Best Deal on a Parker in your Buying Career
 

Craig's thread on grades was very entertaining. How about your best deal ever made on a Parker? I'll chime in after a couple of posts.

Mine was a modest one, but the first Parker I took delivery on. A 16g VH on 1 frame, 28" barrels, uncut but choked C/IC. Pretty worn field condition, lots of bluing gone, wood rough but sound, a few fixed dents. After a trade of a Browning Citori it cost me nothing from Robin Hollow and it has been my go to woodcock and grouse gun. Not the prettiest but the most satisfying to carry. I wonder about its history.

I have several that were bought for a couple hundred a piece , but they’ve been in the accumulation for over forty years . In the last ten years I got a very nice Grade 2 3 frame 10 gauge for a few hundred . Two years ago I picked up what has turned into a very nice gun an original VH 12 2 barrel set for a few hundred bucks . Still to date my best deal money wise has to be the recent DH 10 that turned out to be an DH 8 .

I picked up a 16g skeet gun at the Kenton, Ohio coon dog trials many years ago. A kid was walking around with it on his shoulder, said it was his grandfather’s. Not collector quality, very little case and thinning blue on the barrels but an honest unmolested specimen.

I haven't made any screaming buys because all my Parkers have come from major dealers, major auction houses or knowledgeable collectors. I have made two good auction buys for considerably less than market price, a high condition DH 20ga 28" damascus and a near mint DH 12ga 28" damascus. I have made one good dealer buy that turned out to be a 1898 Boston show gun a AH 10ga 32" damascus.

I consider all of my Parkers deals! Glad to own them all!

My best Parker deal did not happen just once, nor twice, but rather three times. None of these three Parkers cost me a dime -- a 12ga. DH w/30" damascus, a 12ga. GH w/30" damascus and a 12ga. Trojan w/30" bbls. All were Lewis-Class prize guns won at S X S events, two at the Yooper and one at the Great Northern.

Went to a local auction that had 6 VH 12 ga. advertised. Looked them over and the last one to come up seemed the best to me. The first went for 1800.00 after spirited bidding and i had 400.00 in my pocket and the start was 600.00 on each. Sat there dejected as they sold the next 4 above what i had. the last did not get a bid at 600.0 or 5 or 4. When the auctioneer said 3 i i raised my paddle and bought my first Parker 35 or 40 years ago. Today i may have waited for him to say 200.00 but would not take that chance then. It is still my most often used 12 ga.

A "Best Deal" is not always about money. Mine was a long sought after gun that sold before I could contact the seller. I happened to run into the seller about a year later, and he told me the gun was coming back to him and that I could have it if I wanted it. I wanted it.

The Best Deal for me was the first Parker I bought after having long wanted one of my own. I first used a borrowed Trojan 12 for a few years when I was about 13 but had to return it when its owner was about to move to the Boise area.
The first Parker I bought was in about 2000 or 2001, about 40 years later. It is a beautiful 12/30” Titanic DH with F/F chokes that has been my preferred turkey,waterfown,trap,5-stand,and sometimes SC gun. I have shot this gun more than any of my other Parkers. It fits me like it was made specifically for me and is certainly one of my favorite Parkers. The late Russ Bickel correctly tightened the Titanic barrels to the frame and reblued them and I also had him refinish and fit a set of 30" Damascus barrels to it with chokes of IC/MOD.
I bought it at Kittery Trading Post for $2000 which was probably too much money but the gun dept. nanager wouldn’t budge from the price and I simply had to have that gun. 90739 resides in the front row of my 47-gun safe and comes out often. It truly was the best deal I ever made on a Parker even though I did pay full retail for it.





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