Your intro to Parkers and your first Parker

[George Lander]

I like the Brit. He/She looks ready to go! George

[Double Play]

Originally Posted by George Lander

I like the Brit. He/She looks ready to go! George

Thanks George,
That was last fall in New Brunswick. She was 18 months old and on her first "going away hunt". Because the camps dog (a 4 yo Britt) injured a leg and couldn't hunt Miss Shea got to hunt a lot more than expected. She lost a few pounds on that trip but gained a ton of experience and we will be doing it again this fall.

[bob weeman]

I grew up around Parkers but never owned one until 10 or so years ago. In the little town of Bridgton, Maine was a shop called the Sportsmans Exchange. Run by Bill Fitzcharles. It was a great store for a youngster interested in the outdoors. Guns, fishing equipment, traps, camping gear and anything else you could ever need. Also, one of those places where folks gathered and a youngster could learn alot if he kept quiet and just listened. Hunting lore, war stories, women (too young to have any understanding there at the time and have learned little else since). He was also a Parker collector. There was a glass case of them. All gauges if I remember correctly. Lots of old Winchester lever actions. 8 gauge single of some type hanging from the ceiling. Huge brown trout mounted to the wall. I almost bought a Model 1895 in 405 with my summer work money for $75. Purchased a 1903 sporterized Springfield in 30-338 instead. The word magnum was the selling point for a youngster with little knowledge. I wish I could remember all the Parkers that went through there. It was a great place to visit and all there were very eager to answer any questions and help the youngsters to bring them into the sport. Finally got my one Parker....A GH someone added a Monte Carlo comb to (it fits perfectly). Still searching for the next....would love a heavy framed 20 guage....love the look of those bank vault thick barrels and just shoot heavier guns better....

[Dean Romig]

Hi Bob - was that the store diagonally across from the IGA that Stephen King made famous in "The Mist"?

[bob weeman]

It sure was Dean....did you ever get to visit it?

[charlie cleveland]

that the kind of store i wish i had lived close too..sure is a shame thier all but gone the way of the buffalo....charlie

[Dean Romig]

Just a few times in the late sixties and seventies. They had everything!

Kathy's family summered in Bridgeton for decades at Salmon Point on Long Lake and I spent lots of time there with them. We may know some of the same people.... Bridgeton is a small town. My brother-in-law Jamie worked as a deck hand on the Songo River Queen for four summers and took his Dad's Penn Yan to work from Bridgeton to Naples every day and I think he might have a few children in those towns somewhere.

[Craig Larter]

Bridgeton ME. Wow does that bring back memories. My family camped at sebago state park for 20 plus years. I think I remember that store on the right side of 302, green front as I recall. At the bottom of the second hill in town if you were heading west. We went to Bridgeton once a week to shop at the supermarket.

[Mike Franzen]

When I was growing up I was far more interested in taking the game (primarily quail and grouse) than I was in what I was taking it with. I would just grab my Grandads 20 ga Remington 1100 and be off. The first time I ever used a double was on a crow hunt at the county dump. I needed a 12 gauge and a neighbor let me use his old Stevens model 215 "rabbit ear" gun. Several years later I was going to a turkey / trap shoot and again wanted to use a 12. A fellow I worked with loaned me a German double with Krupp steel barrels that he brought back from WWII. After that, single barrel guns lost their luster. I decided I wanted a double of my own so I found an old gentleman who had a 20 gauge Stevens model 315 that had belonged to his wife and we struck up a deal. Over the years I upgraded it with a new stock, recoil pad, case coloring, rust blued barrels, engraving and gold wedding bands around the breech. Then I read a book titled, The Parker Gun ... and I was hooked. I found 12088, grade 2 hammer gun with 28" bbls in an estate in Vermont, bought it, shot several thousand rounds through it, got a letter and will never sell that gun.

[C.O.B.]

It's interesting to follow the evolution of our own shooting preferences. A lot of us started out with some sort of repeater be it a pump in a M12, 870 ect or an auto. I have gone through the M12 phase and the Browning A5's to using nothing but a double. My first shotgun was a Ranger 20ga pump with a Poly choke. That gun would hold 6 shells and with the adjustable choke I was ready for anything. My how times have changed.