What if??

[Old and Reliable]

Originally Posted by David Holes

I really don't know why this gun would be listed as a parker fox. The parkers and the foxes I've handled never had wood to metal fit like that. I guess that is a good enough reason not to own a smith.

Even the late Mike McIntosh detailed that in his 1989 book- Best Guns- I own 4 12 bore Smiths- three graded ones made from 1907-1911 and a Specialty made in 1924-- The Smith I sold to a Brother PGCA member in PA was a FW Ideal 12- DT made in Feb 1945, or at least according to the yellow hang tag that went with it- It had the post 1939 style raised solid rib-a single sight plane if you will. It was mechanically perfect- the Mint Condition gun we all would like to buy-did have a Pachmayr red ventilated pad installed, by a perfect job- so that would be like a "Biker Bar Tattoo" on Sophia Loren- not quite right, but not a huge drawback either-

But you could tell that the lower graded Smiths- especially after the Marlin take-over, did NOT have the fine fit up of the pre-War higher graded Smith guns-You can see the same thing in the late 1960's (1960-1963) Winchester M70's and M12's (sadly)- when the shiny-seat-of-the pants clerks and bean counters take over, production quality and oftentimes, skilled worked morale suffers-