Your intro to Parkers and your first Parker

[Steve Hodges]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

I think I have told this story here before but as Forrest said reminiscing is good for the soul. It's been near 30 years since my first Parker. It was a 1913 12ga 28" Trojan I purchased from my local gunsmith, Victor Strawbridge, in Dec 1984. I really did not know very much about Parker's and I had not read Johnson's or Baer's books. An older friend who did a lot of upland and duck hunting, who also had a Brittany, Barry Weeks, had a 26" barrel 12ga Trojan, he spoke very highly of Parker's. Barry's father was friends with Burt Spiller. I never owned a double gun but after hunting with Barry I wanted one of my own. In Dec '84 I was getting ready to leave for an assignment to Iceland and I had sold my Jeep as I would not need a vehicle on a remote radar site. I used some of the proceeds to buy this gun. On the morning I left for Iceland I woke up early, went to a favorite spot on a brackish river, the Bellamy, which feeds into Little and Great Bay NH. It was low tide and I managed to make sneak on a raft of ducks. When they flushed I dropped a black duck but couldn't figure out the double trigger in time to get a second shot. I went over and picked the big red leg and while I was holding the duck I saw a small flock of mallards dropping in about 50 yards away. I rested the forend on the top of my left forearm while still holding the black duck and folded a green head with my second barrel. First two shots, two ducks, Parker's are certainly special, you can't tell me otherwise.

I still have the gun which was in great condition when I got it, 65 to 70% cc. Near twenty five seasons of salt water gunning and laying in muddy cornfields took it's toll. In 2007 I drove out to Ilion on my 50th birthday with Scott Kittredge and I had Larry DelGrego & Son restore everything but the cc which is still a strong 50-60%.

Pete, my friend, that is "quit a mug shot"