Let’s see some Lifters!
 

Maybe this has been done before, but I think these older Parker’s are unique and would enjoy seeing pictures of your Parker under/lifter. (That’s probably not the correct term)
#1 Parker P Grade 8 Gauge 34"
#2 Parker Grade 4 10 Gauge 30"
#3 Parker Grade 3 12 Gauge 30"
#4 parker Grade 3 16 Gauge 30"

Stan I sold the two lifters I had . So I can’t add ! But it looks like yours are in an armory judging by all the others on the back wall !!! Very very nice !!!

Craig,
Thanks for the comments, that was hastily taken photo in my not so orderly Gun Room, I had thought better when posting but posted it anyway.

I will take another picture without all the background:rolleyes:

Stan Hoover

I’ve sold 3 or 4 lifters and have only 2 left, a Grade 3 10/30” and a Grade 3 16/27”.

Parker 5949 is my Grade 3 10 gauge 30" Damascus with a really nice ball grip. A really good turkey gun which at 9+ lbs is just right for sitting.

Parker 14056 which I forgot to mention, also a Grade 3 12 gauge with 30" Parker-made Laminated Steel barrels. It had a ball grip but has been broken through the wrist and poorly repaired and I've never fired it. It was a gift from Austin Hogan in about 2009.

Parker 18719 is my Grade 3 16/27" with capped pistol grip and Parker-made Laminated Steel barrels refinished many years ago by Breck Gorman when he owned it (a fact that I just very recently learned from Breck.) It's a very nice handling grouse and woodcock gun that is so light I can carry it all day.










.

Pictures
 

[QUOTE=Dean Romig;350844]I’ve sold 3 or 4 lifters and have only 2 left, a Grade 3 10/30” and a Grade 3 16/27”. (Pictures later)

Dean,
Looking forward to the pictures, especially of the Grade 3 16,

my 16 will be soon going for a new butt stock, since it is not original, I might as well make it correct with a ball grip and skeleton butt plate.

However, I'm still having too much fun chasing pheasants with it, still amazed that a 7/8 oz load kills them so effectively.

Stan

Nice looking guns Stan. This is the only lifter I own, an 1881 12 gauge, 32".

Wow - that’s a pretty G Randy!





.

Thanks Randy,

That one has some beautiful wood there, and a 32":)

I would like to keep expanding on these Lifters, perhaps a 10 & 12 with longer barrels, and perhaps a smaller gauge yet:whistle:

Stan

No that picture is fine ! All the ones on the back wall add to the character of the picture :cool:

Stan I would like to come across a few more myself, with long barrels. I enjoy shooting the one I have. I actually shoot skeet pretty well with it, for me anyway. It is a heavy gun at just under 8-13 oz with a MWT of .036 anywhere and that is 8.5" from the muzzle. What next, a lifter event :corn:

That is a heavy 12, what size frame is that one? Or maybe it is all in the barrels?

I hadn't thought about a lifter event, but might have to think about that some more:rotf:

It is a 2 frame with an unstruck barrel weight of 4-10. I did not record the finished weight but it is a very barrel heavy gun to me.

Here a few quick pictures of some of mine. I like the way Stan has them together, I will have to take a picture like that sometime as well. Here they are in order:

• Grade 3 10ga. with 28” Laminated barrels on a #2 frame
• Grade 2 Equivalent 12ga. with 30” Damascus barrels on a #1 frame
• Grade 3 10ga. with 32” Damascus Barrels(early gun and frame size is between a 3 and a 4)
• Grade 2 12ga. With 32” Damascus Barrels on a #2 frame I used for trap one winter
• Grade 2 12ga with 30” check/hook Damascus barrels and TA firing pins on #2frame
• Back Action #171 with 26” Decarbonized Steel Barrels

I have always liked the lifer design as I have mentioned a few times. It's a very natural action that is very fitting for a hammer gun. I did recently acquire a lifter that takes yellow shells. I will post some info on that soon :)

Beautiful guns Jay!!


I added pictures to my first post.





.

Beautiful
 

Thanks Dean & Jay for posting pictures of your very beautiful guns.

Now I have so many more questions and things to ponder:o

I would like to see that one that uses yellow shells Jay.:vconfused:

Stan

No lifters in my safes...for now, but on my list. You guys are making me drool.:bowdown:

If I were a hammer gun guy I would be trying to buy the 20 that Josh L has listed. So Garry you could sell a graded straight stock 20 to fund the lifter. I know someone who might be interested. :cool:

This is a cased D lifter with Parker accessories and 2 5/8" Track of the Wolf brass shells.

Great pictures Dean! I know we both like the Parker made laminated barrels like your 16 has.

My grade 3 10 has Parker Laminated barrels(the first picture in my previous post). I shot that gun in the black powder category at the Southern this past year and managed 21/25 with it. I am hoping to make some improvements and do a little better this coming year. Here are a few more pictures that show some nice detail of that gun...

I have pieces of two. The first is a grade 3 10 ga(A) with 9ga barrels, 30" Parker laminate barrels, size 3 frame. Built 1880. The stock was not original so I repaired the broken replacement and inlet it as a pattern. Dan Rossiter has duplicated a new one with forearm from a Circassion blank I sent him and I believe it is on its way back. I am scheduled to send the barrels to Breck next week.

