April '23 Home Page Pic
 

202066 16-guage Parker Trojan with 26" barrels choked Cyl & Mod, has been nicely restored and feels like a 28 on the 00-frame.

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Very nice photo!

The photo was taken at "Grouse Camp" in Vermont and the Trojan accounted for a big cock grouse and a YOY to add a tad to the bag's heft that morning.





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I’ll bet you remember that day forever…I hope you do.

Beautiful photo and of course beautiful gun. It looks surprisingly like mine. It too a 16g but older and on the #1 frame but even then its only 6.5lbs. Who did the restoration on it if I may ask ?

Nice picture there Dean,
Mr Ruffed grouse, the most elusive and the most noble game bird, in my opinion.

I have hardly hunted many grouse like most of the serious hunters on this fine forum, just once I was able to take 2 in 1 morning, hopefully there will be more, but that is a morning I will remember.

Nice picture, Dean. We all know Parker made some of the most beautiful graded shotguns. I am so pleased you posted a Trojan a "working mans gun". The Trojan was the Parker one would find in the small town hardware store. A town of 1500 or less. Possibly in the local sporting goods store to be purchsed over the counter. I also hunt with a couple of Trojans. I enjoy the history when I carry these fine old guns.

Nice pic Dean, certainly worthy of being a home page pic.

That is a great one! Good work Dean R and John D!

When I bought this Trojan about 15+ years ago the seller told me it had been done by the Ohio Case Color co. but I have no evidence of that.

Dave Suponski has a Trojan 20 with 28" barrels that could be my gun's twin inre to the case colors and the high quality of restoration.





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Dean, I love those 20ga Trojan's , I have 2 and I believe they are the best deal for a 20ga S x S.

I have 2 20 gauge Trojans and 1 12. Maybe one day I'll get a 16.

...if you exclude a Repro, I'll agree. :corn:





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I want one.... :D

Dean, how about a couple more photos of the Trojan. Agreed with all the other fans of the Trojan and the fact it's the last good deal in subguage vintage SxSs and even they are a thing of the past as since I bought mine 6 months ago even Trojan prices are going out of site. I've got an LC Smith and Ithaca NID in 16g as well but the the Parker has quickly become the favorite. Guy that I bought it from said he thought that DelGrego did the restoration but I spoke to Larry on the phone and sent him photos. Said it wasn't his work but whoever did it did a really nice job. Said it looked to him like a early Turnbull maybe and to call him. Just haven't got around to it yet. Had my gunsmith replace the broken safety and put a 3/4" pad on it. Also just had the chokes opened to IC and MOD. Have only shot it one time but it's gonna make a hell of a grouse gun. Just curious curious about other Trojans now. Mine has 28" barrels

Okay Walter... Here you go...


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Dean:

Thank you, but that's just a start in this jurisdiction. You know we like water table and barrel flats, too.

"The book" says factory 26-inch barrels, which is kind of special for a 16-gauge Trojan, isn't it?

Russell,
Twenty-six inch barrels on a 16 gauge and 20 gauge Trojans were one of the two choices, twenty-eight inch barrels though, were certainly the more popular option.

According to "The Parker Story" (our bible) in sixteen gauge some 992 guns were made with 26" barrels while 5,577 were made with 28" barrels.

In earlier issues of Parker Pages in Josh Loewensteiner's column "Parkers Found" you will see an entry for No. 202066 listed with a few oddities.
It is a gun manufactured in 1922 or '23 as I recall but had the pre-1917 safety switch and it had a rib extension which had all but been discontinued about a year or two earlier.

This is all from memory and I stand subject to correction.

Incidentally Russell, I sold the gun to my brother-in-law about 5 years ago, after he saw how neatly it dispatched the errant grouse and woodcock, so barrel flats and water table pictures will have to wait a while 'til I can get over to his house which is in the next town about 12 miles away.





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26" is my favorite barrel length for quail and woodcock, although 28" is not bad either

We can really get our money’s worth out of those ungraded guns by reveling in their unusual features when they have them.

Some examples are referenced in the Trojan chapter in THE PARKER STORY and appear, as Dean points out, in its statistical table on page 246.

Exceptions include extra-long or short barrel lengths, twist steel, single triggers, and ejectors, and those distinctive anomalies possessed by Dean’s Home Page Trojan 16.

To me, there has always been something cool about finding old field grade guns in really nice condition, even if they have been restored...... I have a 20ga Trojan that I dearly love.

I'd like to one day find a nice 16ga Trojan that is in the right condition, and the right price for me at the time I find it. :D

So far in life I've never needed an excuse to go grouse hunting. But if I did need prompting? Just look at a shotgun like Dean's and I'd be out the door in a flash...and the description of how it handles...even better. It's pictures, posts and threads in PGCA like this that makes the next 6 months almost unbearable! I'm better off not even thinking about it.

I’m with you Chris 100%





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Amen!

I'm definitely a field grade guy. If the metal scratchin' and/or better wood are there, fine, but I'd never buy a gun because of it. Or pass on a gun because it ain't there. JMHO.

168 days to go till NY grouse season. Can't wait. Got a 0 frame 16ga and a 28ga repro waiting.

I bought a 20 ga Trojan 10 yrs ago with 26 inch barrels. Had Brad Bachelder do a complete restoration. Gun looks new. I think he had Turnbull do the case colors as I don't recall thar Bachelders did case colors at the time. Wonderful upland 20. Would not trade it for all the tea in China.

My 20 gauge 30" Trojan doesn't look like Dean's, but it is a joy to shoot. I don't know what TPS says about 30" 20 gauge Trojan production numbers. My two 30" 12 gauge Trojans are benchmark guns and don't get much use.

Bill, here’s the Trojan chart from TPS


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Has anyone ever seen one of the 28 gauge Trojans?

Not I…





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My Trojan 16 doesn’t look like Dean’s either; no case colors left, and 28 inchers. But it holds a place of honor in my humble accumulation, having provided me my first - and to date, only - double on wild roosters. :bowdown:

I was just going to ask that Mills. What a gun to own and shoot.

Or how about the four 36-inchers!!





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