20 gauge 32" barrels DHE

[Researcher]

Parker Bros. seem to have made more 32-inch 20-gauges then other makers. Possibly DuBray taking orders for guns for California duck club members pushed this. The record tabulations in The Parker Story show 221 VH-/VHE-Grades, six PH-/PHE-Grades, 43 GH-/GHE-Grade, 171 DH-/DHE-Grades, 13 CH-/CHE-Grades, 21 BH-/BHE-Grades (one of these was Clark Gable's), one AH-/AHE-Grade, six AAH-/AAHE-Grades and four A1-Specials. On top of these, there are guns like my GH-Grade that started life as a 2-frame 12-gauge but later went back to Meriden for a set of 32-inch, 3-inch chambered, 20-gauge barrels. One year at The Vintage Cup at Orvis Sandanona, when Kevin McCormack and I were doing the PGCA booth, we had a display that included 0-, 1-, and 2-frame 32-inch 20-gauges.

I have searched the A.H. Fox production records and only found 47 regular frame graded 20-gauges with 32-inch barrels, and that 26 of the sixty some HE-Grade Super-Fox 20-gauges have 32-inch barrels.

Back about 2003 or 4 when I first started looking for a Fox 32-inch 20-gauge, at the Las Vegas Antique & Sporting Arms Show I found six Parker Bros. 32-inch 20-gauges, a fully loaded Ithaca NID 32-inch 20-gauge and a 32-inch 20-gauge Crown Grade L.C. Smith, but no Ansley H. Fox long 20-gauges.

Keep in mind that back in the first twenty-two years of the 20th Century the 2 3/4, 2 7/8 and 3-inch 20-gauge shells only carried a quarter dram heavier charge of powder then could be had in the "standard" 2 1/2 inch shell and pushed the same 7/8 ounce of shot. Their perceived advantage was more/better wadding.