Joe- this was an older D I believe grade Hsmmer Parker that Destry purchased from his friend and Phila. area shooting companion Dob Kass. It had sculpted fences, superior balance, straight hand stock and the hammers and trigger pulls were excellent- it had been some time since I shot any hammer double, we had one mis-fire from about 20 pre-war Remmie std 10- grren paper hulls and I "missed" a few-actually Destry saw some feathers fly- because it was stocked like a Trap or possibly a Live Birn gun, and I was shooting over the zooming birds. Also, if those shells had been 1.25 oz. of say, no 8 shot instead of no. 2 (lead of course) the pattern would have been deadlier for a smaller bird like a pigeon. If memory serves, there was a lot of action as you might guess, Destry re-tried that shell later and it did denotate in his gun. So there were some factors in "the miz"- I had bought, besides those Remmie 10's for his gun, about 5 boxes of the older Federal Copper plated over lead Premium- no. 8 in 1.25 oz. std 2/75" 12 gauge- Destry identified those as a "Great Live Pigeon Load"-found 'em on close out at a Mom & Pop store-if they had a case, I would have bought them all at $8.00/box- I shot my big Smith 12 fairly well, later Destry went to another fine Parker- a 12 DHE 32" DT- and we switched-his Parker and my Smith- That Smith, liike my Grade 2, has the older 3 way safety, and in that mileu, I kept it back to the rear non-auto position, his Parker DHE had the conventional auto safety, so we had to "adjust" to that. As we always broke and unloaded our guns as we moved between each of the 14 stations, as the saving goes "An open gun is a safer gun"--Oh, as you asked, as did I- his Hammer Parker 10 has the rebounding hammers, no need for a "half-cock" position-and he showed me the best way to "safe" such a gun: First remove the shells from the chambers, then close the gun with the hammers still back, hold each hammer as you squeeze the proper trigger and allow it to move forward to the striker, then open the empty gun and carry it with the hammers forward. I won't detail his Churchill 8 bore with the 36" barrels- a extraordinary fine boxlock double-a first for me, never have seen or handled, yet alone shot anything bigger than a std. 10 bore. Quite a day, wish you had been there- Destry is the "Real Deal", I understand you like to "rag on him" every now and then, but I'll tell you what's what- I would jog through a forest fire wearing a Kerosene speedo and Naplam flip-flops to shoot with him again, anywhere, anytime. Fortunately, looks like Chuck is going to host another one in late April, already planning to attend. If you decide to give it a "Go" come on up "Nawth" to my digs- I've got a unopened bottle of Rebel Yell a former neighbor gave me years ago we can test- AFTER the shoot!! Fox
