Growing up I heard many stories of Grandpa's Parker, but he lived in Minnesota and we were out in Washington. Grandpa died in 1954 and his Parker went to my Uncle Howard. My Father was a Winchester rifle guy, but a Remington shotgun guy. He had a pair of AE-Grade Model 1894s in 12- and 16-gauge and a 12-gauge 30-inch full "Sportsman" autoloader he bought for $38 with his employee discount at Seattle Hardware in 1938. He always talked about how he would have loved to have bought the Parker that was in a Seattle Hardware window display, but that would have been $100 with his employee discount!! Tough when making $35 a week! In 1959 my Father succumbed to Jack O'Connor's short barrel writings and the "Sportsman" got whacked to 26-inch with a Poly-Choke. By 1960 the "Sportsman" was gone and he had a 12-gauge, 30-inch, 2-frame, VH-Grade, which remained his primary waterfowl gun until he quit hunting after the 1987-88 season when he was 80. According to the Ron Kirby letter I got on my Father's Parker it was shipped to Seattle Hardware on July 2, 1902, five years and one month before he was born.
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