A question of..Safety..

[6pt-Sika]

We had a DHE 16 gauge 29” at the shop that was without safety no slot no safe engraving and yes the barrels lettered 29” .

[Jerry VanHorn]

Talked to my 'smith last night. He is going to remove the stock..and has the necessary parts to put the safety back in place..

[Randy Roberts]

Jerry attached are some examples of Parkers with no safety for your consideration. The first 2 are a CHE and a DHE both 12 gauge guns with 34" barrels. The research letter on these confirms that "no safety" was requested. The third is a VH 20 gauge with 32" barrels and a research letter that makes no reference to the safety. There is little doubt however that the absence of the safety is Parker work as there is no evidence of tampering/welding where the slot would have been and the engraving placed in that area seems appropriate. You have made the right decision to replace the safety IMO as the gun left the Parker factory with one most assuredly.

[Researcher]

I'm sure the three guns you show are Parker Bros. work. However, I am just as sure they have the safety slot plugged and engraved over. I can see the plug in your pictures of the CHE and VH. I saved the photos out and blew them up on PAINT. I have never had a no-safety Parker Bros., Ansley H. Fox, Philadelphia Arms or Remington in my hands that I couldn't see the plug on very close examination. That safety slot must be milled in the frame forgings very early on in their production.

[Randy Roberts]

I get your point which is an interesting one. You would think the process of milling the safety slot would simply be omitted vs completed and then filled in. I blew the pics up on paint to 4000 pixels and I can see a line on the VH which could "possibly" be a filled in slot, possibly to my eyes. Concerning the CHE I am just not seeing it. What am I missing ? Did you use some other method on paint possibly that would make it clearer to my eyes ?

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Randy G Roberts

g ? Did you use some other method on paint possibly that would make it clearer to my eyes ?

Paint has very limited editing options - that's really not its function

and JPGs generally do not have the detail to allow much sharpening or editing -

if you want to try to clean up an image there are free photo editors such as GIMP or PhotoScape X that will allow you to get as much as possible from a JPG - but again - what can be done without the base detail is limited and they take a while to learn

[Researcher]

The red arrow is pointing at the right front corner of the slot.

CHE Tang.jpg

Below the tip of the arrow one can see the whole straight front edge of the slot.

On Remingtons they used a different trigger spring and the head of the stock was solid on the no safety guns. I've never seen the inside of a righteous Fox or Parker Bros. no safety gun, so would like to hear from some gunsmiths/stockers on what they have observed on the inside.