doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker Trojan

I have three Parker's, and two LC'S and other side by sides and love them all. my feelings are that between 1900 and 1950 we produced the most classic and best american firearms we have ever produced. I don't believe we should call a Trojan a club. I leave that designation to the mossburg 835, killed a lot of ducks and geese with two of them in the blind, never failed me, but oh, they were truly clubs.

Club - NO. Just because some of you like some light weight girly gun,lets not call a well made American SxS a club. A couple of years ago a good friend and I decided to attend the Southern SxS Shoot. There he bought this nice, light weight Johnson, a English made gun. One of those " wands " as some of you like to think of them. We had my trunk open and our two guns leaning against it as we were getting some shells to shoot. Now he just had it about 10 minutes - and the two guns both slid off to the side, his gun landing on top of mine on the ground. After a couple of choice words we picked them up. There was a dent in his barrels. I said with a smile " didn't hurt my Parker boat anchor. " After a " fu** you " from him, we found a nice fellow under the LC Smith tent to removed the dent. Moral of the story - if you want a wand with light thin barrels, fine. If you want a gun that weighs a bit more with thick barrels that were made for the American sportsmen that would shoot heavy duck and goose loads, that's fun to shoot a hundred birds of SC's and not beat you to death, that you're not constantly worrying about denting, etc, etc, then buy a "club." I like my Parkers and Remingtons just fine, thank you. To each their own.

Parker Brothers lost money on every Trojan made because the workers put the same care in making the internal parts as they did the high grade guns. They had the cheaper to make snap on forearm, plainer wood, no engraving, and plain steel barrels. For shooting they were every bit as good as a high grade gun. All my Parkers are hammer guns, but the wife has a nice Trojan with a extra set of barrels she uses for skeet or SC's. It shoots nice.

Just as an aside and in regards to clubability, I found this in Charles Askin's "Modern Shotguns and Loads"; "Parkers are made in all gages, from the 410 up. They make guns as light as shotguns should be made, but have never favored feather-weight arms in any bore. While the Parker might not out-shoot other double guns it will shoot as well as any, and every Parker gun will shoot about the same as any other. Poor shooting Parkers are a very rare thing, if there are any." Seems reasonable, though the intrinsic handling of an English/Scottish made gun is without question.

16ga Trojan, 6lbs 9oz with a Redhead pad and stock extension. Not a wand, maybe, but not a club either...

A nice gun and a nice Derrydale. I think the 16 gauge has a following because of the purple shells. Kidding. A nice contrast of colors.

A rich Tory, heavy construction man who argued fiercely with me (as a reporter and liberal) whenever I visited him confided to his wife to give me the pick of his rack of great shotguns and rifles when he died. I chose the least expensive shotgun, an 1889 Parker 16ga hammer 0 grade. None of my American classics were produced after 1938 (a 12ga LC Specialty) and none of my European good ones after l914 but when it comes to magic handling it's the Parker 16. I showed it to Destry when he was here tub-shooting a few years ago.

It sounds beautiful.

Parker briefly made a Trojan Skeet gun

OK Mr. Brown, I'll bite. What's "tub shooting?"