Live Bird Gun?

[Mark Estrop]

I recently came into possession of a Parker VHE 12ga. I've ascertained the following information - 30” 4.5 bbl, trap stock, 2 frame, (1900 date) F&F. The Shield on the stock has the original owner's name. It has a straight English stock, with Vulcan barrels, no safety. The bores of the barrels are mint - nary a scratch or pitting.
I've been told it is a live bird gun. I'm sure it was used for trap because somebody added an adjustable Morgan pad to the stock. Other than that, everything else looks original. Stew Wright at Wright's Model 12 Shop looked it over and declared it a "grand old gun".
What officially designates it as a live bird gun? And how rare are these? I'm a novice with Parkers, so any help or info would be appreciated.

[Big D]

Mark - Welcome! Sounds like an ineresting gun. Before you will get much help on this gun, we will need some good close-up pix of the stock, the receiver and the water table.
Providing the serialvnumber will also allow us to see if there are existing records for the gun.

[Dean Romig]

The feature (or lack thereof) of a gun, that folks use in identifying it as a "live bird gun", is the safety... or rather, the lack of one. Way back when, in shooting competitions using live pigeons, a lot of money could be lost or won on the missing of just one bird..... forgetting to push that little switch off SAFE just once in a competition could spell disaster. Hence, when ordering a competition gun an experienced shooter might order it without a safety.
But such guns were also ordered safetyless by trap shooters much later when the targets were inanimate stamped "clay" pigeons. Even hunters would sometimes order a shotgun without a safety. Gentlemen walking in over pointing dogs to shoot 'Gentleman Bob" would see no need for a safety... and there were other situations where a safety was viewed as unnecessary or a hinderance. But, they are referred to as "live bird guns" none the less.

Yours being 30-inch Full/Full barrels on a 2-Frame with a "Trap" stock and no safety, and likely weighing about 4 or 5 ounces under 8 lbs. exactly, are all factors that would lead us to believe it was ordered as a competition gun. (8 lbs. loaded was the maximum legal weight allowed in those early competitions.)






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[Mark Estrop]

The serial number is #96022. The name on the shield is PJ Blair. Here are the pics to follow

[Mark Estrop]

So it is a live bird gun whether the birds had feathers or were clay...

[Mark Estrop]

Thank you, gentlemen - really appreciate the help and information. Are these rare or pretty common?

[Dean Romig]

They are not especially rare but are uncommon.

Incidentally, this is what is considered a "Trap" stock or comb. Notice the width at the nose of the comb.






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[Mark Estrop]

Thanks, Dean! Mine is not wide at the nose, but definitely a trap stock and not a field stock. Do you think this gun started it's life as a live bird gun or clay trapshooter? Or is there any way of knowing?

[Mark Estrop]

Or does it even matter?

[Dean Romig]

When you discover who P.J. Blair was you may learn what he intended to shoot with it. My guess would be clays. The public shooting of live birds was pretty much a thing of the past by 1900.






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