Remington era fancy wood
 

I'm a new member that has been reading up on older posts and I've seen reference to the fact that Remington era Parkers had figured wood, above grade. What are the members' thoughts as to that?
Was Remington using up stocks that had been held in reserve for higher grades?
Does anyone have pictures that they can post?

At about the same time as they moved Parker to Ilion, Remington switched from producing their B "Special" Grade guns with imported walnut to fitting them with Selected Figured American Walnut.

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For 1938 the Model 31B "Special" Grade with imported walnut had a dealer price of $62.40 and a retail price of $77.45.

For 1939 the Model 31B "Special" Grade with Selected Figured American Walnut had a dealer price of $39.95 and a retail price of $51.70.

So, Remington had a good supply of American Walnut on hand for the VHE and GHE Parkers.

Interesting! Thanks, Researcher. To that thought, pictures I've seen of the late GH/VH guns with fancy wood do seem to be feather or fiddleback figure black walnut. I had been wondering if, maybe there was a thought, "let's use up these already made stocks from the old Parker Company so we don't have to make more before the move".

Yes, of course, because it made eminent business sense. There are many P and especially G-grade guns produced during that era that exhibit wood quality and figure way above their respective grades. At one time I owned a 20 ga. PHE and a 16 ga. GHE produced at that time and both of them had wood on them that would have done a D-grade proud. You'll recognize them when you see them in correlation to their SN range(s).

Here are some examples. My 1930 vintage 20-gauge VH, 235178 --

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A VH 16-gauge, 237521 of GI --

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My December 1941 vintage VHE 16-gauge --

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This is my 31B “Special “..... I think the wood upgrade was well worth the extra money.

Is the receiver of your Model 31 marked B-GRADE? I've seen the Model 11 and Sportsman so marked --

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but I've not seen a B-GRADE marking on a Model 31 or Model 17.

I had a 241 thousand VHE 20 about mint with checkered butt sst splinter pistol grip that i would put up against about any feather crotch stock.I hope somone on this site owns it now. Bobby

Sounds like a nice, unusual VHE 20,,the kind I like!

No “B” grade marking on my 31, however there is no “T” or “TC” marking either, and the checkering And grip cap matches the pIctures in the catalog for B grade.

I'd say! That's a full double feather figure, and the blank alone would be solid money nowadays.

so what is a blank like that worth , I might happen to know where 1 resides

Pictures in what catalog? In my collection of Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalogs of the Model 31 era, from 1932 to 1949, the closest I come to a picture of a Model 31B "Special" Grade is this in the 1949 catalog --

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which shows no grip cap and the same whimpy little triangle of checkering as used on the Model 31 Skeet Gun.

From your two pictures I'd have pegged your gun as a Model 31S "Trap Special" or Model 31H "Hunters Special". No matter, still a wonderful piece of wood.

I believe Remington was trying to preserve the imported walnut rather than add to its inventory. The Parker/Remington catalogue of 1937 lists the D grade with american walnut while Parker Bros. always catalogued the D with imported walnut. After 1934 its is doubtful that Remington needed to buy additional imported walnut to meet the demand for high grade Parkers. On the otherhand Remington needed large quantities of american walnut and I would bet that Parkers got the best of those which accounts for improved wood quality during late production of Parkers.

The picture I referred to was from a Tryon catalog from a distributor in Philadelphia.
It is possible that the picture was incorrect for the grade, if I can dig it out I will post it

Unfortunately the 1923 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog was the last one to picture all the guns in all the grades.

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The big 1937 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog has this page covering B "Special" Grades --

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