Older 12 gauge DHE
 

The same man that I bought the Trojan 12 gauge from- also has a nice 12 DHE- 30" Titanic Steel barrels, DT- solid red Silvers pad with plugs-restored by the Del Grego Gun Shop about 22 years ago not shot since-- the serial number chart on this Forum shows it to be a 1906 year of manufacture- it does have the angled tool steel wear plate pinned into the barrel lug- I am just curious- given the same condition- what would this gun be different in mechanical features from the same DHE 12 made in (1) 1916-- (2) 1926 and finally, 1936? I have read about changes in the number of action parts from 18 to 4 over a period of time- also, were the ejectors always of the same design, or did that feature have changes over a 20 to 25 year production run? Thanks:bigbye:

Just curious Mr Forester - would the answers to those questions have any bearing on whether you buy the gun?... presuming it might have been offered to you.

Killed any cats lately perhaps?
 

That's the rumor about curiosity, so I have heard. Yes- I have 90 days to keep the 12 gauge Trojan, or I can return it for the purchase price of $500 as credit against the $3000 price of the Del-Grego-ed DHE 12-- I have thought about your patented forearm removal tool for the Trojan, and with a tool & die background, I am impressed, and your price is more than fair, Mr. Romig. The only reason why I have held up this purchase is that I may decide to move up to the DHE--

I agree with Mr. Murphy, a unaltered Trojan in any gauge is best left unaltered- The main sticking point with me is not the money so much, but the Trojan was made in 1926 and without the early small dolly's-head rib feature-- but with coil springs- And from reading the Peter Johnson book, I get the feeling that the 1906 dated DHE may have the older flat springs, and could be prone to failure.

I buy shotguns to keep and to shoot, and shoot a great deal- I hope you can appreciate that, and I will welcome your further advice on this. Thank you!!:bowdown::bowdown:

I certainly hope not- my newest is a 1904 and they get shot, hunting and clays. As do, I would guess, most of the older guns here.

I'm of the same mind as Rick. I'm not aware of any flat springs having broken and a lot of the folks here shoot their older Parkers a lot.

But a Trojan in nice condition for $500 is a steal and I would keep it and try to buy the DHE too! That's how collections begin.

Good advice
 

I will keep the Trojan:-it sure has great balance. Where is the best place to buy the spreader shotshell loads? I called the RST folks recently and they advised that they were out of stock. Also will both the Trojan and the DHE 12 gauge shotguns have 2 & 3/4" chambers, or do I need to use the RST 2 & 1/2" long shorter loads in them? Thanks!!:bigbye:

I like the RST's

but I have used the Polywads to good effect- both the spread-r and vintager
http://www.polywad.com/spredr-shells.html

the DHE will also likely have short chambers - but any thing is possible

Mr. Forester,

I'll try and answer your question about mechanical changes from 1903 to 1936. There aren't any major mechanical changes, just minor ones. You mentioned the addition of a wear plate, they changed the top lever linkage to the bolt making the top lever shorter and changed from a flat spring to a coil spring for the top lever. The safety button was changed to a different style and they changed the sculpting of the frame to cut down on labor. They never implemented the major redesign to reduce the number of parts. I don't think the ejector system was redesigned once it was put into production but I could be wrong. Others can chime in if I missed something. The Parker Story goes into great detail on the changes.

You should be able to use any off the shelf load assuming that the guns are mechanically sound.

Hardly a universal fair test, but the patterns I shot with using a full and full 1901-vintage VH-Grade with the 1 1/8 ounce #7 1/2 Spredr shells were extremely patchy.

Dave and All, I have done alot of testing with different loads using spreader inserts from Poly-Wad in both 12 and 16 gauge. The speed of the load is criticial to good patterns. I have shot thousands of my 16 gauge loads and they pattern great and against most beliefs they will reach out there. Just ask Dean and Larry....:)