Straight Stock and Pitch
 

I have had the missing parts on the family VH 16 gauge replaced and though the gun came with a capped pistol grip I had the missing trigger guard bow replaced with a straight guard bow. It is time to send it to my stocker and I want a 14 inch length of pull, no cast and checkered butt. I am unsure of what pitch to ask for. My fahers 20 gauge Trojan and my 28 gauge VH have a 2 3/4" pitch and I shoot them well. My restocked 20 gauge top lever hammered Parker and a family 20 gauge VH have 1 inch of pitch and I shoot them well.

I would like to know what your straight stocked Parkers pitch is and I need pictures of the checkering on a straight stocked VH or VHE. I did a rub of the checkering on an 1881 lifter and it was so worn that it did not come out well enough for the stocker.

Harry

VH12 SG checkering
 

Here's mine Harry. Original VH12. 1936 vintage. I'll take a closer shot of the wrist checkering if you need it.

Straight Grip Stock
 

Harry; here are a couple of quick indoor pictures of a 207000 PH. I can't answer the pitch question; some people think it of major importance, but when I tabuated stock dimensions of about 50 guns, it made no sense at all.

Best, Austin

Austin, I would like very much to see that one up close - will you kindly bring it to the New Year's Day Shoot?
Looks to be a G or D grade?

Harry, or others, if you can tell me how to measure pitch, I will gladly measure my 16 ga VH. While I do not know how it is measured, when I get a new gun I experment with a slip on leather lace up pad and shims to get the pitch that works for me. since the stock is still the original dimentions(it just has shims inside the slip on pad) I can get the original dimentions.
Ben

set your buttplate squarely on the floor with your barrels against the wall. You will immediately notice that only the breech end of the barrels (at the doll's head) are touching the wall. The distance the muzzles are away from the wall is the "pitch" as I understand it.

Thanks friends, I am begining to think pitch has a relationship to drop at the heel. Those Parkers that have over 3" of drop have about 4" of pitch, 2 3/4" drop have 2 3/4" pitch and 2 1/2" drop have 1" pitch.

Now I am sorry that you have all gone to the small arms locker and pulled all the Parkers out with ruler in hand, but at least they got a little rub down.

Thanks again, Harry

I think Dean's got it. Here's a definition lifted from Morris Hallowell's web site:

Pitch - The angle of the butt of a gun in relation to the line of sight. In America, pitch is measured by resting the gun with its butt flat on a floor, the top of the receiver against a wall and its muzzle pointing up. The distance of the muzzle from the wall is the gun's pitch down. In England, pitch is determined by measuring the length of pull, separately, to each of the heel, the middle of butt and the toe.

I have no idea what the English method means. I'll stick with the colonists' definition. Incidently. this means that a long-barreled gun will have more pitch than a short-barreled gun, with identical stocks :eek:

Actually Harry, pitch is not determined by the amount of DAH but instead by the angle of the stock butt (where the buttplate is attached) in relation to the line of the barrels. A ninety degree angle (barrels perfectly perpendicular to the butt) would yield a pitch of 0".

Dean's explanation is the simplest. Parker actually made custom stocks using the three measurements from the butt to the trigger without mentioning pitch. Comfortable feeling bird guns can have pitch from one to two inches on 28 or 30 inch barrels. Guns with zero or negative pitch will slip off the shoulder on firing and a gun with more than 2 1/2" of pitch will recoil into your face.