1937 12ga VHE Trap Gun?
 

Good Morning Everyone; I have been the caretaker of this VHE for a couple of years now and it has been great fun to shoot, but I would like some opinions on if it was made this way or not. The metal looks to have been refinished at some point, possibly by Remington? The wood I redid with Timberlux because the old finish was cracking and peeling off. It also had the usual pachmeyer vented recoil pad on it, belt sanded to fit after mounting:banghead: This is my first try at loading pics so bear with me, First the letter.

Now the Gun. Sorry about the picture quality, grey and dark here in the Northwest is normal.

Detail pics

Hi Curtis. The letter does not offer a good deal of info and as you said the pictures are a little dark and distant. So for starters does the BTFE have the reinforcing bolt ? Is the barrel loop reinforced ? If you are uncertain of how to determine this post a close up picture of the loop and we can determine this. This should verify the authenticity of the BTFE. You can look under the trigger tang for the serial #, if present that will be a good indication the stock is correct. Of course better pics would be a great help. Water table, barrel flats, etc.

And still more pics. Hard to see, but the single trigger looks to have been over stamped with this serial number.

Take your pictures against a neutral background (light gray) white is the worst to shoot pictures against. Take some close up pictures of the receiver, sides and bottom. It does look like it has the reinforced lug on the barrel. What length are the barrels and do you have any idea of what it is choked?

Hi Randy, Yes it does have the bolt through the forend. I did not get a clear picture of it though.

Very nice. Would make a great doubles trap gun.

Looks to me like everything is right including the vent rib as evidenced by the flat top receiver. You can look under the rib between the 2nd and 3rd post usually to see if the last 3 digits of the ser # are stamped there, might need a dental type mirror or possibly go outside in good light to see it. Just another indicator if he #'s are present.

In regards to the #'s on the trigger I believe the last 3 digits of the ser # were stamped there as well but this one appears to have 4 #'s. Can you tell if they match the last 4 of the ser # ? Maybe someone else will offer something on this. Nice gun BTW.

Hello Eric, Barrels are 30" long, Chokes are .018 in right, .030 in left. And here are more pics. Yes I know my picture taking skills are lacking, but my excuse is I was doing this between rain and hailstorms yesterday.

Randy; I did try and look under the rib for numbers with a bright light but could not see anything there. I do not have a mirror small enough to get in there.

And the trigger does appear to have 1170 stamped over a previous three numbers, but it is hard to tell for certain. This one works perfectly so I did not remove it when The gun was apart to work on the wood. I have heard that if your single trigger works do not mess with it :nono:

Is the top of the rib engraved ?

Curtis when I said under the rib I should have stated on the underside of the rib which is where the #'s would be. Did you look there ? Hard to see in there for sure.

You are correct, don't touch lube it nothing. If something goes wrong with the trigger only let a smith who is "known" for working on Parker single triggers touch it. Most smiths don't know how to work on a Parker trigger and will mess the trigger up worse then it was....ask me how I know ! :banghead: :crying: :cuss:

The gun was original a Vent Rib gun. But it looks like the gun was originally a Double Trigger gun and then converted to Single Trigger. Unless they used a DT trigger plate when built as it has the screw hole drilled in it for a DT return spring. This hole should not be on a SST gun.

The case colors as well as the style of the stock are typical of Delgrego restorations, BUT... it is an Ilion made gun, but not very far into Ilion manufacture. the same year at the move in fact. So those type of things should not look like hat for a gun made at that time. It does have repair codes on it, so it went back to Remington for who knows what.?

Frank; No there is nothing engraved on top of the rib.

Brian; The letter does say single trigger, maybe they added it to a gun already in stock?
But what puzzles me is why does the letter not mention the Rib or Trap style forend?

Because the letter was gleaned from an IBM card, which usually has very little information on it. You were lucky to get the Remington employee's name. The IBM card is not an order card.

Nice wood for a VHE .

Regarding engraved legend on the top of the rib - After the Parker gun works was moved to Ilion Remington discontinued the practice of engraving (roll-stamping) the legend on the rib.

The vent rib appears to be of Remington manufacture but the barrels (without the vent rib) are leftover stock from the Meriden days evidenced by the "Overload-Parker Gun Works-Proved" stamps on each barrel flat.





.

Weren't the Meriden guns would be marked “Parker Bros.” Overload proved? The “Parker Gun Works” title was used during Remington/Ilion Manufacture.

And, they wouldn't have marked an unfinished and unfitted set of barrels as proofed. That defeats the purpose.

You're right Brian - what was I thinkin'?





.

What are your thoughts on the colors. Forearm hardware appears to be cyanide, the frame not so. Any thoughts as to how, why ?