Parker DHE 14 gauge advice
 

I recently purchased a DHE 14 gauge with damascus barrels. The barrels are in good condition with a few minor dents. The forarm iron is mis-matched to the gun. The stock needs refinsished and the metal has no finish remaining. Question: How rare is this gun and will it be worth having it professionally restored? A restore will cost me $3500 to $4000 plus.

Marty:A true 14 Gauge DHE would be almost unheard of IMHO. We would need clear pictures of the gun and the markings to render an honest opinion. I would think twice about restoration: 1. It may not enhance the value proporionate to the cost and 2. $3,500 - $4,000 seems a bit too much for a complete restoration.

Best Regards, George

12 made per TPS. We showed one at the 2010 Pheasant Fest in Des Moines.

I think there is always a small and limited market for these odd gauges. A person needs to find the right buyer who doesn't care about the difficulty finding cartridges but wants to fill out an all gauge collection.

Brother Day is exactly right in his assessment. DH Parkers are very common. The gun's extra value, if any, is solely in being a 14 gauge. As far as "restoration", were it my gun, I would simply send the barrels off to Dale Edmonds to have the dents removed and be redone in black & white, make sure the incorrect fore end fits properly (whether you have it renumbered to the gun is up to you...) The gun will be worth the same then as it would be if you had a full blown restoration. I have lots of D grades. Only two are "fully restored". I regret restoring both of them but they do look nice.:rolleyes: Good Luck with your gun.

A good thing about having a 14 gauge shotgun is that your buddies won't mooch shells. I switched to 16 gauge so Joe Wood would stop mooching mine and then he started buying 16 gauge guns.

Come to think of it I might be interested in the gun. I bet it would take Joe several years to find another 14 gauge.

Best,

Mike

Mike,

Problem is, it would take you several years to find shells. Of all the oddball gauges, the only two that there are no factory loads produced for anymore are 11 and 14 gauge.


Destry

Of course I was trying to be funny but Rocky Mountain Cartridge Company sells all-brass 14 gauge hulls $60/10 should Marty pursue getting the gun in shooting condition:

http://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/Price_List.pdf

There are 14ga paper shells out there too but damn hard to find!

Could you post some pictures of your new DHE. I'd bet I'm not the only one who would like to see it. SN?
BTW, there was a guy selling a bunch of 14 brass cases at a local show. If you're interested, I'll dig up his contact info.

Bruce and others make a good point that there would be a "small and limited market" for a 14 gauge D-grade hammerless. I don't think Eric has one yet and I know he has an exceptionally nice Damascus DH collection.
As has been stated ammo would be the problem - cost of shells and problems reloading them... I don't think anyone makes reloading equipment for the 14 ga.

I agree with Don, just do the barrels.
 

You can get 14 greener police brass and turn them down and refit for 209 primers. They are out there if you want to shoot it. It has taken about a dozen years to acquire 25 original brass which I don't shoot but I have modified 4 boxes of greener and turned them down and reloaded those. I shoot my fourteens and enjoy them as much as any Parkers that I have. I use black and smokeless. The 14's are uncommon but the ammo is an issue. If you decide you want reloading info for black or smokeless I have a few recipes. I like the three dog engraving pattern on my 14.

Bruce: Of the 12 mentioned in TPS, are all ejector guns or just DH Grade (some ejector / some extractor) ? Marty said that his was a DHE.

Best Regards, George

The TPS compilations don't distinguish but a person could search through the Serialization Book for each gun if he was so inclined.

Marty, What is the ser# of your gun? Check the date of mfg, is it close to the last 14ga made? I am, as Bruce says, one that likes the oddball gauges, but only in hammer guns. I have been looking for a while for the elusive 13ga hammer gun, and it must letter. This quest is like looking for water in the desert, it's there but hard to find, Regards Gary

Hello Tom ,I don't want to " Hi Jack " this thread ,but would really enjoy seeing the " Three Dog Engraving " you speak of in this post ,as I feel sure most everyone else would like to take a look also ,maybe you could start a new Thread and load it up with pictures ,and we could take a look at it ! Thank You ; Russ:corn:

Wow! a 13ga Parker Hammer gun? That's the Unicorn's horn for sure.

As I recall, all known 14 gauge guns in the stock books are listed in the TPS appendices. No need to "read" the Serialization Book.

13 gauge, carries like a 14, shoots like a 12!

Other than the consecutively numbered pair, 3007 & 3008, which were likely special ordered by some wingnut who just had to be different, are there any others ? I have seen muzzle loaders of every bore diameter, but I'd sure like to see a shell head stamp that says 13ga.
I can hear the guys now; "Hey Charley, you're not gonna believe what some guy wants....."

13 gauge
 

Someone in the PGCA has a headstamped 13 ga brass shell; UMC I think. It turned up when we did the 13 ga story a few years ago.

Best, Austin

Wooohoooo! I just found the matching forend assembly.

Thank you, everyone, for your input and opinions. I decide not to do any restoration and to send the gun to Dave Yale for a good cleaning.

Austin, When was that article on 13ga guns done, what year? Thanks Gary

glad you fond the stuff you needed for the gun.... yes i would like to hear more about this 13 ga gun if possible.... charlie

Bill, the issue was not just to identify known 14ga guns, but to identify which ones had ejectors. That was George Lander's point, and my reply was that a person could go through the Serialization Book records if so inclined.

Here are a couple photos. The first is from TPS p. 1004 and doesn't provide a extras listings. The second is SB p. 590 and does. For example, look at SN 236,459. TPS doesn't show if it has ejectors and SB shows that it has "2" extra, which means ejectors.

So to me, there would be a need to read the Serialization Book if a person wanted to find which guns were ejector guns. Am I wrong as usual?

Bruce Day, Parker non expert far away out here

Thanks. I didn't realize the TPS chart didn't include options.

Were there any other 13 ga guns apart from the consecutive pair?

The 18 ga gun is even rarer.