RARITY OF PARKER LIVE PIGEON GRADES

[Don Kaas]

I have owned about 5 "no safety" Parkers, almost all DH grades, a couple of Foxes and one Smith. These are not common but hardly "rare". I suspect most made after WWI were actually trap guns rather than "pigeon" guns. One of my many pet peeves is when sellers describe safetyless small gauge guns as "live bird" or "pigeon guns" (Jay Schachter, he of the interminable, verbose and florid descriptions so often found on GA and GB is a particular offender...) If you see a DHE 20 gauge made without a safety it was almost without question a Southern bobwhite gun...perhaps I am too harsh, the quail were probably "live" when shot at...

[Bill Murphy]

I have examined a few Parker orders for "no safety" guns that were clearly not made for pigeons and have never seen an explanation about why they were ordered that way. Nash Buckingham claimed that he didn't need a safety because he never loaded his gun until he was in sight of the ducks. I have not hunted with anyone who subscribed to that technique.

[Paul King]

Gents, thanks for all the feed back. Will continue my research to find its origin.

[John Truitt]

At one time I owned 6 Parkers without safeties.
One 30" straigtht grip known to have been ordered for the ring.
One 34" ordered for a well known trap shooter.
One 32" 20ga I have no idea why or for what she was ordered for and
Three 32" ers with no documentation other than ordered that way.
All were D grades except two VHEs.

If I could walk into the plant at Meriden today and order a new hammerless Parker today I would want one without a safety. One less thing to break or go wrong. I just dont think they are needed on competition guns. As for in the duck blind or in the field thats another story and to each his own.

John

[Bill Murphy]

I am in the middle of a 32" VH project right now. It came to me with the safety removed and when finished, the tang will be welded up. No fuss, no muss. The "Gold Hearts" gun is a no safety gun. That is the extent of my no safety collection if we don't include single trap guns.