Parker Brothers Shotguns, Part One

From 1868 until 1934 when Remington took control of the company, and then until 1938 when the last Parkers were made by Remington, one of the world’s finest shotguns was made in the USA. Having gotten a taste for gun making during the Civil War for the Union, Connecticut entrepreneur Charles Parker decided to go into the gun making business. His goal wasn’t just to make another shotgun but to make the best shotgun in the world.

The fact that he succeeded is born out by the price a Parker Brothers gun still demands today. It was never a gun made and priced for the average guy. It was always a luxury item, even in the lowest grades. Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is that every gun was handmade. Every part was forged in house, filed, and hand fitted to the gun it would become part of. There was no automated assembly line and no concern for interchangeability of parts.

When you bought a Parker, you bought an individual work of art. From the very first step in the process when the work order came down to the factory, parts for the gun were handpicked and would stay with that gun until it was complete. For example, for each size of receiver the workman had to choose barrel blanks and a buttstock within a certain weight range to ensure that the gun would balance perfectly when finished.

The parts, once chosen, were numbered and stayed with the An example of the external upgrades of the models as they increase in price and detail. Top, is a Trojan, Middle a VH and Bottom a GH. gun through each step of its assembly. From the barrel shop to the stock shop everything traveled together. Under the skin, all Parkers were made exactly the same way. From the economy model Trojan to the one-of-a-kind gun made for the Tzar of Russia, every gun was hand built by craftsmen.

Internally, the gun you bought was made exactly the same way as the most expensive gun in the line. Yours may not have elaborate checkering on a spectacular Circassian walnut stock or hand cut floral engraving but inside the receiver every part was handmade and hand fitted into the very best mechanical device the craftsman could turn out.

Rigidly inspected at every stage of production until it passed the strictest standards, every finished gun faced final inspection by the head of the department and it is said few guns passed on the first inspection. The production method was time consuming, inefficient, and expensive but the result more than justified the price and the gun became a legend.

From top to bottom area Trojan (the least expensive model), a VH, and a GH. So, what does all this have to do with you? Well, what if I told you that you could buy a used genuine Parker shotgun for about the same price as a brand new double? Sound impossible? That is what I thought, however, there are generally a number of Parker shotguns out there for sale and prices range from around $500 to the astronomical.

You are not going to get one of the high grade guns at the lower end of the spectrum but you can get a gun that was built to the Even the plain Trojan with no other embellishment is marked with the company name. same standard as the most expensive gun in the line. Why? Because Parker collectors have no interest in any gun that has been modified. If the barrels have been cut, a recoil pad added, or the stock cracked, the serious collector doesn’t want anything to do with the gun.

These days when $800 is considered "affordable" and $1000 to $1500 "moderately" priced, you can regularly find Parkers in the Trojan, P, V, and Ggrades with barrels cut to 22-28 inches in that price range because the collectors don’t want them. When I started Cowboy Action Shooting and was looking for a shotgun I discovered that I could have a Parker or a Stoeger for about

On the rib the company name and the type of steel is marked and preceded and followed by the "flaming arrow". Center the same price. I ended up with a Parker Trojan for $600 that has never failed me. Now with the barrels cut the guns will have cylinder or IC chokes depending on how far they were cut but for Cowboy shooting or hunting doves, pheasants over dogs, quail, or most upland game taken within 25 yards that is all you need with today’s modern shells. Admittedly it is not a duck or goose gun anymore.

A word of caution is necessary. Many of the Parker guns were made with Damascus or twist steel barrels. These barrels can be beautiful with interesting patterns in the metal but they are not safe to shoot modern smokeless powder shells in. Any twist or Damascus barrels, no matter how great the condition, is safe with smokeless loads and are strictly a black powder proposition. Even light smokeless loads develop a much higher-pressure spike right after ignition than a black powder load so, please, don’t do it!

Fortunately, the two lowest grades of Parker were not made with Damascus barrels. The Trojan and the VH were only offered with fluid steel barrels so the gun you can afford should be fine, just have it checked as you would any used gun by someone qualified to give you the all clear before you shoot it. You have probably noticed I keep talking about double or side-by-side shotguns. That is because that was all that Parker made with the exception of a single barrel trap gun.

Bottom As parts were made and fitted to the gun they were marked with the serial number of the gun they were made for and fitted to.

They never made over and unders, pumps, or semi autos. For the entire history of the firm the double in side-by-side configuration was their specialty. They even made doublebarreled trap and skeet guns but with the one exception of one single barrel trap model, it was double or nothin’ if you wanted a Parker and it still is today. During its entire existence Parker produced approximately 200,000 guns.

After Remington bought the company and took over production the Parker was still made by hand and about 5,000 were produced before production was shut down for good in 1938. Parkers were still offered by Remington as late as 1940 but they disappear from the catalog after that.

Like so many of the independent gun makers, the Great Depression forced the sale of the company to a large manufacturer that had an extensive line of various types of guns to sustain it and the demands of the government during WWII brought an end to luxury products. There have been some Parker reproductions made in recent years but they have always been high grade guns marketed to people that are extremely well off. The economics of the Parker make it unlikely we will ever see the lower grades reproduced.

At least we won’t see them in the hand made and fitted quality of the original. The lowest priced Parker took eight weeks to manufacture! As I said, the manufacturing process they used was not efficient or rapid. They were in the business of selling quality, not quantity.

If you tried to build that gun today and your average salary for the craftsmen and women that hand made the gun was $52,000 a year or $1000 per week, you would have $8000 in labor alone in the price of the gun in the eight weeks it took to make it. By the time you add in materials, overhead, and salaries of everyone else in the company that have to be paid, along with a margin for profit, you could easily double or triple that before you got a retail price.

A plain Trojan at $16,000-$24,000 is simply not going to sell. So, if you’re in the market for the finest shotgun ever produced in the U. S. you might consider what a bargain $800-$1200 (depending on condition) for a Parker Trojan really is. Identifying Real Parkers People have been making and marking guns with the Parker name ever since the age of the hammered doubles. Many inexpensive Belgianmade hammer doubles are on the used gun market marked as Parkers and can fool a person that doesn’t know what to look for.

However, it’s really easy once you know a couple of things. First is that all guns made by Parker were marked "Parker Bros." on both sides of the receiver. The guns are also marked on the rib between the barrels and are usually printed "Parker Bros. Makers, Meriden Conn" followed by the kind of steel used for the barrels.

The Trojans will be marked "Trojan Steel", the Vmodels "Vulcan Steel", Dmodels marked "Titanic Steel" and the makers identification on the rib will be preceded and followed by a mark referred to as a feathered arrow. There are sometimes variations in these markings but the markings are always present except in extremely early guns and on the A-1 specials. The guns are serial numbered in four places.

On the trigger guard extension, the left side of the locking lug, the top of the forend iron, and the left side of the water table. As a matter of fact, most of the internal parts are numbered to the gun as well but you are not likely to have a seller willing to let you disassemble the gun so you can check. Directly under the serial number on the water table is a letter denoting the grade of the gun followed by an "E" if the gun has automatic ejectors.

The fake Parkers made in Belgium will have Belgian proofs on the bottom of the barrels. The one you are looking for will be an oval with the letter E over LG and a star. The oval may or may not have a crown on it. In either case, that mark tells you the gun was made in Belgium and passed the Banc D’Epreuves Des Armes a Feu De Liege (Proof House for Firearms of Liege) black powder proof test. That is the definitive proof the shotgun is not a true Parker Brothers-made gun. AG