Miller, are you suggesting that Olin used a Trojan as the Parker Brothers representative in the "test"? I really don't think that the Trojan is any weaker than any other Parker. The standard Parker doll's head is not a functional locking mechanism, in my opinion. Many special order Parker competition guns were made without doll's heads for whatever reason, and they were not disrespected by Parker gunsmiths or their users. I have never seen a Trojan without doll's head or extension rib that showed wear in excess of a similarly used Parker with square edge doll's head. A Sherman Bell type of test, conducted today, may prove or disprove John Olin's destruction test results. I see no reason to include the Brummy examples, but a test among mint or near mint examples of L.C.Smith, NID, A.H.Fox, and Model 21 would be interesting. A sidelock Lefever would be an interesting addition to the test, but the early demise of that model would have made the result of little interest to John Olin. The unfortunate fact is that Dan Cote's payment would probably not cover the price of the handloaded ammunition, much less the cost of the guns destroyed.
Last edited by eightbore; 01/23/07 10:40 AM.
