Please help identify Parker 12 gauge

[George Lander]

Originally Posted by greg conomos

I meant you could buy any load Cabela's sells and use them to shoot the 'Parker'. You'd need a good gun, of course.

Greg: The only way anyone in his or her right mind would shoot that gun with modern ammo would be to weight the barrels down with at least 200# of sandbags, tie a 50 foot cord to the triggers, back off the full 50 feet, get behind a big tree and yank the cord. Did you notice how far the top lever is to the left! The gun is obviously way off face.

[Sam Ogle]

I will be very surprised if it turns out the sales person represented this as a "real" Parker Bros. gun.
But, having worked in a Cabela's Gun Library, surprises do happen. Parker folks, such as here on this site are of course, very educated on their particular (and wonderful) guns. They expect sales people to be at least as knowing as they are, and that is often just not the case. It would be like a car sales person knowing everything about a 1923 Packard Automobile.....only if he/she is a collector. People in Gun Libraries are just shooters. Some know handguns, some rifles, and a few old dogs such as myself are shotgun nuts. 95% of shotguns sold are in the modern Benelli/Browning/Beretta classes. Unfortunately, certain collectors love to visit a gun shop to "test" the knowledge of the sales people, and when they find that particular person cannot identify original Parker Bros case colors, feel they are in the presence of someone who is stupid.
Outrage at a sales persons lack of knowledge perhaps is mis-directed, as a lot of selling quality guns is a learning experience; especially if the sales person doesn't shoot side by sides. My father used to say "Everything I have ever learned was through pain, not intelligence."
IF the sales guy actually implied this was an original Parker Bros gun, Take it back, ask for a Manager, and you will get a refund.
Sam Ogle.....ex Cabela's Gun Library employee