16 Gauge Parker SN 118030

[Grantham Forester]

Would the fetching price vary, assuming same condition, from a 0 (std 20 frame size) to the 1 (std 16 frame size)? The same farm area auctioneers sold some LeFevers, an Ithaca Single Trap gun and two LC Smiths in June, the Ithaca brought $900 hammer price, and no seller's premium (unusual) just a 10% buyer's premium, so the gent that bought the Ithaca SBT paid $990-- The LeFevers and Smiths were a mix of 12 and 16 gauge guns, all DT and std. manual extractors, good condition, no cut barrels- they all brought between $600 to $725. The Winchester .22's were the top money guns at that auction.

The farmer told me that the Parker 16 was engraved with bird dogs and birds- but it has Vulcan Steel barrels- he didn't want to open it up and remove the barrels and the forearm and give me the identification data from the water table and barrel flats and lug (sn matching?) so I wondering if it was a higher grade that had Damascus barrels, and was re-barreled with the Vulcan Steel barrels at a later point in time. In my neck of the woods, Damascus barreled shotguns, whether with outside hammers or hammerless, are called "Wall Hangers" and are priced accordingly.

[Bill Murphy]

If it's got birds and other engraving, it may be a rebarrel, hopefully a factory rebarrel. You have to take the gun apart to see the grade marking and frame size marking. The barrel lug should have Parker looking small font serial numbers matching the receiver. On the other hand, a later rebarrel would have the larger font on the lug. Buy the gun if you like it, then send for a letter to see what the real story is. Keep in mind that your frame size options include more than 0 and 1 if the gun is a rebarrel.