Thanks for the kind words guys. I've always had this belief that even though the clay target games were being dominated by the single sight plane guns, the SxS was being overlooked, and was actually superior on actual birds.
Clay has a known speed, path, hold point and break point.
Birds don't have rules. They pop out from an unknown location, and take an unplanned direction, and almost never in a straight line.
Plus birds accelerate, while clay slows down.
It's hard for me to imagine a purpose built target gun having the dynamics of this Parker pigeon gun. The Eyetalians strive for this on bird guns, and you pay big bucks to find out.
This GHE is a built for comfort tool with the magical handling characteristics of a fast handling field gun. Live birds out to 40 yds could not outmaneuver this gun!
I was already starting to become a Parker fan, though I was shooting a M 21 on game.
To me, this little Parker was all business, and it certainly got the job done in the ring.
Later, as I grew my Parker knowledge, I started realizing that in the collector's community, this was a red headed step-child.
This was not a beavertail FE gun from the factory, and after a career involving 1 1/4 oz pigeon loads, one day the FE lug came loose.
I soldered it back on, but stopped shooting it then, not trusting the shabby job I did.
Adding up all of this I was thinking I needed to create yet one more empty spot in my dwindling collection. Maybe not just yet, we'll see. The memories with this gun are still pretty powerful. If I listen, she talks to me - still.
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