New 1893 DH 12 ga

[Ed Blake]

Where else are you going to get that kind of wood and hand-engraving for what you paid? Nice gun.

[Bill Murphy]

William, this gun is likely to letter with the checkered cheeks. It was not unusual for informed buyers of Parkers to specify "Check side of stock, same as $200 grade." Get a letter from PGCA to confirm. The gentleman selling this gun is our neighbor at a local gun show, but it is hard to pin him down to a reasonable price on his internet offerings. You stood your ground and bought the gun for less than many internet lurkers would have been willing to pay. It is a questionable strategy that is sure to benefit the ultimate buyer more than it does the seller.

[William Shear]

Ed,
That is exactly the question I asked myself when I saw it--from the standpoint of a Parker neophyte, the DH damascus guns must represent one of the best values going.

Bill,
Thanks for the insight on both the checkered panels and the seller. I never spoke directly with the owner; in addition to the GB listing, it was sitting on consignment at a tiny local shop. I happened to pull up GB two days before and saw what looked like a clean old Parker in a configuration I liked. Fortunately, it was a short-ish trip for me and worse case I knew it would be a pretty drive. A family friend who deals in antiques and decoys told me once to never ask what someone's lowest price was as that gives the seller time to think what they have in it, etc.--simply set cash down, which is what I did. Shop owner told me guy had 2500 on it--I brought 20, 100 dollar bills and was prepared to walk away. When we got the owner on the phone, he wouldn't go below 2100 and I turned my pockets out. We checked to make sure there were no bids on GB, which there weren't, and the shop ate the $100 on their commission to make the sale.

I certainly don't claim any savvy in this, was just lucky that the gun happened to be listed locally so I could inspect it first-hand. The gun pretty much sold itself and we all know how hard it is to gamble on pictures. Also, the ad mentioned that a chip was glued back in to the left of the top tang, undoubtedly turning lots of folks off. It turned out it was just a line of fossilized oil which had run back from the action. I was able to chip a bit of it off w/ my finger nail confirming the wood was all sound.

As an aside, I remember reading that checkering can be safely cleaned out with a soft toothbrush moistened in Murphy's Oil Soap--I'd like to degunk the side panels a little. Is this okay to do?

Cheers,
Bill