New Member

[Dennis]

I am a new member of the PGCA and would like to extend my greetings to everyone. To begin I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a retired Lieutenant from the CO Dept. of Corrections in Canon City, CO. I also have 10 years’ experience with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office in Santa Barbara, CA. Prior to that I was in the USMC from 1964-1968. From reading lots of posts on the forum I see that there a few Marines present. Semper Fi to all my brothers. I also see the LPH-4, USS Boxer mentioned several times. The Boxer was my ride to Vietnam in 1966. While in Vietnam on my second tour I also served on the LPH-10, USS Tripoli. That was a much newer ship. I presently live in the Santa Barbara, CA area but still have 180 acres in Canon City, CO. I go there every year to hunt mule deer and black bear.

I have been collecting firearms of all types since I was 12 years old. I have bought and sold quite a few of them over the years. While I won’t go into each firearm I own I will go into a Parker that recently crossed my doorstep. It is a GH, 12 gauge choked improved modified and full. It appears to be totally original. According to the factory letter it was completed on August 2, 1928. It is a 1 ½ frame with 28 inch with Parker Special Steel barrels. Original dimensions were 14 ¼ X 2 5/8ths at heel. Weight is a beautiful 7 pounds 5 ounces. Of course I will include photos. I just shot the gun for the first time a few days ago. Without a hand thrower my brother threw up some clay targets Frisbee style for me to hit. Surprisingly enough I hit about 90% of them though they did not go out too far. The chokes are pretty tight for me but even at close distances I did well. I give credit to the gun fitting me as well as the excellent chokes of the Parker. As an aside I did happen to shoot the gun at a piece of cardboard for each barrel at approximately 30 yards. Both patterns were well rounded and to point of aim. I now know not to use this gun for short range quail or penned pheasants. It would have cleaned them on the spot. I am looking forward to using it on wild pheasants though and possibly waterfowl.

While I am at this I have a question for other forum readers. My normal stock measurements to hit well seem to be 14 ¼ X 1 ½ X 2 ½. I see a lot of Parkers for sale with measurements that are great except for the drop at heel. In your experience if I were to buy a gun with drop at heel of 2 ¾ inches but the drop at comb is still 1 ½ inches will it adversely affect my shooting? I am looking for a Parker 16 gauge, O frame, V grade or better in excellent condition.

Thanks in advance for your hospitality. From reading the posts I can see a wealth of knowledge about shotguns as well as a friendly bunch. I also know not to bring up anything about shooting steel shot in an older gun, not that I ever would. I hope to meet many of you in the future and possibly we could hunt together. I would be happy to help someone hunt in CO for deer and elk for possibly a pheasant hunting trip or waterfowl somewhere.

Dennis V. Nix