doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker Butt Plate V at Heel Question

Can someone educate me on whether all original Parkers had the V portion of butt plate incorporated into the top heel of stock. I know Trojans did not come this way but what about V grade and above? were there any variations? Would the absence of this practice indicate a cut stock?

Tom

I am not aware of any without the widows peak. You might post the question over on the Parker chat board for an authorative answer. www.parkerguns.org

The Remington Parkers came with a dogs head buttplate without the widows peak. There was a transition period. I'm not sure of the years.
terc

All grades except Trojan had them. Up until the 1920's. Then none of them did. They still used the same styles of buttplates on the graded guns. Just without the spurs.

SSBP's always had a spur.

I could not quickly find the answer of exactly when the "widow's peak" was dropped from the Parker Bros. dogshead butt plates used on VH- to GHE-Grade guns in The Parker Story, but it was sometime after The Great War I believe. For sure by my 1930 vintage VH-Grade 20-gauge it was gone.

Thanks Gents, this info was very helpful given that the Parker I am looking at is a 1937 and Remington took over in 1930 which would explain Dogs head butt plate without widow's peak.

Commonly referred to as a "widow's peak" but another term less often used is the "spurred buttplate". Think of a farrier's spur with which he digs out clods and foreign matter from a horse's hoof. Parker Bros. began phasing out the spurred buttplate in the mid-1920's. However, the Grade 3 and higher guns with the skeleton steel buttplate retained the spur until the end of Remington production when they discontinued the Parker and curtailed production of most all sporting arms when the US became involved in WWII

too bad, the "spurred buttplate" provided another unique feature to the Parker allure. I guess labor costs reductions were in order at the time to make these well mfr guns more profitable for Parker. As I evaluated a 16ga VHE I assumed the stock was cut since this feature was absent.

I believe even after Parker discontinued the spur on the buttplate they did continue to cut the butt end of the wood with a slight curve. Most guns that have been cut will be straight cut. I can't imagine anyone cutting the same curve since it is a very difficult cut. Comments?

My 1929 VH is sans spur but retains the curved wood.

My '24 V still has the peak.