[stumpstalker]

Bob:

I believe that with THE PARKER STORY you will definitely get your money’s-worth, because you will continue referring to it. Not a serendipitous random-walk, the textual content of its two volumes is detailed and organized; and it is profusely illustrated by drawings, tables, and photos.


But I agree that you should not skip over Peter Johnson’s PARKER, AMERICA’S FINEST SHOTGUN. Published in 1962, it is a time-capsule, and what lover of vintage guns can’t appreciate something like that? It is distinctive, as it presages the coming resurgence of interest in doubles -- guns that had become by mid-20th Century overshadowed, both on the range and in the field, by repeaters.

On one level there may be no substitute for Johnson’s infectious passion for the Parker gun. You read that at age five he began collecting gun lists; and as a youth eyed the qualities of a Parker brought into his home by family friend, Dr. Bryant Cook.

In spite of being a blatant booster of the Parker gun Johnson was not a Parker dogmatist. He cites the quality and dependability of other American doubles, specifically listing the Fox, Ithaca, L. C. Smith, Baker, and Lefever.