Comparing a Parker, of any grade, to a Purdey is like comparing a Casio to a Rolex. If you dont get it, you never will. Sure they both keep time, in fact, the Casio probably keeps better time than the Rolex and with much less maintenance but the Rolexs quality, fit, finish, history, style, ergonomics, etc makes it what it is. Liken it to a new Toyota Carolla vs. a Aston Martin Db5. They both do virtually the same thing, the Toyota is probably hands down the cheaper, and much more sensible car...but the Aston, well, its an Aston.
If you havent ever seen a Purdey with its stock removed, just the inletting alone is light years ahead in overall quality over ANY Parker ever made. A lot of people dont understand what internal finish means. Its not just the polishing of parts. It includes shaping and fitting of the parts. Many times lock and action parts were shaped and styled in certain ways....just because it was a sign of quality and skill level. Gunmakers knew that hardly any customer would ever look inside the gun, and most customers would probably care less how the action bits were shaped up....but it mattered to the gunmaker. Tumblers are an example....most tumblers in English guns will be contoured and rounded off, shaped up and aesthetically pleasing to the eye...they certainly couldve left them blocky with edges, wouldnt have effected the function in the least....but they didnt. You have to see and and understand what the gunmaker did just because they could and wanted to and because thats how they insisted their guns be made. Thats the difference.
No, the bird getting killed and clay getting broken isnt going to know the difference, and if thats how you think about guns.....youve missed the entire point of this hobby fine guns . Thats the kind of argument someone who knows nothing about fine guns would use.
