Readily Available Parkers

[Richard Flanders]

Nice try guys! You all sound like Dave... It's loaded into the truck with the 4-wheeler to get acquainted with ruffed grouse tomorrow... chokes are open; can't remember measurements.

[Stepmac]

Affordable G grade Parkers.

I just paid $999 for what is to me, a very nice gun, a GH. I won't get the gun into my hands for another week and a half. The bores are fine, but I can see where it's been shot. The engraving is sharp, and it has some case colors. The wood, what I can see, looks very nice with honey and walnut hues that look like smoke. Forearm has seen pretty heavy use, dings. Latch looks fine as does the little metal tip. I don't know the chokes. It has a mechanical problem, it doesn't cock when it's dropped open, but there is a great old gun, gunsmith here (Kearcher) who said he'd fix it for a C note. Opening lever needs some work as it lines up left of center.

The gun sat on the gun rack for almost a year. The seller said that someone who appreciated Parkers would have to come along and buy it. Welp......that's me.

I will enjoy this gun as long as I live. Just under a K. Money well spent.

[Stepmac]

What kinds of shells are you folks shooting in your GHs? I just got one. Want to shoot it. It's the season! Barrels on my gun look mirror bright inside. I don't see any rust, so it's as shootable as any GH out there. It also locks up like a safe.

[Bruce Day]

My usual target load store bought is a Fed 1oz 2 3/4dram. If I load my own, its the same. My usual pheasant load is a Fed 1 1/8oz 3 dram or equivalent hand loaded. This is through a 7 1/2lb 1911 GHE with original thickness damascus barrels on a 2 frame. Everyone has their own loads.

A 7 1/2 lb 30" 12ga was usually patterned by Parker using 1 1/8 of no. 7 shot driven by 3 drams of "wood" ( a nitro brand) powder , unless yours was built originally for black powder. In that case, maybe somebody else can tell you how the usual hang tag for that period would read.

Unusually shiny bores on an old gun can be an indicator that the barrels were recently honed to fluff up for selling. You might want to know your barrel wall thickness.

Some use only RST's, others hand load only and everybody is convinced in the correctness of their choice.

Bruce Day, Parker know-nothing

[Richard Flanders]

I shoot lighter 1oz or sometimes 24gram hand loads in my GHE-12 because it's a 26" damascus #1 frame at 6#10oz. No need to blaze away at woodcock and ruffies with heavy loads. My pressures are either 4200psi or 5100psi and 1100-1150 fps. I use PB or SR7625 powder.