What mistakes have you made buying Parkers?

[Dean Romig]

I've made 2 1/2 mistakes on Parkers -

The first was on the first Damascus gun I had ever bought, a GHE sixteen gauge on the 0-frame. It had 26" barrels that I learned after I took delivery that they had been cut from 28" but that didn't bother me too much because I bought it for close work. The worst thing about it was that some kid had got ahold of it and tried to make a POW grip with no cap out of a capped pistol grip. What a butcher job! it had a very nice DHBP and real pretty grain in the stock but it was "butt ugly" and Tony cut me a deal on it,,, yeah right...
But it was the first SXS I ever killed a grouse with and it kept on killing grouse and woodcock until I retired it ten years ago or more. By the way, I sent it to Oscar Gaddy and he measured the chambers and barrels and pronounced it safe to shoot with low pressure shells.

The second mistake was a beautifully refinished GH 12 gauge with 30" Damascus barrels on the 1-frame. It was a gorgeous gun but I didn't realize it but I believe the barrels had been honed. I shot it to try to qualify for Team Parker back in '06 or '07 and almost made the team with a score of 18 smashing some clays just before they hit the ground out about 50 yards. Problem with that gun was it came off face too soon and I figured somebody had tightened it up somehow but the fix wore out prematurely. I learned the barrels were thin by the way the right tube flattened along its length when I fell with it on my brick walkway when I got home from my trap/Skeet club. My grandson had left a toy on the walkway and in the dim light I didn't see it and went down but I sure didn't think it was hard enough to do that to the barrel.

My 1/2 mistake was on a 16 gauge, lightened 0-frame Grade 1 hammer gun I bought at Hausmann's about eleven or twelve years ago. Turns out it was the only one made in this configuration. It had Laminated Steel barrels with a length of 26" and it was a pretty little thing. Problem was that I didn't notice the ring bulges (of only .007") at both cones. The seller wouldn't take it back but gave me $2,000 off the price, I wrote about this gun in Parker Pages "Shot To Destruction." I had Brad repair it and he blessed it with "It's fine to shoot to your heart's content." and I still have it and have killed a lot of birds with it.





.