I came across a gun locally that I think must be pretty unique. It books as a:
VH- 12ga
Straight stock
Beavertail fore end
26" tubes
single trigger
ejectors

Now I can't imagine there were many guns ordered with these specs, right? That said, I can't say I'm interested in owning a gun like this. So do you guys ever buy guns because they are unique, or do you just buy guys that you think you will enjoy shooting?

If it is all original, yes there were not many made like that. Sounds like a skeet gun. As far as your question as to "why", my answer is yes. I buy guns that are unique and that I'll enjoy shooting.

Agree with eeb that it sounds like a skeet gun. If you can date it by the SN and it's late 20's or 30's, chances are pretty good that the individual who ordered it had skeet in mind.

A VH in that configuration would be very scarce, possibly unique. I would rather find a unique or unusual Parker than one I can shoot well. I have all the Parker shooters I will ever need. The one I shoot the most is a worn VH I purchased for $400 and I would lose money if I sold it.

If the gun has ejectors it is a VHE-Grade. Parker Bros. and later the Remington Parker probably did more unique things in order to satisfy a customer's requests then any other American company. If the gun in question is a Remington era Skeet Gun the chokes would be marked on the barrel flats as "Skeet In" and "Skeet Out". Also, the catalogue specs for a Parker Skeet Gun called for a bare wood checkered butt in the VHE- and GHE-Grades.

A friend who was a pilot in my squadron and later a Secret Service agent had a 12-gauge VHE-Grade with all the features of a late Remington Parker Skeet gun but it was choked full and fuller?!?

One, of the many guns I've always kicked myself for not buying, was a plain 12-gauge, VH-Grade, double trigger, full pistol grip, slim forearm gun, but with the one option of a ventilated rib! Saw it at the Rose City gun show maybe 30 years ago.

If it "books" as a VH...etc. it seems that you looked up the serial number in the Serialization Blue Book. Why are you withholding this most important vital statistic?

As to a "VH" Skeet Gun with SST, BTFE, 26-inch bbls, and SG...I wish my 1936 Rem./Parker VHE Skeet Gun didn't have the "E" for ejectors. If the un-serial-numbered "VH" is, in fact, a factory standard Skeet Gun without ejectors it would be rare, because the average American always was (and is) charmed by useless bells and whistles, chrome fins on cars, and in today's vernacular: BLING.

It seems to me that the last thing a skeet shooter needs on a purpose-built skeet gun is a delicate, complicated, prone to failure and hard to repair dual-sear spring-loaded-system to distribute spent shells on the ground where somebody has to pick them up, usually the owner if he reloads his own shells. I'm thinking of disabling the ejectors on my 80% original Skeet Gun: Will that make it a VH?

Investigation continues. EDM

OMG Ed, DON'T DO THAT! As you know, you'd destroy the gun's originality and any collector value---you'll never be able to sleep at night.

Years ago when I was shooting a lot of Skeet my primary shotgun was an Ithaca SKB over/under with ejectors. I just put my hand over the chambers and "caught" the empties which,at least to me, was easier than fishing them out of an extractor gun. Am I the only one who doesn't see ejectors as a problem?
N.B: I also felt I was way ahead of the Remington 1100 owners what always had to pick up their empties.

Jim

I don't see what's so unique about it. It seems like almost every Julia Auction has a gun that fits that description. Not common, but certainly can't be one of a kind.

Any Parker in Good condition seems to be highly valued these days. It seems rare enough that it's worth having especially if it's in good shape.

StormsGSP, if you decide to pass on the Parker please let me know where it is. I'd like to have a look at it.

Dean

When in doubt, do nothing, is a good policy. So I'll leave it alone. But I have noticed on my Parker C-grade SBT and on every other Parker SBT that I have handled that the factory standard single ejector is disabled.

Someone else posted that he works around the ejector feature by trying to cover and catch the shells with his hand so they don't go ejecting hither and yon. This is sort of like solving a self-inflicted problem such like wearing a helmet when you beat yourself on the head with a hammer.

Here I thought we were talking about a dedicated skeet gun (or trap like my SBT, or sporting clays, or a live bird gun for that matter), where rapid second loading is not part of the game. I can see where those who prefer fast action shooting at ducks and upland game birds might think ejectors increase their bag, but so would an automatic or pump if filling the air with lead was the goal.

It has been my experience that my GH "Old Reliable" would not do any better for me if I could rapidly eject shells and reload in a split second sooner. But that's just me. One of my first DGJ articles 15 years ago was in praise of extractors. I hunt my own farms and the last thing I want is plastic shells with a 500-year half-life scattered all over my property. Likewise in the duck blind; chasing around in the swamp after empties is not my thing.

Actually the only instance where I saw any use for ejectors was in the live-bird pigeon ring, where a single shooter stands to the mark, calls Pull! Bang! Bang! And then tries to hit the spent-shell barrel with his ejected empties. The idea was that if you lost your bird but hit the barrel with both shells it was some consolation; miss the barrel and it gives the bird boys something to do. EDM

I'm not entirely sure that was a serious warning, and the "winking smiley" adds support to that conclusion. If you remove the required parts to disable the ejectors and keep them safe for later re-installation, who cares? You have not altered the gun in any way provided that you don't damage screws, etc. I don't own an ejector Parker, but if I did I'd disable the ejectors right after I verified that they were working properly, and keep the parts in a safe place properly labeled. I have one ejector gun, a Browning O/U, and I have perfected the hand-catch method, but what's the point of having ejectors if you don't want the shells thrown out on the ground? I like the idea that ejectors add value to a vintage gun, but personally I'd rather have that value added in the form of a higher Grade or Condition.

Any experienced shooter has long ago learned to catch empties without it becoming a chore. Working ejectors put the shells into the hand without having to pick them out. By the way, Ed has shot at my pigeon club where gentlemen deposit their empties, two at a time, into the proper receptacle, by hand. It seems to be a matter of courtesy, which I have also seen on the International Skeet field. Not all shooters participate, but it is refreshing to see such behavior.

Jim, I agree with you about holding your hand over the gun to catch the empties. I used a 20 ga. Winchester 101 and a 28 ga. Beretta BL-4 for my skeet guns and never had a problem cupping the ejectors.
I do the same in the field with all my ejector guns.

True story. I was using my GH then. The "hitting the barrel" story was from DogWood, and while I was still owning and shooting my DHE Trap (which Destry relieved me of).

An addendum to disabling ejectors and using them as extractors, my ca.1896 BH had retro-ejectors installed for some dumb reason in the 1950s, which never worked properly (per letter provenance), and were disabled when I bought the gun in 1996. Ejectors operating as extractors have too little travel to present the spent shell properly (based on the BH instance). Whether this is endemic to all Parker ejectors, or just those installed by Lefever of NY on referral from Remington just before DelGrego got involved is problematical. It seemed to me at the time that the easy fix would have been to braze a slight extension on the end of the rod that pushes the shell when the gun opens. Destry bought the gun and I think he made the fix... EDM

The DHE Trap is breaking clays for somebody else these days. It magically turned into a 34 inch DHE, straight grip, splinter, double triggers, on a #3 frame.

DLH