Let's discuss the market for 12-gauge guns.

[Tennessee Dave]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

12 gauge Parkers with condition are still selling just fine. It's hard to compare a brown VH with lots of blue loss and a recoil pad with a pristine VH with some color and a dogs head butt. Give me the item numbers of the Guyette guns that sold for nothing and I'll tell you why they sold for nothing.

Okay Bill, please tell me why lot #38,39 and 63 sold so cheap! Please look at #62 as well.

[edgarspencer]

Pick any page in the serialization book, and scroll down the gauge column. The answer is pretty obvious; There are more 12 gauge guns than all the rest combined.

[Craig Larter]

What will kill the market for all Parkers is a lead shot ban. Just look at what's happening in the UK with their lead shot ban and the collapse of the vintage SxS market. It has already underway in our country.
The other issue currently is the shortage and cost of non-tox ammo for waterfowl. Have you tried to buy bismuth lately??

[Mike of the Mountain]

As shooters and hunters we must fight any lead shot and bullet ban. The non-tox for waterfowl was a lie they forced on waterfowl hunters. Make noise, resist, tell them it’s not going to happen. Don’t be the sheep, be the guard dog.

[GH-16]

Edgar hit one of the nails on the head about 12ga Parkers.

Other factors come into play as well. Such as this isn't new to the SxS market in any way. In the thirty years or so of chasing my SxS passions 12's other than high condition, higher grade collector quality guns have always been the red-headed stepchild in comparison to the small bores. Small bores sell--12ga's sit on the table.

Then we have the boomer factor! The boomers have been the driving factor for trends in collecting & buying from Beenie babies, to Harley's, hot rod's/muscle cars to Parkers. Let's face it, the sand in running out of our hour glasses and there's a bunch of guns coming to market because of it.

Then we have the contradictions of seeing lower grade type guns selling for what looks like cheap prices, but if you look online on the selling sites like guns international & see the asking prices "Especially by the larger dealers" you would never think that the prices are soft for 12ga Parkers or Model-21's for that matter. This could be a factor for why when you do see a 12ga offered way lower than the rest you can get the idea that it's a bargain, when in fact it's probably the one that realistically priced for the current market.

Then we have the Covid hangover effect where things went pretty nuts for a couple of years with people buying & flipping everything in sight from guns to houses. This created a bubble market of overpaying for an item and then having the air let out of the bubble and a whole bunch of folks being upside down on a bunch of the items they bought and are just now starting to take their loses on the shotgun they bought and didn't need in the first place.

The most glaring contradiction is in the clay's shooting sports. This is where the 12ga is still the king. I wish I could see some stat's on this, but I suspect that we would see there is more 12ga ammo sold in this country by far, over all the other gauges, only it isn't being shot out of SxS's in a game where O/U's & jamamatics rule the day.

Just some other factors to consider.

[Mike of the Mountain]

I agree with Paul especially on the clays shooting. 12g is still the king. I'd say at our range it would be easily 75%+ of the shooting is done with a 12g. 20g is a steady contributor with some guys devoted to mainly shooting that cartridge followed by 28 then .410 and 16 bringing up the rear. The 16 I attribute to whether the shooters reload or not. That gun gets hunted a lot but unless the guys find reasonably priced 16g ammo or they reload they will only break it out occasionally for clays. We have quite a few guys who regularly shoot 28 & .410.

As for the previous thread regarding lead shot ban in England, remember, they view firearm ownership as a privilege, not a right. You need to ask permission from big bro to own a firearm and to buy ammo and components. The only thing the UK and Europe got right was suppressors. You pretty much are required to use a suppressor most places when shooting rifles. My only beef with that is it's not a choice, it's a mandate. I prefer to use suppressors, I despise when big bro mandates my decisions.

[MrBojangles]

I created a thread tears ago about a 12 gauge being little more than a boat anchor. It’s only gotten worse since then.

[Chris T.]

I remember 10 years ago scouring the internet sites every day and not seeing anything of interest for months on end. There are so many great guns available at reasonable prices right now. It's a great time to shop for a high grade 12 gauge. I do feel the real high-end high-grade guns are still bringing a premium.

[Mike Franzen]

Remember, anything a 20 gauge ca do, a 12 gauge can do better.

[John Davis]

The 12 gauge accounts for 99.99% of trap shooters. .01% shoot a Parker.