Back on line

[Cold Spring]

Some months ago and after plenty of talk back and forth I made a good deal on a VHE 32" double trap gun with non-working ejectors including one that would bind up and make bad noises when the dry fired gun was opened. Despite mucho advice to stay away from broken Parker ejectors I figured I could repair and learn all about them in the process. And learn I did! As many know, ejector parts are almost impossible to find and I ended up making a new toggle block (cocking toggle), a new two-pronged sear spring, and microwelding and remachining the shoulder on the joint block (joint roll) that engages the rear end of the levers (floating sears) to trip the ejectors. All that along with fitting new floating sears which I got from a kind gent. The original ejector hammers just needed a touch on the mill and were re-used.

I also learned this gun was owned by a noted trap shooter and sportsman in Iowa, a contemporary of Joe Kautzky, and in 1916 he had Parker retrofit the 32" Titanic barrels from a earlier DHE to make up this VHE. That DHE, in turn, was fitted with 34" tubes. The Titanic barrels were renumbered to the new VHE frame by Parker.

I just finished up the ejectors this week and fired 106 shots today at Rock Mountain with perfect ejector functioning, mostly both barrels but some singles to verify each barrel ejector was working independently.

I'll be doing an article for publication on this Parker and its original owner and so these are all the details I want to share right now. Kind of a salute to the original owner, some of the shells I fired today were vintage Remington paper trap loads.

Second pic shows a very well fitted plug in the safety button slot.