The Parker
 

Nice short story titled "The Parker" in Gray's Sporting Journal, The Bird Hunting Edition, volume forty-two, issue 4, August 2017. It's about a 12 ga Trojan that a guy inherited from his Grandfather and got him into grouse hunting.

It includes a photo where you can see some of one side of the original instruction and care tag that came with the gun. It must be a generic tag included with both hammerless and hammer guns as you can see in in big bold letters: "IT DOES NO HARM TO SNAP HAMMERS DOWN ON PARKER GUNS WHEN NOT LOADED. SNAP THEM ALL YOU PLEASE." Of course the subject Trojan is a hammerless gun.

It also describes that allowing the ejectors to snap open with no "exploded shells" in place can cause harm to the gun. I don't own a Parker with ejectors, but I will keep that in mind for when the time comes.

Who is the author of the story... is he a PGCA member? We should all have our new by-laws and membership roster by now and can look up such an author's name.





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The author is Bill Kavanaugh and he is identified as "a freelance writer living in central Pennsylvania." I received my latest Parker Pages over the weekend with the membership list, however I am in my office and the list is at home.

Mr. Hixie, snap the internal hammers on a Trojan all you want. It won't damage them.

Allowing ejectors to trip without any resistance against them (e.g., spent shells; holding your thumb or fingers against them) is THE primary cause of the tiny square ejector stop plate blowing out. Once this occurs it can become a major repair project and is almost without exception a VERY expensive proposition. The rebated milling cut in the end of the rib extension that holds the plate in place with its accompanying tiny screw usually must be recut and a new or replacement plate fabricated and fit. If (God forbid!) these are lost in the field as a result of the 'blowout', it becomes even more of a nightmare. I know of a gorgeous BHE 16 ga. that suffered this fate, with the actual ejector being lost in the field as well. Worst of all was a super-rare DHE 28 ga. that had a badgered repair job on the installation of a replacement stop plate and was never mechanically right again. Beware!!

I once bought an orphan set of Peerless Steel 20 gauge barrels that had had a very poor repair of the same issue, among other ham-handed shade tree gun smithing butcheries. I returned them immediately. I pity the guy who finally got stuck with this set.





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Thank you Mr. Day! I often do, but I mostly use snap caps anyway just out of habit I guess.

The writer of the article is not mentioned in the latest membership list.

He's a freelance writer and lives in State College which is in the center of the state. He may be associated with the Pennsylvania State University. I don't know him.

I had that issue of Gray's andmany other magazines laid out to take to Hilton Head--was supposed to leave tomorrow, but Hurricane Irma has changed our plans.

That tag came with every new "Hammerless" Parker, and what the tag is referring to as "HAMMERS" are internal to the frame. There really is no such thing as a hammerless Parker.

I am sure you are correct and Mr. Day alluded to that in a previous post as well. It was interesting to read a previous segment on the card that said in large bold capital letters: "HAMMERS SHOULD NEVER BE LET DOWN ON LOADED SHELLS IN ANY GUN." I don't see how you could do that with internal hammers except to fire it, so I figured the statements pertained to hammer guns.

The next segment on the card read: "The Parker Gun is a much safer gun to use than any gun in which the hammers may be let down on loaded shells and was designed with special reference to safety on this particular point." This must be Parker's assertion that their guns with internal hammers are much safer to use than external hammer guns. I guess the addition of the safety on hammerless guns is relevant here.

Since I have no real experience with Parker hammer guns, do I assume from this that Parker hammer guns do not have a half-cock safe position?

Those statements made by Parker are, I believe, largely in reference to Parker's rebounding hammers. Not a 'half cock' per se as that is only as reliable as the handler of the gun, but rebounding hammers will always keep the hammers off of the plungers and away from the primers.






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Additionally, when the hammer rebounds, it is necessary to squeeze the trigger, to raise the sear away from the tumbler, in order for the hammer to go back into contact with the firing pins, or plungers. The rebounded position and sear engagement is exactly like a half-cock sear/tumbler position.

So if I understand correctly, as long as the hammer is in the rebounded position, any accidental impact on the hammer won't result in an accidental discharge...that's quite a clever design.

If while in the middle of cocking one of the hammers, it should accidentally slip, is it still blocked from striking the firing pin or plunger? I assume so as long as the trigger is not depressed?