[John Farrell, Charter Member #33]

George - here's the story of the reappearance of the 1930 Parker VHE.

There was an ad reading "old double barrel Parker shotgun" in a rural shopper newspaper I got in the mail on 6/23/2012 - and read through on Sunday evening, 6/24/2012 while sipping a dram of Laphroiag.

I called the number listed in the ad at 5:30 PM and looked at it on Monday 6/25 at 1:30 PM. It's a VHE with a broken stock. There is a chance that it was special ordered since it came with 30" barrels choked F&F. The gun had a recoil pad and spacers added to the stock making a 15" LOP. According to the stockmaker that has the gun now, the original stock did not have standard Parker dimensions, rather it had trapshooter dimensions including a thick comb. The checkering is typical Parker and the gun SN is stamped in the bottom tang.

The rest of the gun looks like it left Parker Bros. yesterday. My PGCA letter states it was completed on 10/19/1930. According to the seller's story shortly after the gun was purchased the original owner broke the stock at the wrist and it was never used again. It was passed down through the family until it arrived in the possession of a descendant that ran out of beer money in 2003. Whereupon the seller bought it and, like the previous family member owners, left it in the Red Head case under his bed.

I gave the seller a check to hold it at 2:50 PM until 6/27 because of his harried life-style. We concluded the cash deal on 6/27/2012. The 2 day interim gave me a chance to check out his story of the history of the owner of the gun. His verbal history of the owner, which he got from the seller, largely checked out with a Minnesota historian. There were a few details where his story and the historic record differed, but they were inconsequential. The conversation left me with the impression he knew at least a couple of the heirs of the original owner.

The funny part of the resurfacing of the gun was at the conclusion of the purchase. As I was putting the two pieces of the gun in the zip up Red Head case (the barrels and receiver and the broken stock) the seller said to me - "oh no. the case doesn't go with the gun!" On a good day, with all the signs of the heavens pointing in your direction, if you offered the gun case for sale, you would be lucky to get $1.00 for it. I just smiled and carried the two pieces out to the car.