Normal Parker Drop?

[AmarilloMike]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

I have a theory, that a lot of the guns that were built with what we consider "good dimensions" today, have been shot a lot, while these old guns with excessive drop kicked the original owners in the cheek so bad that they were shot very little, and remain for us today.

I feel unworthy to disagree with you as I hold you in awe in regard to all things to do with American doubles but for me the big drop Parkers don't bite my cheek at all. The comb touces my jaw right at the corner where my overworked jawbone goes from vertical to horizontal. I shoot a Parker with 3" of drop at a couple of thousand trap targets every year. It never bites my cheek and my flinch went completely away. I quit shooting competitive trap because of my flinch but I am thinking about going back at it with the big drop Parker. I also shoot a few hundred rounds a year through another 3'' dropped Parker at NSTRA field trials. Haven't noticed any kick from that gun at all. I like shooting Parkers with lots of drop.

Best,

Mike

[Leighton Stallones]

MUch to my surprise, my 1927 vintage VH 12 ga has a 3 inch drop at heel and 1 7/8 at comb.
I find that I mount the guns with more drop with my face further back and i believe that is the way the shooters years ago did it. The lower drops and faces further forward on the stock is a more recent phenomenom, particularly because of more target shooting and less bird shooting.

[Researcher]

The latter part of the 1962 hunting season, after an incident with my Winchester Model 50, I used my Father's Remington Model 1894 AE-Grade 16-gauge that had a lot of drop, and it kicked my cheek something aweful. By the 1963 season I had my first Ansley H. Fox double, and my Father had made leather lace-on monte carlos for both his 12- and 16-gauge Remington Model 1894s. In the late 1970s the 16-gauge Remington was stolen out of his house, serial number P136036, if anyone happens across it!!

[AmarilloMike]

Originally Posted by Leighton Stallones

MUch to my surprise, my 1927 vintage VH 12 ga has a 3 inch drop at heel and 1 7/8 at comb.
I find that I mount the guns with more drop with my face further back and i believe that is the way the shooters years ago did it. The lower drops and faces further forward on the stock is a more recent phenomenom, particularly because of more target shooting and less bird shooting.

I am also farther back on my stock and my head is not inclined toward the muzzle as much.

[Double Lab]

Dave,
You are telling me that you were registering s/n's back when you were 10yrs. old? I'm not surprised but you forgot to mention what grade of Fox you started out with. I'm on the lookout for your Dad's gun. Would'nt it be sweet to recover it?
I also agree with Mike in that a gun with 3"+ drop I can hunt with. I'm so focused on the bird as soon as the stock touches my cheek I slap the trigger. Now targets are a different story.

[Researcher]

I was 16 in 1962. I have my Father's copy of the police report he filed after the break in. The thieves also got two Winchester Model 67 single shot .22s and my H & R .44 Caliber single shot which we found years later in a pawn shop in Seattle.

My first Fox was/is a 1928-vintage HE-Grade Super-Fox with two sets of barrels, original 32-inch Chromox and a later 28-inch set of Utica Special Alloy - Forged Steel.



Openning Day 1977

[charlie cleveland]

what does the super fox way with the 32 inch barrels on her.... charlie

[Double Lab]

Your first Fox was an HE super Fox with 32" tubes. You're killing me Dave. Boy you even knew your Foxes back then, did'nt you. Do you remember what you paid for it back then? Great starter gun for a kid. I bet she did'nt slap your cheek, did she?

[Researcher]

My Super-Fox weighs 8 3/4 pounds with the original 32-inch barrels and a shade over nine pounds with the 28-inch barrels. Balance is pretty near the same with either set.

After the 1962 hunting season, I was on the hunt for a double of my own. Finally by August 1963, I finally found the HE-Grade Super-Fox in a pawn shop in Tacoma. When I examined the gun it had non-original beavertail forearm wood on the 28-inch barrels. My Aunt and her husband were moving into a house they had bought a block away from our house and my Father made the deal that if I helped them with the move he would take my money and trade goods ($50, Model 50 12-gauge and Model 43 .22 Hornet) and go down to Tacoma and see if he could make a deal. When I got home from helping with the move, the Super-Fox as I'd seen it, the original forearm wood for the 28-inch barrels, and 2 1/2 boxes of pre WW-II Remington Arrow Express 3-inch 12-gauge shells with 1 5/8 ounces of #4 and #5 shot, were on the kitchen table. And, I owed my Father $40.

I didn't really know what I had, but a few years later when I was working for the Forest Service, I found a September 1955 issue of Outdoor Life which contained Nash Buckingham's article "Magnum Opus".

[Double Lab]

So you are telling us that your Dad found the original forend wood? I'm sure you know what those Rem. Arrow Express shells would be worth today. Neat story. Thanks.