Parker Executive: "Damn, sales are slow, what's up with that?"
Marketing guy: "Everybody that can afford our guns has one. And you build them so well they last forever so there is no replacement market."
Parker Executive: "Well, that is why we sold so many."
Marketing guy: "I had a thought last night while I was dealing Three Card Monte. What if we started telling everybody that those Damascus barrels were dangerous with the modern slightly higher pressure shells?"
Parker Excutive: "That would be dishonest! I couldn't do that!"
Marketing guy: "No problem Boss! That is my job!"
-----------------
So someone spends half a day and $300 with a gunfitter.
Gunfitter: "14 x 1-1/2 x 2-1/2."
Client: "What! That is what I have been shooting since I was 12 - same dimensions as the Remington 1100 I started out with. You don't know what you are doing. My buddy got a gunfitting and he was prescribed 15-3/32 x 1-7/32 x 1-51/64 x 9/32 castoff-toe x 35/64 castoff-heel x 1-125/128 pitch. And his fitter had an English accent so of course he knew what he was doing!"
Gunfitter thinks: "Note to self; In the future do not prescribe dimensions that are standard, out of the box. Must be exotic. Also work on developing an English accent"
----------------------------------------
My Parker VHs with original factory buttplates (several) all have at least 14"LOP except for one.
Anyone that believes 14 x 1-3/4 x 2-3/4 can't be shot well never took the time to shoot a flat of shells through a quality gun stocked to those dimensions.
The latest marketing hype is manifest in the new trend for 16" LOP on bird guns. You will see it creeping in slowly. The next thing you know Ted will be extolling the advantages of the 2" extension he had fitted to his custom stocked Darne.
