![]() |
The old days
How was this game played before the internet? Somewhat disenchanted with the internet gun bazaar, we are all looking for the same crumbs.
Did you write letters to other collectors? Call and visit random gun stores? Have the local gun store on retainer? Actually advertise in parker pages? I am just curious, there have been some interesting stories posted of late. |
Gun shows and gun shops!
|
Well, thirty years ago you subscribed to the "Gun List"...
RD |
Shotgun News and the want ads in American Rifleman.
|
Kevin is right. Gun List is a modern day item. There was plenty of gun collecting before Gun List. My collection of American Rifleman from the late twenties to WW2 shows rare collector Parkers in the classifieds that have not shown up on the radar again in the 63 years I have been collecting. Before Peter Johnson's book in 1960, there was virtually nothing in print to help a Parker collector. Before 1960, collectors worked off the seats of their pants, using their checkbooks to further their knowledge.
|
Local newspaper classified ads were also valuable source back in the days before the internet. The classified sections in most newspapers would have large, dedicated sections just for gun sales.
This is where you would find the guns that came out of grandpa's closet or from under his bed. |
Shotgun News. Back in the early 70's I worked in downtown Rochester. I knew what day and time shotgun news was delivered to Worldwide News so I would pick up a copy hoping could get a jump on other collectors. You could also get the SN delivered by first class mail which was another way to get a jump but at the time I was too cheap to pay the additional charge. LOL
|
Quote:
|
I used the Gunlist, and I kept some of Chadrick’s ads for reference over time I’m sure that if I can find them, they will have drool stains. :rotf:
|
Our local AM radio station KAPR had a daily “Trading Post”. If I recall correctly this was a free announcement done at the same time every day. You could have them announce what you had to sell or wanted to buy. Guns were regularly sold. The would state what the gun was, who was selling, the price and the telephone number.
My father in the 60’s and early 70’s had a 2nd hand store. Lots of great guns came through his shop. My dad had a friend Mr Bigalow that collected guns. Because we didn’t have much money to spare Mr Bigalow ( as kids we thought he was rich) had a deal with my father. If guns came in and my father didn’t have the money, he was to make a deal and Bigalow would front the money. Bigalow then would have an opportunity to buy the guns he wanted with a small commission. |
I bought a few Parkers through ads in the Gun List but many others were word-of-mouth offers and transactions. But many of the top collectors have a network of folks with similar interests and a lot of guns never get advertised at all except by word-of-mouth between friends and acquaintances.
. |
Shotgun News September 1968
Yep, what Craig Larter said above.
Below is a copy of an ad from the September 1968 issue of Shotgun News. I got the DE12 gauge Fox. Paid $800.00. I should have grabbed that DHE 12 gauge with all the options for a $1000 and the 20 gauge single barrel trap for another $2K. Could probably do some serious trading with you guys if I had. I enjoyed that minty DE12 gauge Fox for many years. Sold it to Dana Tauber. Yep, Shotgun News was the place to get nice guns. https://i.imgur.com/GMnBn3G.jpg?2 |
OK, Bill Jollif got the DE Fox, but I got the 20 gauge 34" single trap. Small world. I filed a stack of Gun Lists for years, knowing the Chaddick ads and Tom Gibbons ads would be interesting reading. My wife made me trash them when we moved into the new house six years ago.
|
Used to be some shops around in central Pa (Shumans) and a couple on the eastern shore where nice doubles just seemed to show up from time to time. Internet for both bad and good changed everything. Everyone now thinks their Parker VH 12 gauge with 30" barrel covered in rust is worth 3K because they saw one for sale at that price on the WWW.
PS. I bought my first graded Fox in a small gunshop in Front Royal Va. Place has now been out of business for years. Used to also be some nice gunshops in Alexandria Va but no more. Tough to make a living when black guns are what 95 percent of the population wants. |
Location seems like it mattered more, before when. While maine had great hunting traditions, it likely didnt have the economy to support many fancy guns, and even if there were, they have long since been sold by less well off relatives.
