Old Days With The PGCA

[Bruce Day]

Just thinking of some of the old days and Parker people gone by.

First is Oscar Gaddy, who revived the art of damascus finishing. An interesting find of his was that Parker used damascus sheet stock to make lock plates. Below is a Parker he found with damascus side plates and that he refinished to restore the damascus pattern. I wonder if others have been found.

Next from 1997 was a trip into the Nevada desert during the Las Vegas Gun show for a live pigeon shoot. Here is a photo from those days showing Parker collectors Mark Conrad, Jim Hall, Todd Allen, Sam Tomlin, Fred Stump, Ron Kirby, Charlie Herzog and Ed Kapelski. Big Iron Kapelski passed away and Ron Kirby got out of Parkers, the others are still significant collectors. Interesting guns of the show included an AHE 28ga damascus and the damascus gun with the name of the barrel broker intertwined in damascus letters the length of the barrel.