Aftermarket Vent Rib?
 

This vent rib does not look original to me but I am not an expert in them. Is it factory or aftermarket?

Steve, the frame is level across the top between the breech bolsters, telling me that it was manufactured with a vent rib or with a raised flat rib.

It does however, look like some work has been done to it.... and being a Remington Parker it's tough to nail down anything about it.





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Rib looks right to me from what little I can see. Like Dean said the frame is correct for a VR gun. Those side panels are another story though, an added embellishment.

Yeah, it is right. It just does not have the “V” on the ramp.

It maybe could have been repaired or changed out by Meriden or Remington at some time after original manufacture. Or may be completely original.

That is one of my(many) Parker goals...to own a vent rib gun

The V on the ramp was limited only to one period of Vent Rib production - the earlier period. The other period was as this one is shown, and as it should be for the Remington produced Parker that it is.





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I could not recall the details on the V off the top of my head. I just knew they were offered both ways.

The very earliest VR guns had the 'V' or groove milled into the stem of the rib before the flat bridge treatment over the doll's head well was "standardized" by Parker. Most all of these very early VR guns were ordered or built for stock as field guns before Parker offered the VR as a catalog option (I think in 1921-22), and a lot of the early ones had VRs added and were offered to established shooters to test market acceptance. I once owned BHE #183562, a fully-optioned trap/pigeon gun with VR, ST and straight grip which dated I believe to 1918. Howard Miller of Miller Single Trigger fame told me that he remembered seeing this gun at the GAH when his father took him there in 1919 or 1920, and he is convinced that the gun belonged to William McCarty, at that time the president of the newly-formed ITA.

I can't believe this 1929 CHE was one of the very earliest VR guns made by Parker Bros.

Ser. No. 230760 was the PGCA Raffle Gun in 2004 or was it 2007...? Anyway, it is a factory vent rib Double Trap with all the options.


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1934 16 gauge transitional and 1930 20.

I have #222223 a DHE 30 inch 20 with a vent rib. IIRC it's from 1926

From a Parker Bros. "Flying Geese" catalog --

Attachment 91915

Hi Dean,

FYI, Elmer Keith's 32" BHE ventilated rib double trap is serial #228351

Check for the serial number stamped under the rib. Between the second and third posts if I remember correctly.
You will likely need a dental mirror to see it.

234060 is a dhe 16 vent rib with the notch. It has 30" barrels.

Another clue to examine is the rib legend. On the VR guns it will be hand engraved vs roll stamped. The difference is actually quote easy to spot when you compare the two styles side by side. The top pic being a VR gun, the bottom of a solid rib.

Bruce is right most factory vent ribs I have seen have part of the serial number stamped between the second and third post, and you will need a dental mirror to see it Gary

Most often it is the last three digits of the gun's serial number stamped on the bottom of the rib.





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The last 3 digits under the rib can be tricky to spot for my eyes however outdoors they tend to jump out at me. The lack of the numbers does not mean the rib is not correct, I have seen guns that letter that lack the numbers under the rib. I have a BHE that letters as a VR gun and it has one digit or letter only under the rib. I have tried to convince myself if is a 5 for the grade but honestly I cannot tell if it is a 5 or an S or possibly neither and I have stared at it a bunch.

i used to own 222,223 many years ago, and always wondered what happened to it. regretted selling it off. it had a straight grip, factory beavertail and VR, and a Miller single trigger. did you know that it originally had a second set of barrels? i am certain that the second barrel set would have been 26" skeet/skeet VR. i used to advertise to find that second barrel set, at a time before the internet (and before parker collecting club had organized itself) to no avail. i am an advanced collector, just not of parkers, owning only a couple, and am not a member of that collecting club. just joined this forum so i could respond to finally relocating this particular gun. jc hurt

The picture the original poster sent would indicate a doll's head that doesn't fit quite flush. That poor fit brings into question the originality of the barrels. However, it would be very unusual to find a gun with a retrofitted set of ventilated rib barrels. More pictures would give more information.

