Parker No. 72405
 

Anyone have any info. Thanks Gerald

its not in the book Gerald

Thank You; Its a C Grade. Hoping it may Have belonged to Bufalo Bill Or someone like that. Gerald.

I thought all unlisted graded Parkers belonged to Annie Oakley

:bigbye:

Or Babe Ruth.

It's not "unlisted". It's just not in the Serialization Book. Send our researcher a check for $40 and get a letter.

Thanks Bill, I can always use more work:banghead: I'm up to 51 letters so far this month and still 10 days to go.

Is'nt that what we are paying you for?:rolleyes: Seriously Chuck, thanks for all you do.

Slight correction there fellas. The price of a Research letter for non-members is $100 but if you join the PGCA for an annual fee of $40 you can get as many letters as you wish for $40 each. There are a number of benefits to becoming a PGCA Member beyond just the price of the letters.

I assume then there are records in the order books and this may tell who ordered it. Right?

That would be my assumption. You may be $40 away from a Buffalo Bill C Grade.

Slight correction Bill.

Thanks Bill and Dean; I think if I were to decide to go with this I will take the two 40 dollar trails. I am trying to not let this Parker thing get to me at this point in my life as I just got rid of a Browning collection not to long ago but it is hard not to look and think about it. This is the first whole c grade have seen down here and it does have some issues although they are not to bad. Beleive it or not its right out my back door. At $3500 I will be scatching my head awhile. We need a smiles that is scratching its head.:bigbye:

That's It!!!!!!!!! Thanks Jack. I looked at your public profile and when I saw your pic I instantly knew we are meant to be hunting buddies. Some people take thing too seriously on this forum. We have a couple of weeks of quail season left . Do you know where we might find a few coveys of wild birds? Pen raised birds don't turn me on. Gerald

Gerald,

Please check the serial number again and make sure it is in fact 72405. It does not show up as a C grade gun.

Yes, there is an order for this gun so it will tell you who ordered the gun.

What does it show as? It is a c grade. Gerald

Gerald,

72405 shows as a Quality T hammer gun 12ga with 30" plain twist barrels in the Order Book priced at $55.00. The orders for all hammerless guns are abbreviated "Hamls" in the order book. It was part of a very large order from Hartley & Graham in NYC. Two pages are "Hamls" guns and the 3rd page with your serial number does not have "Hamls" which means they were hammer guns.

$55.00 which is in the 1889 price list corresponds to a Quality T 12ga. There is no price list for hammerless. The 1897 price lists also lists the Quality T as $55.00 and the hammerless guns are now listed also and there is no $55.00 dollar gun listed. A PH hammerless is listed as the lowest grade at $65.00.

The order book clearly states $55.00

Have you personally handled the gun and looked at the serial numbers?

Yes I have looked it over however the owner wrote the serial no down and gave it to me. I will check again. Thanks. Gerald

Some very influential people owned low grade hammer guns also!

Chuck; 72495 is the correct serial no. Thanks. Gerald

Gerald, we need pictures of your gun please.

I'll spill the beans here. The I&S book shows this gun to be a CH 12ga with 30" Bernard steel barrels. Please do post pictures of this gun.

At $3500, I'd pay that for the Bernard barrels alone.

Thanks Gerald. One can never have too many hunting buddies. I have never shot a pen raised bird nor a single quail (or a double for that matter). I have never lived where pen raised birds were available. I chase mostly wild pheasants and take the huns or sharptails that might be unlucky enough to be in my pheasant haunts. This is my fairly normal season habitat.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...G_9999_29s.JPG
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1..._IMG_9999S.JPG
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...G_9999_11s.JPG
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=4177
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=2334

And the payoff

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=4175
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1..._5sgwsmall.jpg

And the real reward

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...9999_16sgw.JPG

WOW!!!! I love the first pic. You can see the desire in his eyes. All that snow looks fearsome. I could not take that and your dog is naked. My Goodness. Now that last pic looks good. I had my first fezent awhile back. It was good but not as good as quail but was much bigger. Some where out there is a perfect bird. Huge and delicious. Don't kill them all. Leave some for seed. Gerald

