Older 12 gauge DHE

[Grantham Forester]

The same man that I bought the Trojan 12 gauge from- also has a nice 12 DHE- 30" Titanic Steel barrels, DT- solid red Silvers pad with plugs-restored by the Del Grego Gun Shop about 22 years ago not shot since-- the serial number chart on this Forum shows it to be a 1906 year of manufacture- it does have the angled tool steel wear plate pinned into the barrel lug- I am just curious- given the same condition- what would this gun be different in mechanical features from the same DHE 12 made in (1) 1916-- (2) 1926 and finally, 1936? I have read about changes in the number of action parts from 18 to 4 over a period of time- also, were the ejectors always of the same design, or did that feature have changes over a 20 to 25 year production run? Thanks

[Dean Romig]

Just curious Mr Forester - would the answers to those questions have any bearing on whether you buy the gun?... presuming it might have been offered to you.

[Grantham Forester]

That's the rumor about curiosity, so I have heard. Yes- I have 90 days to keep the 12 gauge Trojan, or I can return it for the purchase price of $500 as credit against the $3000 price of the Del-Grego-ed DHE 12-- I have thought about your patented forearm removal tool for the Trojan, and with a tool & die background, I am impressed, and your price is more than fair, Mr. Romig. The only reason why I have held up this purchase is that I may decide to move up to the DHE--

I agree with Mr. Murphy, a unaltered Trojan in any gauge is best left unaltered- The main sticking point with me is not the money so much, but the Trojan was made in 1926 and without the early small dolly's-head rib feature-- but with coil springs- And from reading the Peter Johnson book, I get the feeling that the 1906 dated DHE may have the older flat springs, and could be prone to failure.

I buy shotguns to keep and to shoot, and shoot a great deal- I hope you can appreciate that, and I will welcome your further advice on this. Thank you!!

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Grantham Forester

but the Trojan was made in 1926 and without the early small dolly's-head rib feature-- but with coil springs- And from reading the Peter Johnson book, I get the feeling that the 1906 dated DHE may have the older flat springs, and could be prone to failure.

I certainly hope not- my newest is a 1904 and they get shot, hunting and clays. As do, I would guess, most of the older guns here.

[Dean Romig]

I'm of the same mind as Rick. I'm not aware of any flat springs having broken and a lot of the folks here shoot their older Parkers a lot.

But a Trojan in nice condition for $500 is a steal and I would keep it and try to buy the DHE too! That's how collections begin.

[Grantham Forester]

I will keep the Trojan:-it sure has great balance. Where is the best place to buy the spreader shotshell loads? I called the RST folks recently and they advised that they were out of stock. Also will both the Trojan and the DHE 12 gauge shotguns have 2 & 3/4" chambers, or do I need to use the RST 2 & 1/2" long shorter loads in them? Thanks!!

[OH Osthaus]

I like the RST's

but I have used the Polywads to good effect- both the spread-r and vintager
http://www.polywad.com/spredr-shells.html

the DHE will also likely have short chambers - but any thing is possible

[Pa SxS]

Mr. Forester,

I'll try and answer your question about mechanical changes from 1903 to 1936. There aren't any major mechanical changes, just minor ones. You mentioned the addition of a wear plate, they changed the top lever linkage to the bolt making the top lever shorter and changed from a flat spring to a coil spring for the top lever. The safety button was changed to a different style and they changed the sculpting of the frame to cut down on labor. They never implemented the major redesign to reduce the number of parts. I don't think the ejector system was redesigned once it was put into production but I could be wrong. Others can chime in if I missed something. The Parker Story goes into great detail on the changes.

You should be able to use any off the shelf load assuming that the guns are mechanically sound.

[Researcher]

Hardly a universal fair test, but the patterns I shot with using a full and full 1901-vintage VH-Grade with the 1 1/8 ounce #7 1/2 Spredr shells were extremely patchy.

[Autumn Daze]

Dave and All, I have done alot of testing with different loads using spreader inserts from Poly-Wad in both 12 and 16 gauge. The speed of the load is criticial to good patterns. I have shot thousands of my 16 gauge loads and they pattern great and against most beliefs they will reach out there. Just ask Dean and Larry....