How are taste’s and needs change with time

[Don Strelioff]

I went into a local gun shop today for a casual look on the used gun rack first two that caught my I was a win model 12 field grade 28” mod nice clean gun 500$
The second was a real nice model 12 duck gun trap grade it had a solid rib and the upgraded wood very nice gun , $500 not sure how they came up with the pricing.
My point being that normally I would have been all over the duck gun I have shot model 12’s all my life starting at age 12ish
I had no trouble leaving them in the store I bought my first parker 8 or 9 yrs ago
and they are my go to field guns . The model 12’ S felt wrong .

[Stan Hillis]

You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

I'd wouldn't have left without that trap grade 12, at $500.

[Michael D Hankinson]

This is a crazy time on the Model 12s, prices are all over the map. I read all the ads for them back in the early 1950's, I still have a 16 and a 20 that work for me. I sold my 12 ga "Turkey Gun" a while ago due to recoil on the shoulder that had problems anyway. The shoulder, not the Model 12. My old Lefever double is now my Turkey gun.

[Bill Murphy]

In Don's defense, I am sure he knew that the "trap grade" magnum Model 12 was a put together gun at best and a fake at its worst. I has no collector value and would be a drug on his collection. Additionally, the field grade is as common as weeds in your lawn and would also just take up room in his collection. Nothing wrong with Model 12s sharing space with your Parkers, but they should be good ones with collector interest. OK, Don, tell us about your Parkers.

[Researcher]

I am sure he knew that the "trap grade" magnum Model 12 was a put together gun at best and a fake at its worst.

In the 1936, 1937 and 1938 Winchester catalogs on the Model 12 Heavy Duck page it states that it can be had in Standard, Standard Trap, Special Trap and Pigeon Grades. In the 1939 catalog it states under the Heavy Model 12 Duck Gun "Standard Grade as shown--Trap Gun or Pigeon Grade.

By the 1941 catalog one could get his or her Model 12 Duck with checkered stock and forearm for $3.03 extra, with checkered stock and forearm of semi-fancy walnut for $9.28 extra, or checkered stock and forearm of full-fancy walnut (includes hand smoothed working parts) for $18.16 extra. Same as above with extension slide handle $5.30, $11.55 or $20.43 extra.

Such a fancy Model 12 Heavy Duck Gun languished at Krasne's Sporting Goods in San Diego most of the three years I was there.

[Don Strelioff]

The duck gun is not a fake I have owned 3 such guns in the last 35 years at my high point I had 33 model 12’s
I now have a deluxe 20 ga 1959 ish solid rib gun and a 26” mod choke16 ga solid rib field gun
Living in western Canada model 12’s have always been inexpensive
In 1987 ish I bought a 1948 pigeon gun with b carved wood and a standard trap stock that gun won mean lots of money at ata trap shoots

[Don Strelioff]

As far as Parker’s I have mentioned them on a few threads
1928 Vhe 30”bbl 12 ga 1 1/2 frame
1919 PH grade 26” bbl choked imp mod and lite mod number 1 frame
1923 GH 20 ga 26” bbl imp mod and imp mod possibly full and full Damascus bbl no 0 frame
Not sure of the date a Trojan 16 ga 28” bbl no 1 frame
I have been looking at a number 2 frame DHE 12ga 30” bbl
Not sure what to do about this one nice condition non original butt stock but a nice gun at a fair price .

[Alfred Greeson]

Many of us grew up shooting Model 12's. The family could afford them but not a Parker. I once bought a nice 20 ga. over the phone and had my Father pick it up. I was away at college and my Mother called to say my Father was upset over me buying the M 12, seems I jumped ahead of him with my phone call. The only time we ever got cross on a gun deal so I traded it to him for a L C Smith 20 that I couldn't hit the side of a barn with. I had to wait 35 years to inherit that M 12. I now have three but would still like to find a heavy duck gun but love my Parkers too.

[Alfred Greeson]

I think we have it pretty good. The guns we grew up with were for putting food on the table. My grandfather shot everything with a stevens 410 and would have had a serious conversation with me if he could see my Parkers or what I paid for them. But, we live good, enjoy those Parkers but shoot an old M 12 if you get a chance.

[Craig Larter]

As a young man in the 1960's I cut my teeth shooting my fathers Browning Sweet 16. At that point in my life my dream gun was a Browning Superposed but it was way out of reach. After college and my first job my first purchase was a Winchester 101 20ga. Pheasants were still abundant in western NY and 20's could still be used with lead for ducks. I then became a Ruger Red Label fan for a decade while hunting in coastal NJ. Back to western NY in the middle 80's and I went on a Winchester 23 kick for duck hunting. In the late 80's I got the AH Fox bug from my uncle who shot Fox guns. During the 90's and early 2000's I really got the Fox sickness and started the AH Fox collectors association and accumulated a nice grouping. About 10 years ago I bought my first Parker a CH 12ga with Bernard barrels, then the Parker bug really hit. Today my interest is waterfowl guns from the early part of the 20th century but I am not a one brand collector, they all interest me. My favorites are Fox. Parker, LC Smith, Lefever and Remington especially Model 11F's, E's and D's.