Old Dominion...Returning
 

Greetings again. I was here a few years ago when I purchased a rather beat up Trojan. I never really warmed up to that gun, so when a "personal economic downturn" hit, I didn't really mind selling it.

Flash forward to yesterday. I hadn't thought much about a Parker until yesterday when I saw one on the pegboard behind the counter at a new to me anyway gunshop in town. I checked it out once, and put it back before I got attached to it. Then my wife walked up and I had to show it to her...HEY! She asked about it. I looked it over again. Then handed it back.

Store owner walks up. Wife asks about the gun. Owner says it's been refinished, but the refinish was well done. And it is in fine shape mechanically. I could tell that...a nice solid "CLUNK" when the action closed. Owner looks at the tag...does some stuff on the computer...says "I can let it go for XXX." Wife says "Why don't you at least put it on layaway? (to owner) You've got layaway don't you?" Owner says, "Sure we do."

<Sigh> Who am I to argue with my wife? She's going to win anyway.

So, now I have a nicely refinished 1921 Trojan (12 ga, 2 3/4, 28", M/F) in a layaway bin with my name on it.

And I'm back reading up on these things again.

Crappy cell phone picture before it got carried off to the bin.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...pse0mzyywe.jpg

Looks like a good one this time. Welcome back.





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Great gun, and Great Wife!

i too say great gun and a greater wife...charlie

Wayne's entire post associates enduring value. REC

Thanks everyone. She (my wife) is a gem.

I told this a few years ago when I was first here, but I probably should add it again.

When I was a kid, which was a LONG time ago, all the old men I knew and admired used double guns for almost everything. They didn't have a safe full of guns, one for each different thing, they usually had one, maybe two guns. It served for everything from bucks to bunnies and everything else that walked, flew, ran, or crawled. I can still remember standing around some farmers yard early in the morning, listening to the deer dogs growling in the boxes in the back of the pickup truck while the men argued over who's Fox, Lefever, Ithaca, "Elsie" or Parker was the best.

My grandfather did have two of those guns. He had a A.H. Fox (It was always an "A.H.Fox", never just a "Fox.") 12 ga., with 30" barrels, full and full. I remember him always making a big thing out of its "Krupp Steel Barrels." That was the gun I most often saw him use. With No. 1 buckshot, it was a deer killer.

But he also had a Parker, 20 ga, with shorter barrels. I never knew the details of that gun, what grade or chokes and so on. He didn't hunt with it much, as a matter of fact, I don't know that I ever saw him use it. I know he did, I just don't remember it. I mostly saw my Uncle using it. Beautiful gun.

He did tell me the story often enough. He was born in 1898. He got the Fox about 1918 (IIRC) and the Parker a few years later. He got the Parker from the old Watkins-Cotrell Hardware Store in Richmond, Virginia. It seems he told me he paid $129.00 or so for it which must have been a LOT of money in those days (that price may be wrong, but it's the way I remember it). He then sent it back to Parker and had automatic ejectors installed.

The details may be fuzzy. He's been dead for many years, so I haven't heard the story since I was a teenager at best. But he always spoke reverently of that Parker and I knew it was the pride and joy of his collection.

And I just knew I wanted a Parker of my own someday.

I also remember him telling me about catching the train in Richmond, putting his beagles in the baggage car, and riding the train out to Fair Oaks in Henrico, which was way out of town in those days I suppose, and having the conductor stop the train, and let him and his dogs get off. He'd then hunt all day, and flag the train down late in the evening and load up and ride on back to town.