Parker Trojan
 

I have decided to take the wise advice of Mr. Romig and Mr. Anderson by only buying guns in the highest condition I can afford. I got a call Wednesday from my local gun store saying that got a few doubles in and a couple parkers. Needless to say I headed there right after work to find a VH shooter condition and a Trojan in really nice shape along with a german 16 ga double under the name Simpson and Co. Suhl with Krupp barrels and a Belgium double that looked pretty decent not the typical Belgium stuff.
The Trojan is a 30'' 12 ga with a good amount of original colors and the checkering looks really nice, screws beautifully aligned, original butt plate. Anyways I bought the Trojan as a gift for my Dad and I will attempt to post some pictures if I can get my camera back from my sister tomorrow.

Nice! I'd sure like to see those pictures.

Can't wait for my kids to start giving me Parkers.

As promised.

That is a very nice Trojan! Congrats!

boy is your dad gonna be proud of this one.....really nice gun not many in this good of shape..i hope your dad gets to wear some of the blueing off this gun...charlie

There you go! Great find!

That is a great gun. It is one of those two thousand dollar hardware store guns. I just took another look. It may be a three thousand dollar hardware store guns.

I may have its "brother"
 

I previously posted about the 12 gauge Trojan I bought from a private party for $500 cash money- sn 211440- almost identical to Mr. Goddard's Trojan 12- Mine has 28" barrels choked F&F-- But Mr. Murphy's comments have me intrigued. What is a hardware store gun? Is an 1926 series Trojan unaltered really worth 2K to possibly 3K in today's market.

Other questions as well. I passed on the VH 12 30" with the Briley tubes priced at $750, from the same private party- as I was told that altering an original and unmolested Parker is not a wise thing to do. How much of the value will I forfeit if I have the chokes opened on this nice handling Trojan- it has beautiful "between the hands" balance--What are the other options as to opening the patterns, which are "fist-tight" with field loads of No 6 and No 7.5 lead shot??

Think about shooting spreader loads rather than altering the chokes. It might just give you what you are looking; best of both worlds. If not, then do what you think best.

The Trojan was certainly a "Hardware Store" gun in its time. Parker Brothers sold large quantities of them for as little as $19 to retail stores. As far as the value of high condition Trojans, many PGCA members remember Ed Muderlak's boxed 12 gauge Trojan which he sold for an outrageous price of around $4000 and soon afterward brought over ten grand at auction. We don't mess with the barrels on a high condition Trojan.