New Member From CT
 

Hi- just picked up a Parker VHE 16ga 1 frame which I'm beginning to think I got an extremely good deal on. Seems to be in good original shape wiht typical handling marks form a gun thats been hunted with, wood looks original, very small repair was done on the splinter forend where a peice chipped off and there is a small chip off the stock. Quite a bit of what appears to be original case coloring is left, and the bluing is pretty good. Love the gun, and it will be my go to grouse gun next October. Serial number is 240101, and a guy on another forum I frequent posted me the stats from the serial number - capped pistol grip, 30" barrels, ejectors made post 1934.

I'm wondering- what will a factory letter tell me? I'm always interested in the history of these guns.

welcome to the board

for a V grade - it should confirm the specs and will likely tell you where it was sent. That would likely be a reseller.

nice gun - my 16 1 frame 28" V has been the gun that sees the most use for several years

Would it tell me what the original chokes were? The choke restrictions on this measure 0.009 and 0.020, so roughly improved cylinder/ improved modified. I'm wondering if thats the way it was sent out.

On a Parker that late, made in the days that Remington owned Parker shotgun production, there will be very scant information on it. Remington used IBM cards, not the stock books and order books that Parker Bros. kept during their 7 decades of Parker Bros. shotgun manufacture in Meriden, Ct.
There is probably no choke information available on your Parker.

Welcome to the PGCA Forum.

Jeff;
Dean is right about the choke information being unavailable on a gun in that era but .009/.020 sounds about right and is a great combination for an upland gun. Enjoy.

Jeff, I am here in CT and would be happy to look at your gun if you wish. I am in the southwestern part of the state.

Ok so maybe I didn't get the deal I thought- can't believe I missed this before- but the for end has a different serial number. Barrel and action are number 240101, while the forend is 230101. I bought this gun to shoot - not resell so I'm not so concerned - and I paid $900 for it, so either way I think it was worth it- bit what do you parker experts think this does to the value? Also doesn't it seem odd it's exactly one digit off?

Sounds like a good deal to me. The chance that someone could have found a replacement forend exactly 10,000 SNs apart are staggeringly small. This could be a very rare case of someone picking up the wrong punch.

My 16 ga of exactly the same configuration below:

P.S. How did a Connecticut Yankee get a name like Jeff Davis???

Nice! Looks familiar. I'd post a picture but I cannot get a clear one. I think I need some natural light. Every picture I take is either very dark or has too much glare. Yes, does seem odd that they are 10,000 off. It would be interesting to see the configuration of the gun that has serial number 230101. If it is a non splinter forend, or a non ejector forend that would lend some credence to an error. Also- are forends gauge-specific?

Forends are not gauge specific but they are frame-size specific.