What mistakes have you made buying Parkers?

[Richard Flanders]

Mistakes?? Plenty, generally by paying more than I could ever get out of them even now. Recently I sold one for $200 - a #1 frame 30" twist PH12 w/pristine bores - that I had shortly before paid over 3x that for..... didn't look at it closely enough when I bought it and wanted the new owner to have room to fix it without suffering. Then there was the choke opening fiasco of a gorgeous SG 26" Remington era VH12 with a gorgeous blonde stock that resulted in the barrels being so thin you can take dents out of the muzzles with stick.... that one really hurt. Only way to really fix it is to chop it to 24". There's not enough metal for choke tubes of any kiind. Ouch!! I killed 54 birds in one day at a preserve with that gun on one trip. My all time daily record by far.

[C.O.B.]

Unfortunately the younger group of shooters are more orientated to modern guns. If you shoot sporting clays at the local club you will see semi autos and pumps not sxs. Also the younger shooter for the most part doesn't have the disposable income for a say VH/VHE 20 thats $3000 or more, they are raising their families and working just as we did at that stage of our lives.

[Bruce Hering]

Originally Posted by Rich Anderson

Unfortunately the younger group of shooters are more orientated to modern guns. If you shoot sporting clays at the local club you will see semi autos and pumps not sxs. Also the younger shooter for the most part doesn't have the disposable income for a say VH/VHE 20 thats $3000 or more, they are raising their families and working just as we did at that stage of our lives.

This is certainly the truth. In retirement I have more disposable goof around income then I had less then 20 years ago and I am 73 now. Good planning on my part. I managed to "sneak in" a few good ones even then but it was hair razing. Course they were not collectable Parkers et al.

I must say this exact topic of loosing young shooters after they get out of college and off college teams is a real thing. They are out on their own in many cases and as such need to budget $$$ for repayment of school loans, everyday living expenses and for some the onset of a family. Sure there are some who are silver spooned or even manage tp retain some sort of sponsorship but those are few and far between. So from the numbers we looked at back about 8-10 years ago we will not see those shooters again until they are in their 30's having established themselves with enough disposable income and time from family to allow such endeavors.

Just a comment from an old coach.

[Andy]

To answer Garry, yes I do I believe I see collections being put back out into the market place for young guys like me (56 is damn young...) and I'm starting this endeavor later in life. With kids in college and some years to retirement, I look for sound usable guns that I can hopefully sell later without a problem. I just can't afford a $10-15K 16g gun to slog around the woods in, and can't justify hanging on for an investment, unless I'm pretty darn sure it's going to go up (this part of the game I have never figured out...). About young kids not having disposable incomes, well, these kids also shoot $2600 Benelli Super Sports and have Polaris Rangers and snowmobiles that cost a LOT of money. They just don't have the knowledge yet. You can only hope that once they clear puberty and grow up and get a few gray hairs they'll come around. I shot my very used 16g VH at skeet last week. There were nothing but sporting guns, and nice ones at that, all around me. But I could hear over and over "He's shooting a 100 year old Parker...that's a Parker.." So that was pretty cool (until they saw my shooting). Do you know that every single one of those guys was FLOORED when I told them it cost less than the vast majority of the guns on the rack. The best thing you can do is educate them I guess. I let anyone shoot it who wanted to, and some of these guys shooting for years never handled one. There is a wow factor. I think if I weren't married my Parkers could be an effective chick magnet, almost as good as a puppy.

[John Allen]

My biggest mistake of the many I have made was selling a 28ga. AHE that I had picked up in the early 90s for $10K. I sold it for $15K and have been kicking myself ever since.

[Chris Robenalt]

Interesting topic. No regrets, but I think my mistake was buying every Parker I could afford on my blue collar income. I may have an assortment of maybe 11 or 12 Parkers. I could probably be happy with just the two 20s. Both straight stocked VHs, maybe 1904 - 06. One is a beautiful early Delgrego restoration. The other well used, but tight. I'm probably sitting about the same with my many Foxes. I've also many early Ithacas, Smiths, Lefevers, and a couple other makes. I've too many to enjoy. Throw in my two Fox 20s with the Parker 20s, and I'd be content. Someday I'll get down to maybe 10 total. It's easy to learn from our mistakes, even harder to let go of some of them......
Chris, AZ

[PML]

Originally Posted by Andrew Sacco

I think if I weren't married my Parkers could be an effective chick magnet, almost as good as a puppy.

Why don't someone put that on a patch to sell......

PML

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Patrick Lien

Why don't someone put that on a patch to sell......

PML

I think that Destry dude could do it. "Who Needs a Puppy When You Got a Parker?"

[todd allen]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

I will say again, in gun collecting (and life in general), regret may be the strongest felt emotion. It's certainly one of the longest felt emotions. Todd, that one must truly haunt you.

Yes, that one haunts me. Even though it was close to 25 years ago, I should have bought that one. Funny thing is, if it were a 20 gauge, I would have been on it like a duck on a june bug. A 32" 20 gauge would have been a find.
My old friend, and PGCA member Chuck, was there and handled the gun as well, so I have someone to share the shame with.
BTW, I picked up a sweet little 0 Frame 16 hammer gun at the same shoot. 200 bucks.

[Garhart Stephenson]

The only Parker mistake I ever made was trying to buy a GH 16 ga. from Griffin & Howe last year. Barrels measured well below safe minimums. I was the second member here to buy and then send that exact gun back (found out when I posted about the gun here).

I ended up getting soaked for the shipping and insurance both ways, even though I brought it to their attention that they knew full and well it had been returned by the other gentleman and they insisted on passing it off on me anyway.

I know G&H has a gunsmithing department with the tools to measure that barrel set. Not sure what happened to the gun after I returned it. Hopefully they fit another set of barrels to it to render it safe and useable.

This deal soured me on G & H. I skip right past their listings on GI every time. I won't even consider purchasing from them after this ordeal. I however, am not soured on Parkers. I love my EH 10 a good deal and enjoyed taking my last 20 Canada geese with old damascus lady this past season.