Hey there
 

Good evening all,

I just got around to joining this Forum, and will be joining the PGCA tomorrow. I have been hanging around here for a while and soaking up the knowledge and ideas you folks are nice enough to share.

I recently acquired a VHE 20 ga. with a straight grip and a beavertail forearm. It is my first, of what I hope to be many, Parker. And it fits me extremely well and I shoot it rather well. (I wish I could say I shoot it extremely well, but I don't want to start this relationship with a story.)

I have been a member of the Winchester Arms Collectors Association for a few years and now I have to join this site and organization. Dang this affliction known as collecting! Between myself, my wife and my father-in-law, there is also Foxes, Ithicas, Smiths, and Brownings. We have guns we like the looks of and that we shoot with at least a modicum of success. We're not stuck on any particular manufacturer. Although, I have been somewhat enamored with Winchesters and my father-in-law's Parkers.

Thank You for the opportunity to join you all, and I look forward to a fun exchange of ideas and stories. With that, I am off to bed to get my much needed beauty sleep.

PopPop

Hi Larry and Welcome! We sure would like to see pictures of your VHE 20.

Hey there
 

Hi again,

As per the request that I add pictures.............here goes nothin'.

I will try but my computer skills leave a little to be desired. And if this works, you will see my camera skills aren't much better. I tried to get pictures of the serial numbers and water table, etc. but they were blurry.

As you can see by the pictures (I hope) this gun has been restored.

I do have a question for the members here, is the checkering on the cheek of the stock normal for a VH grade. I have seen some with the checkering and some without. If memory serves, the ones I've seen with the checkering on the cheek in this grade were restored guns. My father-in-law thinks this was added my the restorer. Any ideas?

PopPop

That's a pretty gun. It looks as if it may have been refinished by DelGrego simply by the fact that the color case hardening is done by the cyanide method which was his trademark coloring up until recently. If we had the serial number we may be able to tell you if the straight grip and the beavertail forend are in keeping with the original configuration.

Duh!! I meant to list that in the last post. The serial number is 230915.

I appreciate any and all information you can give me in this little sweetheart.

And thank you for the compliment, I thought she was kinda pretty too.

PopPop

Unfortunately the stock book that contains that serial number is missing and there's not much that can be said about your gun other than what can be observed.

Could very well be a DelGrego skeet gun conversion.

Oh well, I really don't need to know the way the gun left the factory to enjoy shooting it. I appreciate the try though.

Perhaps Autumn Daze is right and this is a DelGrego skeet gun conversion. It has cyl/cyl bores and shoots very well on the skeet field.

The cheek panels would not have originally been checkered on your V grade. Unless specially ordered that way. By the look of them, they do not look factory.

Usually checkered cheeks on low grade guns are done for two reasons. To dress them up, or more commonly to hind a repair to the stock head.

Forend checkering is also not the normal pattern for a V grade. So, maybe the cheeks were done in order to dress the gun up along with the forend work.

Thanks for the info on the checkering of the cheek of the stock and the forend. As stated earlier, it seemed to me that every Parker of a lesser grade I had seen with that cheek work had been restored. I have examined the stock very closely and haven't seen any sign of a repair being covered, but then I don't have the expertise of someone like yourself. Perhaps someone will be able to tell me more someday at an event that I might be lucky enough to go to.

PopPop