Bill: I think there are a disproportionate number of "cherry" Late-Remington/Parkers that go up for sale in virtually new condition. If you agree, do you think these guns might have been bought on speculation as future collector's items by savvy individuals who saw the writing on the wall, which apparently Remington didn't see or refused to acknowledge?
When you consider the 180,000 hammerless made from 1888, and 140,000 plus Parkers made from the turn of the last century till production ceased during WWII, and the fact that Remington made less than 1,700 guns in Ilion, the Ilion guns at about 1% of production are not too hard to come by if one is willing to pay the price. I like them as shooters, given the latter-day metals. The ones I have owned have all been masterpieces of the gunmaker's art; whether they cost more to make than the market would bear is problematical. Mr. Carpenter in that famous letter to the Remington Society said that the public no longer valued the old way of making double-fit fine shotguns. C'est la vie! EDM
