Lengthy replies are good - they tell us more about you than we knew before and that's a good thing.
When you get the hang of picture posting we'd like to see your guns - especially the re-colored one. I had a Trojan 16 that I was told was done by the Ohio Case Color Co.

Incidentally, there is a picture posting tutorial on our Home page under FAQ's I think.






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Fascinating!
 

Edwin,
Congratulations on owning two fine Parker shotguns. I enjoyed your explanation of your bird work very much! Thank You, Joe

same here joe about your guns and the bird banding was really great...i too will be glad to see your parkers....charlie

Ted,
Thanks for your interesting post as it brings back memories of my college years where I took an ornithology course to complete my BS in biology. My professor was a licensed bander and most of the semester was spent tending the mist nets and banding mostly warblers as this was his area of expertise. That lead to my hobby of birding which I do just about every day. Raptors are also one of my favorites.

Ted,

Welcome.

You do some neat stuff. You remind me of a very good friend of mine and hunting companion, Jerry Czech originally from the Schnectady NY area, but lived in Webster NY just about a 1/2 mile from the south shore of Lake Ontario. A great place for migrating birds of prey in the spring. He had a federal license to trap and band hawks. He was also the Curator of Natural Science at the Rochester Museum and Science center.

He also had at various times and properly licensed a peregrine falcon, goshawk and red tailed hawk.

In addition to hunting ducks and geese with him, we also hunted wild pigeons year round to supply food for his hawks. His gun of choice was a 16 gauge Ithaca model 37 pump with a poly choke. He rarely missed with that gun. He estimated he shot several thousand pigeons with that gun.

He was also a very accomplished taxidermist who did that work for the museum and a fantastic artist of birds and wildlife using water colors. I'll post some pictures of his work in a day or two.
We spent a lot of time hunting together. I also went bird trapping with him. His wife said I was the only one who he would take with him.

Sadly, Jerry died about 8 or 9 years ago. Way too soon.

Ted,
Welcome and thanks for the introduction.
It is good to hear from others from upstate.
Western, NY here.

Thanks to all for the warm welcomes. I have heard of Gary Czech probably from my infrequent association with the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory. There's been a banding station there for decades and they do get lots of raptors in the fall.

My raptor banding partner was out yesterday in Montgomery County NY and he captured/banded a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk. It is the second he has encountered in this area and had much more white in it than the last one. He and I are going out tomorrow to the Fort Edward Washington County area. We were there last week and had a slow day, but managed to capture a Cooper's Hawk. I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures. I'll get some up of some of the birds and some have asked for photos of my two Parkers so I'll get them up too.

Trying to get the hang of posting pics...here's a Cooper's Hawk I banded last weekend. You can see the band on its leg. Cooper's Hawks are one of the three species of Accipiters that we have in NYS, they are the mid sized species between Sharp-shinned Hawk and Goshawk. We can separate these by species and sex within species by wing and tail measurements. This one is a female.

You can see that it's eye is yellowish to maybe orange. A fully adult of this species will have a blood-red eye. I aged this one as in its third year.

Here's a Rough-legged Hawk. They are winger visitors to my area from the Arctic. It's a fully adult female.

How does one capture a hawk?

Now on to the REAL reason we are here. Following are photos of the family heirloom gun. It is a GH grade, 26" barrels, 1 frame 12 ga. made in 1906. You may recall from my earlier post, this gun came originally with 26" Damascus barrels but my Dad had them replaced :crying: with fluid steel barrels. I believe Del Grego did that work.

The most-used trapping method for me is with the use of what is known as a Bal Chatri trap. I make them out of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth into a Quonset hut structure about 14" x 12" x 4" or so. They serve as a cage for a wild mouse, and the top of the trap is covered with monofilament nooses. We typically ride the roads in rural, open farm country searching for perched raptors.

The trick is to set the trap where they can see it without spooking them. If they see the mouse and want it, they will fly to the trap and try to catch the mouse. They get their feet ensnared by the nooses and cant fly away. Then we remove them, process them and release them usually within 5 - 10 minutes.

The other gun I inherited from Dad was a project gun. It is a GH 12 ga. with 26" Damascus barrels, 1 frame made in 1901. The letter says it was ordered by the E.K. Tryon Jr. and Co. of Philadelphia on Sept. 16 1901 and was shipped on Sept. 20 of the same year. Pretty darned good service for an entirely hand made firearm.

The gun was a disaster when my dad got it. Unfortunately there are no "before" photos of it, but I recall it was in very poor condition. The stock in particular was horrible. It looked like someone had taken a wood rasp to it. They removed so much wood that it is hard to figure out why. My thought was that it was a left eye dominant right handed shooter who was trying to get that left eye better lined up.

I have the original stock and forend. The stock had had wood filler added to fill in where the wood was removed. My guess there is that the stock maker did that so he could use a duplicator? Anyway...here are the photos:

As I mentioned in my previous post, my good friend and hunting companion, Jerry Czech from Webster NY now deceased, also banded hawks and was an excellent artist.

