Ball grips on hammerless parkers?

[King Cobb]

I had had the opinion that ball grips were just on hammer parkers, however, with perusing of photos in the albums I am encountering several hammerless parkers with ball grips. I personally think the ball grip is superior looking to the end cap, and I am certain it cost more to make, but is their a certain vintage of hammerless parker that is more common with the ball grip or was it just an option some chose on a small number of hamerless guns?

[Bill Murphy]

It is an option that is requested on the order. However, late .410 skeet guns seemed to have ball grips more often than anyone would have ordered. I have owned ball grip hammerless guns that did not show up on the order. Some "ordered" guns, however, were pulled from stock if the gun matched a good part of the requested order.

[B. Dudley]

True "ball grips" were used on pretty much only hammer guns. Some very early hammerless guns also have a similar larger ball grip. Most uncapped pistol grip hammerless guns from the turn of the century forward had ball grips that were smaller or more of a half grip type. Understand what I am getting at?
Basically, hammer guns used a very large round knob grip than hammerless guns.

In my opinion, the uncapped pistol grip on hammerless Parkers is more rate than straight grip guns. Or at least less commonly seen these days.

[C.O.B.]

I have a CHE Damascus barreled 20ga with a ball grip. I believe the serial number is under 100K but I haven't looked at it since the end of bird season....but that's about to change here shortly

[Bill Murphy]

Brian brought up a good point. A true "ball grip" on the early guns is more pronounced at the ball end than are the ball grips on later hammerless guns. However, Parker Brothers used the term "ball grip" on the later guns also.

[B. Dudley]

I believe the technical term for all of them is "Uncapped Pistol Grip". Or just "Pistol Grip". This comes from how the records are filled out.

Chuck, if you are readin this thread, what different grip styles have you seen specifically called out in the Stock and Order books?

[Researcher]

I think the later half-pistol grip of hammerless guns is being confused with the ball-grip of hammer guns.

In looking through some Parker Bros. catalogue repros in my collection, the pre-ejectors "blue ink" catalogue says "straight or pistol grip" throughout.

The next catalogue which includes ejectors, says "straight, pistol or half-pistol grip" for the A1-Special and AAH, and "straight or pistol grip" for the lower grades, except VH which says "pistol or straight grip."

By the "Pine Cone" catalogue "straight, pistol or half-pistol" has filtered all the way down to PH-Grade.

The grip offerings in the "Flying Brandt" catalogue, the first to include the Trojan Grade, are the same.

The 1923 pocket catalogue again only mentions half-pistol grip for the AAH and A1-Special grades.

The 1927 pocket catalogue only mentions "straight or pistol grip" throughout.

The 1929 "Flying Geese" catalogue mentions "straight, full pistol or half pistol grip" down to the DH-Grade; and "straight or pistol grip" for the GH-, PH- and VH-Grades.

The 1930 pocket catalogue again only says "straight or pistol grip" from A 1 Special to VH-Grade

Finally the big 1937 Remington catalogue offers "any style of grip" on most grades and spells all three out on a couple of grades.

None of these catalogues picture a gun with anything but a straight grip or a capped full pistol grip.

So, guess that was a waste of my time!!

[Dean Romig]

As I understand it, the "Ball Grip" was almost exclusive to the hammer guns and I have a couple of examples in my safes of hammer guns with original stocks with both ball grips and half pistol grips.

[King Cobb]

That is the understanding I had Dean, but there are several posts I have read streaming through the archives and older posts about people who own hammerless guns with ballgrips.

I personally wish that Parker had kept the ballgrip. Back in highschool I was shooting at the Texas 4-H state Shotgun games in san antonio and one of the kids I talked to was shooting a english best gun(his father's idea-not mine) and I remember really liking the way a ball grip felt in my hand. I don't know maybe its my big hands, but they reallly appeal to me.

[Bill Murphy]

Brian, in the Remington era, the "B" notation is mentioned in the Serialization Book. There may have been earlier mentions. You are correct in saying that many round grips in the hammerless era had the "P" code in the Serialization Book. I'm not sure whether that was a default entry or an actual reference to round knob pistol grips. If you will look in the SB, you will see many more "Ps" than you will see round knob pistol grips. Don't believe every "P" you see in the Serialization Book.