Big Surprise under the Buttplate

[Paul Mazan]

I just picked up a Parker G grade shotgun made in 1890. Typically I bought one that has seen much better days and would be of little or no interest to a true collector but I love to find derelicts and get them back to shooting condition. This is a hammerless gun with Damascus barrels and barrels cut to 25 1/2 inches eliminating all choke. The interesting part is that as i was disassembling it I removed the broken buttplate and found the gun had been signed, in pencil,by what I suppose was a bunch of cowboys. That kind of leads me to think this might have been a ranch gun that they shared. Any other ideas or has anyone else found this kind of thing?