Just got my first Parker -- help, please

[Greg Miller CTGunLaw]

For fun see if you can post some better pictures of the engraving.

As to who would stamp an improper grade stamp into a Parker, unfortunately throughout history there have been all sorts of people who dared to do all sorts of really unfortunate things. Including impaling your stock. Sorry about that. Wasn't Vlad the Impaler from the Carpathian Mountains? As the Parker stock guys largely hailed from the Carpathians, who knows one of his descendants might have worked on your gun.

Looks like you have a great gun to learn on, and when you get done you will have something you can take pride in with pictures of where it started. Anyone can buy a fancy gun in a store. To bring one back takes something extra.

The Fishtails tend to come from that year. Always an interesting option. Be forewarned that Parkers can be addictive.

[Harry Collins]

Vlad,

I shoot my twist steel Parkers all the time. That said, you have received sound advice on having the gun checked out. I have been flying by the seat of my pants. A Parker as old as yours would have been used with mercury primers and they are the cause of pitting in most barrels. If your barrels show no pitting I would be suspect. They could have been "cleaned up" which might have reduced the barrel wall thickness to a dangerous leval. I have not checked the thickness of the barrels on my Parkers and have relied on gut feeling about if they have been "messed with" or not. I have an 1881 lifter Parker with twist barrels that receives loads in the 8,000 psi range at rounds of sporting clays without a hiccup. I have used factory WW Xtra Lite 1 oz loads through it at sporting clays and in the field. Mind you, I prefer to reload in the 5,000 psi range with this twist Parker using IMR 7625.

Good shooting, Harry