HOW MANY LEFT?

[Parker Bachelder (Brad's Profile)]

O.K., I have tried to stay out of this post, but Pete you struck a nerve with the words "promotional effort". You are far too kind. I believe that the manufacturers intentionally bereated composite barrels for the sake of profit. I absolutely agree that those warnings on ammo boxes caused the premature surrender from service for many, many composite barrels. Fortunately there is a growing number of us that understand what happened.
Composite barrels are the "state of the art" in shotgunning history. I don't want to know how many have been lost to ignorance, but I agree that the number is most likely very high.


Brad

[Bill Zachow]

I'm going to throw my "guess" out there and say that at least 3/4th of the 242,000 produced are still out there, somewhere. As a previous writer said, guns were basically well taken care of. They were expensive and a major necessity and generally, do not wear out. Except for losses due to fire or being dropped in a lake, a gun, and particularly a Parker, will be around for almost forever. Additionally, over the years, I have kept track of certain types of Parkers. These were guns that I had a special interest in. I know of well over a100 8 gauges and about 90 back action Parkers. The former were made from the earliest days of production up to about 1915. My list of those constitutes almost 25percent of total production and I am oy one observer. With the backactions, my listing is close to 10 percent of "The Parker Story" estimated production of 1000. Those guns were made in the earliest days of Parker production. If I can find 10 per cent of the backactions and 25 percent of the 8 gauges without much trouble and prior to using a computer, then there must be a whole lot of these guns out there. One final point, for what its worth, my collection has covered the gamut of Parker serials and gauges and I own or have owned Parker No. 286 and No, 242103 and a whole lot in between. Parkers are not hard to find as a lot of them exist, more than we think.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Brad Bachelder

I believe that the manufacturers intentionally bereated composite barrels for the sake of profit. I absolutely agree that those warnings on ammo boxes caused the premature surrender from service for many, many composite barrels. Fortunately there is a growing number of us that understand what happened.
Composite barrels are the "state of the art" in shotgunning history. I don't want to know how many have been lost to ignorance, but I agree that the number is most likely very high.


Brad

Brad, I couldn't agree more strongly.

[Fishtail]

If you Google 'ATF seized property wall street journal' you will learn all about it.

[Richard Flanders]

A friend who was in the Coast Guard told me of, under orders, taking a bandsaw to a few Parkers and tossing them in the drink when the Coasties swapped from them to some newer pump guns for their recreational shooting off the fantail of the ship....

[Dean Romig]

Two years ago at Hausmann's I was having ear protectors fitted by a guy who also dealt in walnut stocks. He said he had literally hundreds of stocks he was able to save when he took an industrial chop saw to the loads of "turn in" and confiscated guns brought to him by the police to destroy. He told me he would cut them (assembled) in half about an inch or so forward of the standing breech. The cops let him have the wood but the metal was to be scrapped. He said he was forced, by contract, to destroy some of the finest old SXS shotguns he has ever seen.... among other clunkers and wall-hangers.

[Hammer Gun]

I hope to goodness that fate never becomes law! I do not think I would go along with it! What did Charlton Heston say? As to numbers of Parkers surviving, I do not know and am just guessing, but it would be nice to poll all members as to the number of guns in each gauge they have. I think we as a group would be a pretty good representation of surviving guns, what do you think?

[Bruce Day]

Garry , I have no idea what the answer is to your question, but it seems that we don't go very long before some new Parker pops up. Anecdotally, when we show Parkers at places like the Pheasant Fest or the NRA Convention, it is common that some visitor to the booth will mention that they have a Parker at home. They are not a PGCA member, not what I would call a gun person, just an ordinary hunter. Its usually a V grade 12ga but you hear stories about it being a small bore and lots of engraving. We refer them to the PGCA website for identification and some follow up and some don't.

And as Mike indicated below, we are far removed out here on the Big Windy from Parkerdom.

[AmarilloMike]

I field trial with an old VH 12 with 30" barrels, an inappropriate pad, sling swivels, sling. There is no finish left, stock, case color, or blue. You can tell it once had checkering though. The wood is beat up, double triggers, 3" DAH etc... On a good day I could get $500 from a drunken sailor who wasn't too bright in the first place. But many many times during a field trial people have walked up and said in a hallowed tone of voice "Is that a Parker?" The cache is still there seventy years after the last one was made. Based on my experience I think more than half have survived. And as far as Parkers go, I am out in the boonies.

Best,

Mike

[J.B. Books]

Ed Muderlak had pondered the same thing several years ago. He did a little bit of research using the guns sold annually as tabulated by Roy Eckrose and some other sources. He covers this in chapter 43, "What are the chances" if his book "Parker Guns, Shooting Flying and the American Experience."

EDM's conclusion; "Expensive high grade Parkers were pampered and preserved, knockabouts were ridden hard and put away wet, suffering disproportionate attrition."

"Parker Brothers and Remington made more than 46 times as many knockabouts (Trojan and V grade) than Parker Story grade (C and up) ; yet knockabouts are less than four times as prevalent as higher grades, according to sales data."

"One way to rationalize this disparity - 31 of 2400 (Parker Story Grade) versus 119 of 112,000 - is to conclude that Trojan and Vulcan survivorship is less than 10% of grades C and above."

I will venture that if survivorship of Trojan and V grade is low, survivorship of composite barrel guns is even lower.