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Anyone have any experience and opinions on the new Parker over/under currently built in Ct. ?

It's a travesty and an abomination. I have little doubt the ghost of Charles Parker has some ass-kickin' planned over that one.

Blasphemy comes to mind, however I am willing to listen to anyone with actual hands on experiance with these guys- haven't heard much... Anybody own one?

Saw one, at the Grand, two years ago. Was not that impressed for the money. They did not have one to try shooting a round of trap. They had, what I suspect, was their prototype. For that much money you can get several more proven guns. Fit and finish was fine, as you would expect of any gun in this price range. I did not think that it was the cats meow or even out of the ordinary in todays gun world. Now had it been made it 70 or more years ago they would have been a step ahead of the other O/U's, but who are we really talking about? The Browning Super and maybe the Remington 32 as their only real competition. Both of them are dated by todays designs.

Now if you think that you have to have the O/U that Parker wished it could have built, or a O/U that they might have built, or were just considering building, then go ahead. But calling it a Parker or putting Parker on the side no more makes it a Parker that putting Fox on it would make it a Fox. A never built design is still just that to me, never really built by the original maker. This is no more real than the Parker 28's Remington is having made. I know they are all sold this year, but they are not real Parkers and Remington owned Parker at the end. So if they can not make a "real Parker", which was once really made by Parker and then later Remington, why does some one else claim to be able to when the gun they are making never existed except on paper?

Did this design actually exist on paper in th eoriginal Parker Bros. Co??

I thought this gun was just a modern interpretation of what was thought they might have built.

Educate me.

Jeff

It would be the first I've heard of it, Jeff. It was my impression that it was a new, modern design. The only thing I know of that it has in common with the original company is the recessed hinge pin, the shameless use of the name, and the hometown. I disagree with the way KY Jon worded his post, although he may have meant something more like the following (or not!): He said it is no more Parker than Remington's new Parker. I say it is much less, in fact. At least Remington did buy the company and their new product is an exact copy of the original design.

I disagree that the Parker that "Remington is having made" is in the same category as the new over under. The Remington Parker's only defect is the price. Mr. Galazan would be anyone's choice to build Remington's new offering. Are we also going to be critical of the wonderful Parker Reproductions? Get serious, Tony's new gun and the Repro are both excellent efforts, one a bargain. By the way, some of us spent an hour or so with the new over under on the five stand at the Vintagers. I was under 12 gauge profile at the time, so did not shoot it, but others did and we spent a good hour going over the gun. The shooting prototype was my kind of gun, a hefty, long barrel example (30 or 32, I don't recall) with adjustable stock. The makers were neighbors of our PGCA booth at Millbrook so we spent four full days within reaching distance of the gun. I won't do a review here, will only say that they will sell the gun to anyone who thinks that it may be for him. I would assume someone will be shooting the gun on all three major competitive circuits this or next year. I offered my services, but don't expect to hear back. Bill Murphy

The new Parker SxS is far closer to God than the "Parker Bros" O/U but at the end of the day it's just another reproduction. A gun which has been re-produced.

Who would be a better choice than Tony Galazan to build the gun? How about REMINGTON? Last I checked they have been known to build a gun or two. Farming out your gun's production is like your wife having someone else birth her child because she doesn't want to go through the trouble of actually having one herself.

A Parker built by the same shop floor that builds Winchester 21's and Foxes would have the good folks of Meriden rolling over in their graves. Anyone who thinks other has never spent any time in manufacturing and knows nothing of the pride that exists on even the most mundane production line.

The employees at Remington built some wonderful Parkers in the late thirties. By the early forties, there were numerous phases of the Parker manufacturing process that had been lost in a sea of confusion caused by wartime Springfield production, mistreated and misplaced machinery as well as employee retirements and job changes. The reintroduction project of the late eighties only confirmed the suspicion that Parkers could not be made on a part time basis by people trained on other projects. It is rumored that the handful of 1988 vintage Parkers that actually reached a completed state were not brought to that level entirely by Remington employees. None of the parts were made by Remington Arms Company. The workers at Remington today cannot begrudge the fact that employees in a boutique gun shop are building the new Parker AAHE. They are too busy wondering where they will be working and what trade they will be working at two years from now. Mr. Galazan's employees know exactly what they will be doing two years from now as long as they set the alarm before going off to bed.

...but Mr. Galazan's used gun sales-people are twits.
I called, and hung-up.
Most likely the RBL thing thats been going around thats got 'em in such a bad mood!