No tang safety on VH

[J.B. Books]

Although more unusual in 20ga Parker built many guns that were ordered without a safety. These are generally referred to as Pigeon Guns. They are generally quite desireable for their lack of drop. They usually have long barrels and tight chokes. Many were patterned by Parker for what were "heavy" loads in that era as well. I have never shot live pigeons (some here have), when money is on the line you do not want a lost bird for failure to fire due to forgetting to take the safety off. Same rule holds true in trapshooting today, although in trap you are allowed one failure to fire (per field of 25) for any reason and subsequent failures on each field after the "grace" bird is a lost target for score.

Lack of a safety on a gun used for clays would not bother me at all nor would I deem it unsafe.

As we used to drill into peoples heads in Hunter Safety, "a safety is a mechanical device that can fail", "control the muzzle!".

[Double Play]

This little DH 28 gage is about as far from a pigeon gun as you could get yet it was ordered without the tang safety. The only reason that makes any sense would be that the owner was used to hunting with the gun open perhaps behind pointers which would allow time to close the gun and move in for the shot.