Winter Project

[Bill Murphy]

Parker Brothers claims, right on the pattern tag, that a pattern on a 30" circle at 40 yards will show a pattern of one half again as much as the pattern in a 24" circle at 45 yards. Those of you who are inclined, can prove or disprove that claim empirically. We'll be waiting for the results. I also have a set of tags for the same gun, 15 years apart, with percentages that are, oddly, much tighter on the later tag. I will order a letter on the gun and post the results here. I have seen the occasional Parker Brothers order that requests that the choke in a certain barrel be made tighter, but many more that request that choke be made more open. The letter may clear things up, but measuring the bores of the gun would be much more interesting. In case anyone here owns Parker #57,103, we may actually be able to measure the bores and chokes and pattern the gun in its present configuration. To clarify, I do not own the gun nor do I know where it is.

[Bill Murphy]

To "clarify" an earlier post, #7 shot is not the only size used in patterning Parker shotguns at the factory. Another point that I will make in the defense of our historian: The full patterning information is not always visible in the stock book copies that he has at his disposal. The stock books were too big to copy in one piece and sometimes the pattern information was the piece of the original stock book page that was cut off in the copy machine. Refer to stock book copies of various eras in The Parker Story to better understand the situation.

[todd allen]

Could this have been a pigeon gun?

[Austin W Hogan]

Simmons was well known for the quality of its work, and many championships, both skeet and trap were won with guns with Simmons ribs.
Collectors are a fickle lot and one should never equate collector interest with collector value. Collector interest can vanish very quickly as asking price increases.
There does not seem to be current collector interest in Parkers with ribs installed after delivery to the initial customer, by Simmons or other reputable firms. There is good collector interest in 34 inch barreled guns. Examining the production records indicates very few 34 inch barrels were sold with ventilated ribs.
Does or will the 34 inch barrel length trump the after market rib installer? We will only know when we count the number of bidders ( or buyers ) standing when one is offered.

Best, Austin

[Bill Murphy]

Is this an original Parker 34" gun? Does it agree with the Serialization Book entry for that gun? Simmons installed two different types of vent ribs on side by side shotguns. One type involved removing the original rib. Another type was installed on the top of the original rib. If the second type was used, it is remotely possible that the gun can be restored to original. Of course, if the gun is a good shooter, not in pristine condition, it is probably better to leave it as is. What could be neater than a vent rib 34" Parker? I would love to own such a gun. Try to get some pictures posted so we can give you more information. Yes, Simmons is still alive and well and has a website where they describe their services. The Simmons you are looking for is in Olathe. The website is "simmonsguns.com"