Parkers,others short LOP??
 

Hello All,
I find myself looking for 20 guage and 16 guage Parkers on the webb lately.
Are we that much larger today than our Grand Fathers? I know I am not but the LOP on most Parkers ,even with pads is 14" on less,sometimes much less.
I could never bring myself to remove a skeleton butt plate and replace it with a modern recoil pad.Do you just shoot these short LOP guns with slipon pads ?
Bill

I use a slip-on on all but my bigger 12 ga. Parkers.

Bill, Parker Bros. standard LOP was around 14" to 14 1/2". Guns could be ordered with any LOP the customer wanted.But the lower grades that were sold mainly to hardware stores and sporting outfits were "stock" guns.

We use slip on pads made by a variety of makers...I like Galco

Length of Pull
 

The "default" length of pull is 14 1/4 inch on Parkers. Hunting time was late fall - early winter in Parker's time, so guns had to fit over a heavy shirt or coat. Trap was a warm clime sport and guns with 14 3/4 lop are often found on 30 and 32 inch D grade guns.

A gun with a ssbp doesn't give you much choice, and they are really tough to master. Chances are that you will never find a Parker with ssbp that matches your lop, drop and pitch. Add to this that the ssbp slides around on all but leather faced shooting coats. I shoot with a friend that cuts a butt plate outline from 3M step anti slip, and sticks it on the butt plate. This works for skeet and trap, but does not mount well.

The Galco pad or equivalent is probably the best solution. It also has a built in fun accessory that requires a few thousand shots from a low gun at skeet and /or five stand to get the bad mount ratio below 1 in 10.

Best, Austin

You mean the step anti slip tape used on military aircraft ladders?? A shooter had better be wearing a padded shooting shirt for that stuff :eek:

Bill,
As has been already been said the standard LOP is around 14" but both longer and shorter LOP's were available. I have a 12 gage from 1905 that letters at 15" LOP and a 20 gage which letters to 15 1/4" LOP. All my other guns I use a Galco slip on pad for warm weather shooting.

Austin sent me some information collected on this topic and I'll post it for you here in this thread. I put it in a PDF file so you will need Adobe Reader to view it, I did that in an attempt to reduce its size and make it easy to read.

When I hunt ducks with Destry in the bitter cold I'd prefer 13-1/2" LOP if I could get it. Destry's #3 frame gun is short and works great with a heavy parka over neoprene chest waders over everything else you can get on. For normal shooting with not too many clothes on 14" to 14-3/8" works great for me. I don't like 14-1/2" or longer under any circumstances; too long.

I have an unaltered VHE 20ga skeet gun with a LOP of just over 13 inches to the checkered butt:eek: A slip on pad can get me over an inch more. I use the slip on pad on several guns as I prefer a longer LOP on a double trigger gun VS a single trigger gun.

I would never cut off a ssbp in favor of a recoil pad:nono:

LOP Table
 

Thanks, Robin

Austin