The second I just bought at auction and it has been shipped. It is an early lifter (1874) that looks to be somewhat equivalent to a grade 2 with 30" Damascus barrels. The ad listed it as a 12 gauge. However the serialization book lists it as a 10 gauge. I believe this is before the order books, so I presume the data came from a stock book. The lookup on the website states that info is available for the gun. I have already requested a letter. I contacted the FFL selling the gun and he said he based the 12 gauge ID on the fact that a 12 ga snap cap dropped in and fit. I purchased the gun because of the price. My guess, based on the data in the serialization book and what the dealer told me is that it is a 10 gauge with 10 (B) barrels. No idea of frame size. Right now it's kinda like a treasure hunt. Hope to have some pictures of progress in a month or so.

Those are all gorgeous lifters! Mine’s nothing fancy but I love it!

i have a lifter 8 ga 2 10 ga lifters and the 11 ga lifter....i really like these old lifters...charlie

1878 $65 Grade 16 gauge Lifter on O frame with 28" barrels

"The One with the Tape" as the boys know it as it was used on the first duck hunts each of them went on. A Quality 2 10 gauge with 32 inch barrels.

Shawn that is a nice lifter and great pictures. I have a lifter just 6 numbers earlier than yours, mine is #3492. It is the second picture in my first post in this thread. In a case made by PGCA member Edgar Spencer.

1881 Quality E 10 ga with Parker laminated steel barrels. Only fault is the barrels are cut from 30 to 28 1/4 with most of the choke gone. Still throws a killing pattern with Bismuth 2's at 40 yds. No pass shooting with this one.

Nice Grade 2!





.

Mike

Beautiful gun! I wondered if it was built or sold in 1881. I have an 1880 grade 3 in the same spec. Your gun has the later fore end iron but the serial number would place it as an 1878 action. Wondered if you had recieved a letter and it was actually built and shipped in 1881 on a frame in stock? My 1880 has a serial number in the 18000 range.

A fair number of Parkers that originally had the keyed forend were returned for the new Deely style to be installed.





.

That's interesting Dean. I looked in the serialization book and there are huge gaps around the time of that number, including 13180 to 13261. You may be right in that it may have been returned for the upgrade shortly after purchase.

Chuck may chime in on this.

I personally have seen at least a half dozen that were so-modified.

But, as in the case of guns returned for one reason or another and Parker replaced or added the post-1910 bolt and plate as a standard course of business, there may be no records of the forend modification. But of course this was by request and not a standard customer service practice.





.

I have Austin Hogan's old lifter "Skeet gun", a #3 frame 32" 12 gauge mega-gun. It weighs around 9 pounds and is a high number gun, one of the last lifters. Austin installed a rubber comb riser that is still there and fits me just fine.

First picture is of the 12 & 16 a bit closer, the next pictures is of the bottom & trigger guard engraving on the 16. These 2 guns are within 200 in serial #’s, what do you think, same engraver?

Some very interesting and nice examples Thanks for the pictures. I do own one beautiful Parker O 8ga top lever, no underlevers.

Hello boys. Not a picture guy. However, 10 and 11. The 20 is a work in progress

lifters
 

Here is the factory letter. Chuck Bishop wrote me an e-mail later and said that the discounted price was probably due to a bulk sale to the hardware store that ordered it.

152

Stan - Your top gun in the first picture I believe was engraved by Gustauve Young. In any case I believed it was engraved by the same hand that engraved my 16 gauge Lifter No. 18719 but as I look at the years of his tenure at Parker Bros. I'm less sure of my original conviction. Certainly Glahn and Avery were talented enough to copy or imitate Young's somewhat unique signature style if they had admired it.

Take a look at this thread in which I explain his style of engraving.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...ighlight=18719

The lower gun I can't say without knowing the serial number but even then it would be an educated guess.





.

Dean,
I said that wrong, the 16 is serial #18570 and the 12 is 1 year earlier #16600.
My 10 is serial #16349 which puts them within 251 of each other.

I appreciate your knowledge.
Stan

Mike

Interesting letter for several reasons. I believe that explains the Deeley forend on a serial number that is a few years earlier. It is interesting that your gun was shipped just 6 days after order. The 1880 10 gauge I have was ordered and shipped in a few day period late in the year even though the serial number is sequential with guns ordered very early in the year and shipped significantly later. Also like yours, the order book shows that it was ordered as a Damascus gun but it actually shipped with Parker laminate barrels. That coupled with the significant number of D graded guns I have seen discussed that left the factory with Parker laminate barrels has led me to believe that they used the barrels interchangebly. The reason there aren't more examples would be that they just didn't make a lot of the Parker laminate barrrels.

It seems it may have been a common practice to stock completed actions and parts and then assemble guns quickly when an order came in. sometimes after many months or more. I find it telling that both our guns were sold as Damascus but finished very quickly with Laminated barrels at discount prices. My gun, which looks exactly like a $150 dollar grade was discounted $25. Maybe that's how they moved out the remaining Parker laminates.