Parkers Forever

[Tim Mahony]

Greetings from Carpinteria, California,

By way of an introduction I am Tim, I am a lifetime gun crank with a fairly wide interest in antique and vintage firearms. Parker shotguns first came on my radar 40+ years ago and through the years have owned over a dozen at different times. Damascus guns due to their beauty being my main interest and I can remember a time when they were mistakenly overlooked and undervalued.…..smile.

Quail hunting was for many years my passion and one day a local Damascus “D” grade with a wonderful piece of wood and a straight grip traded my way. It retained it skeleton butt but overall it was seriously on hard times showing much abuse along with a ton of use. Cut barrels having mediocre bores and a well scrubbed exterior, dinged up wood, flat checkering, engraving etc.

I was pleased when I found that this gun would pattern to about a tight IC choke at 30 yards. Back then I was loading Win AA hulls with Pydrox with circle fly over wad, cushion wad and an ounce and an eight of 7 ½ ending with the star crimp. This gun gave me many years of service chasing my local quail. This gun and I clicked so well that I spent the $ to restore and never regretted it. My best Parker story about a well loved gun.

I had not realized this forum existed until yesterday at the suggestion of a friend. My daughters boy friend father previously brought to me an “old” shotgun needing work. I fell out of my boots when he un-sleeved a really nice “G” grade ejector 12 on a 1 ½ frame with most of its original finish in excellent condition. I apologize in advance for the long winded intro. I'm pretty sure that I'm getting to be a doddering old guy. Respectfully, tim

p.s. On to the forum to solicit help with the “G” grade.