I have this gun. I bought it from Steve Barnet almost 20 years ago. I didn't know it had a second set of barrels.

Vent rib guns
 

As inspired by this thread, I'll have to look more closely at my 30" vent rib DHE 28 gauge to see if it's original or after market. The book doesn't recognize it in the options section and now I know why that could be, thanks to Dave N.
Always something to learn on this site.

well, i used to do a lot of trading with steve, and i still buy a few things from august morris; have no idea if that's who i sent it to back in the day, might be. you know how guns shift around between dealers before they find a home. if memory serves, the barrel flats have a marking indicating that there was a second barrel. at that time, your collecting club was a paper newsletter (which i advertised in a few times, for the lost barrels), and no factory letter was available on any parker. times have changed, apparently...i am told that a factory letter of some kind can be obtained, though i may be misinformed. do you ever use the gun?

Kevin made a post back on p. 1 and I suspect he was referring to George McCarty
https://traphof.org/inductees/detail...carty-george-s

This ad was in Sporting Life January 9, 1909 and he appears to be holding a SBT

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shooters/...-9-1909-XL.png

Forest McNeir, George McCarty, Charles Newcomb 1940s at the Marshall Marathon

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shooters/...Marathon-L.png

Close up of the guns covered with jackets. Gun on right looks like a Smith, on left maybe a Model 21?

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shooters/...b%20guns-L.png

I couldn't find any other images of McCarty with a gun

Dhe vent rib 30" 28 ga! Larry you really know how to hurt a guy!:envy:

Original vent rib on the left, aftermarket on the right.

John, for the education of those who do not know about the flat top of the breech face can you show a picture of the breech face without the barrels of both guns side by side?

Dave Suponski wrote a pertinent article that I published in Parker Pages some ten or more years ago but my PC is at the shop right now so I don’t have the ability to look it up in a timely manner.



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Original right, aftermarket left.

Original top, aftermarket bottom.

Thanks John.

My goodness... The aftermarket barrels also appear to have been sleeved.




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Correct

Let me just say , if you get a vent rib gun and shoot it well , DO NOT put a price on it if someone asks what’ll you’ll take :banghead:

I have two that I use for doubles trap.

Oh I was pretty sure you had more than one . I was speaking of my own recent mistake of putting a price on the one I had .

Bad move

I should have clarified my response by saying after original production, then being returned for a Parker vent rib addition; like what was being discussed.
I do have one of those transitional guns like Reggie was showing, which was made in 1934, just after Remington took over. It does have the sharper V and the inscription on the top of the rib. At first I thought it might be one of the guns returned for a vent rib because it has so many codes on the barrel flats, but the book has it as a 23 extra code, so it had it when it left the factory. So, some of this other stuff was probably done later like the "no safety", large forend and single trigger. Choked skeet/skeet, but not marked that way on the barrel flats. Just a VH 12 gauge.

I think I have posted about this a time or two. When I first got into Parkers around 10 years ago, Puglisi had a Damascus GH with a Damascus Vent Rib. I didn't know enough about Parkers then, and certainly couldn't tell if it was original. added latter at the factory, or aftermarket...but I should have bought that gun and would if I ever saw it again.

I have saved some pictures of 198678, a DHE 12-gauge, 2-frame, with a vent rib nicely engraved with the Parker legend, the reinforced forearm loop, but the frame has the concave area for the dolls head. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the ramp.

Attachment 127691

Attachment 127692

Attachment 127693

Attachment 127694

Attachment 127696

Does the serialization book show it started life as a vent rib gun?

A gun like Dave's will have a concave doll's head, just like a normal solid rib gun. By the way, I own the Damascus GH that Jay Oliver mentions. It is truly a rare gun, Damascus barrels and Damascus vent rib. Neat gun. Original Parker retrofit with concave doll's head.