I suspect that many of the shooter/beater type guns im in the market for end up on the net for the very reason stated above. Most walk in custom would like to see plastic guns so the shop owner moves the old wood along to the broader audience. |
Gun Shows and Shotgun News! In my view, it was way more fun chasing down an ad or a lead to find those treasures. You also had more time to make a deal. Today's electronic ads are great in that you don't have to be in New England or at least the NE United States to find them at local dealers. The downside is anyone with a computer can compete for one. Good for the sellers but not so much for the buyers.
Bought several on Shotgun News. Anyone remember the Rich Wengel sale? |
In the fall of 1972, I was home on leave and went shooting at the old Seattle Skeet & Trap Club at Redmond. In the club house I thumbed through an issue of Shotgun News and found a 28-gauge Model 12 Skeet Gun. First time I ever found one without a Cutts, and it was in Imperial Beach, California. Every morning I drove within a block or so of it on my way to North Island Naval Air Station from my apartment in Chula Vista. Went to look at the gun, and at H. Kinder's was the first time I ever saw two .410-bore Parkers in the same place. Got a signature loan from Navy Federal Credit Union and the 28-gauge Model 12 was mine. My credit wasn't up for the .410-bore Parkers!!
|
I have recently found some printed sale ads for some killer Parkers, Smiths and Lefever in a number of American Rifleman issues that I have.
From the 1940s…. I like the prices too. |
Quote:
|
I have a copy of a "Hunting & Fishing" or "National Sportsman" from the 1930's, when WHF was editor and publisher, advertising a DHE .410 for $100.
There is a possibility Foster was selling his own gun here. It was either Jonathan or Bill (his grandsons) who told me that Grandad sold his graded Parker .410 in order to help cover college tuition costs. I'll look around for the ad and post a picture here. . |
I haven't been at this nearly as long as most of y'all; my first ever double gun came from a flea market - a 16ga Stevens 5100 which I still have. I can think of two shotguns and several rifles that I bought at gun shows, and two shotguns from gun shops. The rest all came from folks on the web sites, either by referral or from inquiries I placed, and usually from folks I knew or at least had seen on these sites a lot. I've never bought a gun off a classified or a web site, and I'm not sure I ever want to.
|
Ah, Gunlist The Good Old Days... Before the Evils of The Internet
Life was simpler, a touch slower, And most of all more personal My best guns came from my true friend and Mentor, one Wiley Bower A fine West Virginia ex pat ....Living in a small town in Northeast Ohio He had a lifelong interest in Parkers and deep connections, likely going back to the mid 1950’s A true southern gentleman A Dedicated grouse hunter, with an exceptional English Setter by his side He lived the part. It was a simpler time I am better for knowing Wiley Rest In Peace my friend |
I met an older gentleman about twenty years ago he used to frequent the shops in my area . He was big into period single shot rifles . His two fav cartridges were the 22 Hornet and R2 Lovell . Anyway he showed me five or six guns he’d bought out of the classified adds in the Washington Post . All were Ballard , Stevens or Sharps based guns and all came with pretty much hand made shooting kits (mold powder measure priming tool etc) . Granted this was stuff he bought in the 50’s and 60’s . Guy was a big time groundhog hunter , he and the Clark brother that ignited himself while welding on top a keg of black powder on the back porch of Clark Brothers Gunshop in Warrenton VA hunted groundhogs together from a specially rigged flat fender jeep .
|
Scott Hanes, I don't know about the Rich Wingle sale. Tell us about it. I knew Rich well, saw him at shows buying guns even after he was ill.
|
Rich Wingle was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He owned several hundred fine double guns. He started liquidating them to all of his gun trading friends at really cheap prices. He showed up at the Louisville show and sold over 30 Parkers while confined to a wheelchair. I had sold him a few guns in previous years. He wheeled up to my table and sold me a 12 gauge DHE for $600. He got rid of most all of his guns before he passed.
|
Rich Wingle made it to the NE Classic at Ernie's, maybe about 4 or 5 or 6 years ago?
