Someone who knows looked at the gun and said it was a redone both stock and barrel. If it is redone but looks new and is a 1908 or 1910 gun what might it be worth and also if the chambers are orig. would they be 2 3/4 or shorter? I wonder if $1500 would be a reasonable price.
Murphy: Now we are getting somewhere. For the record I sold an all original 95% case colors ca.1905 VH 30-inch F&F 12-bore for $4,000 about 3 years ago, I bought a nice Trojan 12-bore shooter in used but not abused condition at the Vintage Cup two years ago for $850--used but not abused means that it was never so used-up that it had to be rehabilitated "both stock and barrel." As to a ca.1908-10 gun, the wear slug in the back of the barrel lump can be a marker: 1905-09 = flat, 1910 et seq it is faceted, or a pre-1910 barrel set may have been re-worked for the later-day slug, but this would have involved matching the internal toggle. Parker Guns made after 1905 reflect an era of more modern metalurgey...
As the story goes, Henry Ford was at an auto race in 1904 or early '05, and there was a wreck. He watched the mechanics take apart the engine and noticed that the hard parts (rods, wrist pins, crank journals) reflected a technology not known in America at the time---vanadium alloy steel---which quickly transformed how certain hard parts of auto engines and gun actions were made in America. Thus the Wright Bro's really got flying in 1908 (with a better/lighter engine), coincidental with Mr. Ford's Model T (with a reliable 4-banger). Parker Bro's re-engineered the wear slug and toggle and associated top lever and connections in vanadium steel, which, surprisingly, was never touted or even mentioned in Parker ads until the late 1920s and early 30s.
Now you have a bit of history, and should understand that there is an abundance of good info to be had. But case on point, I suggest you go to parkergun.org and try to hook up with someone in real life near where you live who can give you some first-person hands-on advice. There are about 1,100 PGCA members nationwide, and some of them are actually experts who could, upon viewing the gun, say "go" or "no-go."
Keep in mind that it is much easier to buy a gun than sell it. With re-done stock and barrels it is strictly a shooter, and I bought a more-modern (1920s) Trojan for $850 at the Vintage Cup (on Sunday at 5 pm from a dealer). I believe there is too much discussion of chambering and chokes and too little about safe barrel thickness, especially when the barrels were, as you said, "redone." Be advised that redoing barrels does not enhance barrel thickness and safety. Ask yourself these questions: (1) "What am I gonna do with a $1,500 mistake?" (2) "Having blown my $1,500 wad, what will I do if an obviously better gun comes along?"
Number (2) happened to me back in the mid-'70s, when I had just spent $900 for my first Parker, a Trojan 20 bore (which I never liked to shoot). Days later a VH 16-bore, zero frame, 26-inch cut barrels appeared in the classifides of the Rockford newspaper (of all places!) for $650. I was able to stretch the budget and buy the VH, which I loved, and later, to my regret, sold to Herschel Chadick for $700. I never regretted selling the Trojan 20 bore. In other words, if Murphy can spend $1,500 on the subject VH and still have $$$ for a better gun that crops up soon, that's a whole different situation than tapping out a credit card at 28% interest to shake loose $1,500 cash. There is no answer---Murphy has a vested interest in a certain VH that he is unable to evaluate; he virtually begs for someone on this Forum to say, "go for it," and is apparently unwilling to seek better advice beyond this Forum.
Finally, please be advised that a gun that
needed to be redone to look like new is often like a car that was "redone" by Macco: A repainted clunker is not "like new," no matter how it looks on the surface. But Alas! The faith that some people bestow on the Internet... EDM
