Re: Parker "Gun ledger" listing

[Alakazam]

I have read on web-sites and auction descriptions of Parkers that, after a very thorough review of gun's make-up, that it "is not listed in the Parker Gun Identification and Serialization ledger"... others will state that the gun in
question "is listed ...et al...". Would appreciate some clarification on being, or
not being, listed in the ledger. Thanks! ...my first "post"... hope I did it
correctly... Charles

[Autumn Daze]

Charles, What they are referring to is "The Parker Gun Indentification and Serialization Book" published by Blue Book Publications. They are available from them and also occasionally on-line. This is a great book to have along with the other books on the Parker Gun. But "The Parker Story" by Price,Mullins et al are second to none.

[Dennis]

Charles apparently some of the original Parker Company records are missing. The Parker Gun Identification and Serialization book has some beautiful photos in the front section of the book and then goes on to list each Parker shotgun consecutively by serial number. It will list the grade, action type, extras, stock type, bore size and length of barrels. Some gun information is missing from THAT book due to the missing records. However those guns may very well have records available so that you could submit a request for a factory letter and receive information on a particular gun. So just because the records are not available in TPS does not mean absolutely no information is available. I hope I described that correctly.

Dennis

[Pa SxS]

I'll give you the brief explanation. You can use the search function to view previous threads on the Serialization Book and Order and Stock books.

The Serialization Book was made up by recording all the S/N's and options found in the Stock Books plus some S/N's of high grade guns that were found in the Order Books but were missing in the Stock Books. Remember, we don't have a complete set of Stock and Order books. There are gaps.

Your best bet if you want info on a particular gun is go to the PGCA home page, click on the Research Letters link on the left hand side, follow the instructions and it will tell you if we have surviving records for the gun. We may only have Order Book info, only Stock Book info, or info in both the Stock and Order Book.

[Researcher]

One other source of information is the PGCA's cache of Work Tags that followed the guns through the production cycle, also accessable by a link from the Research Letter section of the web site.

[Bill Murphy]

Thanks, Dave. Another source is the Griffin and Howe Research List, available on their website.