Couple pictures of his water color paintings I have here at home. The paintings are better than what the photo's show.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psejwb3blz.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...pswvgeuflj.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psykhqkf38.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psy9j6as9u.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psbm5jkq4i.jpg

Wow, those are fantastic paintings. Mr Czech certainly was talented. Most birders I know prefer the field guides with hand drawn and colored images. They seem to highlight the diagnostic field characteristics more prominently than photos do.

Well Ted, regarding the gun with the "fluid steel barrels" it would appear that 'somebody fooled somebody' because the barrel flats picture you posted distinctly show the D for Damascus with a 4 above it. The 4 is for 4-iron crolle. The original barrels may have been 'sleeved' but I don't see the line around the tubes where the Damascus breech section was cut off and fluid steel tubes were fitted. Maybe you could look closely to see if you can find any evidence of a joint line. It may well be there but the picture may not be sharp enough to see it. I would hate to think somebody would have duped your Dad and only blued the original set of Damascus barrels.





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Dean - that gun had its barrels replaced; I think Del Grego did it. The original rib was used, which still says Damascus steel. With the gun in hand, you can see the joint line although it is fine. Whoever did it did a nice job. Maybe you can see it here:

Yes, I see it now. The terminology we use is that it was "sleeved."

Thanks Ted.




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Thanks Dean for setting me straight on the terminology. You asked about the case coloring for the project gun...I think you mentioned that you thought you had a Trojan 16 that was done by the Ohio Color Case Co.? I don't want to drag this thread out, but I am interested how the colors compare.

Ted, I have couple Parkers here done by The Ohio Case Color Co. and they are very very close to your gun. Hope this helps.

Here's the one I was referring to and Dave's two guns are almost identical.

The colors look more like Marlin or Winchester colors than original Parker colors.



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Thanks for the info and comments on the case coloring. I am no expert at all, but the coloring on my gun seemed to be more "vivid" than what I've seen for original-condition parkers, which seemed to me to be more muted. No matter, I really like it and I am sure through use it will fade. And I intend to use it a lot!

Really enjoy your posts about birding and Parkers. As an avid birder for over fifty years your work with raptors really hits home. I have been going to Whitefish Point here in the UP for many years and like you have always lean towards Raptors and Waterfowl. As I'm sure you know WFP has fantastic Raptor viewing in the spring. There are a number of Federal banders who have worked this area for years, as well as the Owl banders. Back to Parkers, I have a small collection of Parkers and other American made doubles, but nothing like some of our members. If you ever find your way to the UP for birding let me know as I am always at WFP in the spring for about a week.

Whitefish - thanks. I do know Whitefish Point and have an interesting story about it. I started banding saw whet owls in my yard about 10 years ago. Birders in my area said I was crazy because there are no saw whet owls in our area. I banded over 80 that first year much to their astonishment.

One of the first ones I caught was already banded! It was my first foreign recapture in my then-short banding career and it turned out to be banded a year earlier at Whitefish Point. The following spring I attended the annual meeting of the Eastern Bird Banding Association and at the Friday night mixer, I happen to be talking with a guy totally at random in a room full of people that I did not know, but his name was somehow familiar. It turned out to be the guy who banded that bird at Whitefish Point.

I am looking to expand my parker "collection" although I really am interested in them for hunting purposes and not so much collecting. The value to me is in spending time afield with them.

In the last few years there have been very large numbers of Saw wet Owls banded at WFP. The increased numbers really jumped when they started using an electronic call at night, They check the Mist nets about every 45 minutes, and some nights get 20+ Saw wets. Two winters ago my wife found a Great Gray here on the Garden Peninsula which was very rare for this area. We have often seen them in the Soo area in January and in the spring at WFP, but never in the southern UP. I was looking for Snowies this past weekend south of the Soo, but no luck. Also not many Rough-legged this winter. The owl banders at WFP for the last 10+ years have been Chris Neri and his wife Nova

Kathy and I went to Salisbury Beach State Park yesterday in Salisbury, MA - just on the North side of the Merrimack River in Newbury, Ma from the Plum Island National Wildlife Preserve. On the marsh side of the State Park, which encompasses a couple of thousand acres of tidal marsh, among the ice cakes tossed up on the bare marsh flats, I saw what I thought was a Snowy Owl. We get several here each winter but not large numbers of them. It seems like they simply take up winter residence here lately.
I walked back to the car and got my new Zeiss 10X42 binocs (nice!) and sneaked back to get a bit closer and have the sun behind me.... Sure enough, it was a big snowy - probably a female - and when she had had enough of this interloper she took wing, flying low (about 5 or 6 feet) over the marsh, with a black duck in its talons and landed about 400 yards away to continue plucking it.





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Snowy Owls are fearsome predators...we should be glad there aren't 100 pounders out there. We'd all need 8 gauge parkers to protect our children. :)

I like to eat black ducks too. I checked out Zeiss binocs when I was in the market for a good binocular back in '94. They are indeed nice! I ended up with Leica BA 10 x 42s which have served me well. I am not sure why I chose them over Swaro and Zeiss; they are all excellent.