Not too many pheasant hunters in my cold world. On the very fringe of wild pheasant habitat. Seed birds are no problem based on my shooting. Weather is the biggest factor controlling the population followed by predation and then hunting. This is from a few seasons back but it was a good day for me using my Dad's SKB XL900 12 ga. Note the lack of snow, indicating early season for me.
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...9999_22sgw.jpg
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1...999_31_sgw.JPG

Ahhh, now we're getting somewhere! Gun does show as a CH with 30" Bernard barrels. I'd get a letter, it will tell you who ordered the gun and other specifics.

pics
 

Here you go Dean:corn:

Those pictures remove all doubt Gerald. A very nice CH Bernard gun to be sure.

And on a 1-Frame too... nice!

Too bad about that bruise on the left tube. Looks like it may have been dropped on a rock and the dent lifted.

It has the early Grade-4 checkering pattern on the wrist too... nice again! That split up from the toe can be easily repaired.

The issues that I see are; Cracked stock easy fix, chips out of left barrel {see last pics} can see something inside the bore in that area. The gun needs a gentle cleaning.The cc does not show in the pics and appears to be much more to me as over all the receiver is much darker than the pic show. The wood finish is good with a few light handling marks and I think it will clean up great. I beleive it has not been fired or cleaned in several decades. Thanks. Gerald. P.S. Anyone have experience with Briley tubes? Still Scratching.

20 gauge 1 frame with tubes I guess would be a good route to go HUH? Also the gun is very tight and on face and the tubes ring very well.

Jack: Do a thread search with NO Birds in NW Georgia and you can see my hunting ground. Gerald

Gerald, that is a very attractive CH Parker. Do you have a means of measuring the barrel wall thickness in the dinged areas of the barrel? These measurements would be a starting point for evaluating the viability of the barrel and the necessity for tubes or sleeving. A larger number might not insure the ability to use the barrel safely, but a low enough thickness value or an apparent defect in a weld seam would send a red flag that new tubes would be needed. The tricky part is getting a mic with a fine enough point to go down into the "pits". Even if barrel work is required, it will still be a fine gun.

No Fred I do not. I did notice the barrels were thicker at the choke ends than some damascus barrels I have seen. I wonder if there is a way the barrel could be repaired that would be safe. can material be added? Gerald.

Dean; As I continue to look at the pics and enlarge them I am thinking the nicks in the barrel are more consistant with it maybe hung on a nail or something hard many times. The bores are dirty but looked good as for as pits. I don't much think dents have been raised. I sure would like to give the bores a good cleaning so I could for sure see what they look like.Also is the grip cap not silver and the triggers gold on c grades of that era? Thanks. Gerald.

CH, 1 frame, Bernard steel, $3500, right outside your back door and a fishtail lever to boot!
Gerald, you've been living right!

WOW! What a nice find----it's easy to get addicted to Bernard barrels---very pretty gun.
To me it looks like the barrel may have been touched by a rotating blade of some sort at some point. What does the gun weight? What is the engraving scene on the trigger plate. I was very lucky and picked up a CHE Bernard last year-----I was very fortunate as are you. Great and thanks so much for sharing and posting the pictures. Craig

I don't own the c grade. It belongs to a neighbor who is joining PGCA and also sending for a letter which I reccomended. He was thinking about selling it on GB until we began to talk. Now he is scratching his head instead of me. Craig; It looks like a deer in the pics with dogs on the sides. Gerald.

update on C grade
 

Hi All,
After input from Gerald and others in this group, I decided to have the C grade restored. My guidelines for the restoration was to keep it all original. No new wood, etc... Because the gun conformed to the Parker Letter, I didn't want to change any components. The pictures earlier in this post will provide you a "before" condition. With the conditions of the barrels prior to restoration I would have never considered firing this Parker. I can tell you now it has been fired, and what a wonderful treat it was. Some may disagree, but my enjoyment of owning this ole classic shotgun has gone up exponentially. From a closet gun to a working Parker!! Please excuse my camera quality, but taking photos of small defined objects is not my strong suit. Please feel free to post comments pro or con. This is how we learn as a group.

Harry