He was in a wheelchair then and greeted his old friends. A nice surprise seeing him but somewhat depressing seeing him wheelchair bound. |
I last saw Rich at Allentown. He was in the final stages, but he wrote a check for a high dollar gun, can't remember what it was. He just couldn't quit.
|
Bill,
The ad I remember in SN was brought to my attention by Art Wheaton in about 1990, when he came in to the corporate offices in Wilmington, DE. I had arrived there in 1988 after working for Art in sales in Ohio from 1985-1987. Tim McCormack, the Remington Custom Shop manager was good friends with Rich Wingle, too, and we got Wingle's phone number from him. I had my eye on a VHE Skeet 20 in the ad. There must have been 50 guns in the ad! We called on it from Art's office but it was already sold. There was also a 12 ga,26", SST, PG, Checkered butt Skeet gun in the ad which I purchased. Probably between $1500-2000 in those days. I hunted Grouse with that gun a few years, killing a few poplar trees by sawing them in half with that "chopper", as we dubbed it, and several grouse. I since sold it to another Remington man who still has it. That 12 gauge, even with 26" barrels got to be a load in the woods after a few hours! Now I like the 20's much better! |
Another source for Parkers, besides the great Herschel Chaddick, was Jaqua's. I have a 1992 paper list from them that is legal size paper and has 16 pages of mostly Trap guns but at least half in hunting and a couple pages of double guns. They mailed monthly in those days.
|
I got a nice Parker from Bill Jaqua in 1974 at the OGCA show in Columbus.
CHE 12-gauge, 28" M and F, SN 198040 with a number 1 frame. Weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces. |
Back in the 70s and early 80s if you walked into the average gun show with a Parker you would draw a crowd. People would look at them almost in awe. Everyone thought they were extremely rare,and I guess at the time they were. Now there are over 400 listed on gunsinternational. I still love them but miss the excitement that Parkers and other fine doubles generated to the average shooter.
|
When I was in my early teens in the early sixties the mention of Parker among shooting and hunting folks would cause everyone within earshot to hush up and listen. The name Parker was revered in the utmost... and they were thought to be "very expensive", but compared to what?
. |
I wrote a story about this in the Parker Pages. When I first moved to South Carolina I was shooting clays with a group of guys at my club. One gentleman was using a side by side. I was in awe of the fine craftmanship. As the months went on he offered to let me shoot the side by side he was using that day. It was a "C" Grade live bird gun I found out later. I told this gentleman that "you could put $500.00 in my hand and tell me to break a target and I would tell you to keep your money." He persisted and I decided to try it out. Once I took it into my hands it was an amazing feeling. I ended up shooting that gun very, very well to my amazement. That gentleman, a number of you on this forum know him, was David Dwyer. And as they say the rest is history. Thank you David.
|
Some of that hasnt gone away. I was in one of those black rifle type stores and the guy asked me if he could help find something. I replied, "not unless you have a bunch of Parkers hidden away". He laughed but turns out he had had some, recently. The reverence was there despite appearances.
In another store, the owner keeps all the doubles hidden away in the basement. Hard to get a read on whats for sale but I dont blame him exactly if you dont want people snapping your actions together all day while they wait for the background check to clear. |
When I was a kid up to college days I frequented a part time gunsmith who had his shop n the basement of his house. It was a place of reverence for me as guns and hunting were all I thought about. One day he asked that I follow him to his attic. There were long racks of doubles, all Lefevers. There certainly were well over a hundred. I had no idea of his interest as most of the work he did in his shop was on 03 Springfields. I those days if it as not an O/U I had little interest. He passed away while I was in college. How I wish I could go back and relive those days.
|
Bruce Hunt Atlanta Outfitters had many high grade doubles. Bobby
|
I still have Bruce Hunt's list of faked up Parkers, some of them small bore A-1 Specials. There are serial numbers listed on all of them. I have never bothered to compare them with the serialization book. I remember Bruce at shows, huddled up with his buddies, in adjoining chairs, like a Mafia business meeting. The guns were wonderful, but unobtainable.
|
Those were the days.
|
Bruce Hunt's salesmen at Atlanta Outfitters were Thad Scott and Don Schrum. If you walked in with money in your pocket, you would leave broke. Both of them went on to successful gun careers. I have seen a photo taken on the patio of the Rivera in Vegas at the Beinfeld show. Seated around the table were Bill Jaqua,Don Criswell,Hershel Chadick,Bruce Hunt, Don Schrum, Thad Scott,Mike Weatherby, and several other big time gun dealers. A real all star team.
|
Quote:
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:21 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 - 2025, Parkerguns.org