Parkers At Beaver Dam

[Don Kaas]

Long before Nash Buckingham shot Bo Whoop, the famous Fox HE, he shot Parkers. An early gun the Buckingham arsenal was the 16 gauge hammergun he and his brother Miles had as boys and later in the early 1920's he shot a 34" D grade 12 bore. Numerous photos exist of other Beaver Dam Ducking Club members pictured with their Parkers. Last Friday was a slow day in the "Brougham Blind" deep in the South Trails of the lake. We had taken 4 gadwalls froma large flock at opening light but the ducks that were about were using the flooded fields that were once the lakes edges due to the very high water. I was armed with my 36" GH damascus #3 frame ten gauge and some of my rollcrimped hand loads of 1 1/4 oz #5 bismuth done to Mr. Bell's recipe with all vintage tools. About 10:30 a flock of 12 mallards skipped over the cypress tops to give the set a look see and inexplicably one big drake cupped his wings and dropped from the flock while his mates flew on. I raised the Big Ten and took him about 30 feet up and 30 yards out and he dropped like stone in the bright sunshine. It is nice when it all comes together, picture perfectly, on a very slow day. Better yet I left a 30" factory straight grip VH 12 gauge down there for my young friend, Lamar. The guides now have a Parker to go with the 3 Foxes and a Smith Wildfowl, I've sent down. Nice to see the pros shooting old doubles on a daily basis.

[Bill Murphy]

You could leave them the DH 8 gauge and some RMC shells with the 10 gauge headstamps, loaded with about 2 3/4 ounces of legal shot. Of course, we could have bought Griffiths for our 16 year old kids too.

[Dean Romig]

Wow, remember those Griffiths? Ford 289 powered weren't they?

[Big D]

AC Bristol (Cobra) Sunbeam Alpine (Tiger) and the Grffith, all with 289's were all scary fast, particularly the Griffith

[Don Kaas]

When I was in college I was home for the weekend and my buddy and I were first on the scene of two fellows who had rolled and totalled their TVR Griffith. They were very seriously injured but both survived. The (very) short wheel base Griffiths were a handful. I raced a 1959 TVR Grantura MkI all over Europe and the UK in FIA Historics in the late 80's and early 90's. It was only powered by an MGA 1600 with an alloy HRG-Derrrington head and twin Webers and it was a handful and would spin on a dime if you lifted in a corner. It made racing my Porsche 356A later seem a lot less evil if not sedate in comparison. I also had an AC Bristol but only as a lovely street car.