I hadnt seen one before. Cabelas has one. Its a lot lower quality than the B grades or even the lower grades that I have.
Ross
Cabelas S grade
$3000. for a lower quality Baker? Astonishing. david
reb87, S Grades are in the time range of the R Grade. Daryl could go much further with this than I can hope to but, I will try to fill in as much as I can. S grades could be considered to have replaced the B Grade.
R is roughly the equel or replacement of the A.
S "" '' ''' of the B.
Is $3000 too high? For a re done gun? I think so, on the other hand keep a record of how long until you see the next one for sale.
The "R" and "S" grades are not shown in a little pocket catalogue that Daryl dated as 1903/4, and they are still not shown in the August 1905, "The Baker Gun Quarterly." They are shown in a little Baker Guns pocket catalogue with a well dressed lady shooter on the cover that he dated as 1906 for me. The "R" with Krupp barrels listed at $50 while the Damascus barrel "A" listed at $42.75. The "S" with Flui-tempered steel barrels listed at $35 the same as the "B" with London twist barrels of fine figure. By the 1909 "The Baker Gunner" the "R" was offered with either Fine Damascus or Krupp barrels for $48.75 and the "A" was no longer listed. The "S" had gone up to $35.50 and the "B" was up to $41.50.
The R and S grades first appear in the early part of 1906 when the A and B were still offered. The 1907 catalog noted that the A will be "merged into the R Grade and will not be carried in a full line of specifications". In the 1908 catalog, the A does not appear, but the B does. The B disappeared from the line in Catalog 3 of 1910, and last appears in the Baker Gunner #4 of 1909. The R and S grades disappear sometime between 1912 and 1914 according to my notes and available catalogs.
Daryl: The Baker that I have is marked: "PARAGON EJECTOR" on the watertable. It has an F after the serial number of 201171. Do you have any idea when this gun was made. There are no markings on the tops of the barrels or the rib.
Best Regards, George
George, your gun is a Folsom made gun from somewhere between 1919-1929 . In general the Folsom guns were not fit and finished as well as Baker Gun and Forging Co. guns. Your's had the receiver originally finished in black oxide. I have seen a few Folsom Paragons in a four digit series, but most are in the 201,xxx series. Lowest number seen is 201,013 and yours is the highest, so it would have been made later in the 1920s I'd guess. This model came in 20, 16, and 12 gauge.
When they refinished that S grade gun they sanded the wood down below the level of the top tang. That or Baker went to a lot of trouble to make their wood fit below the metal. Barrels are done over but look very nice. I bet if you get the gun in hand you might find that the case color has been done over as well. Saw another "mint" Baker which had be re-case colored but over pits in the metal.
Cabela's pricing seems to be fashioned after the old Army slogan, "aim high", but in this case price high. Might just be the sad fact that they have no clue what they are doing. What is the current BlueBook on a 100% Baker S grade? $1,200-1,300.00 maybe.
Does Cabela's sell copies of the Bluebook in the store? It would be real nice if they did and someone took a copy into the gun room at that store. Then ask them if Baker made a big letter S grade and a small letter s grade. Maybe that would explain the pricing of this gun. Do not confuse them mentioning the fact that the has been refinished and no longer even is 100%.
I as positive that when you go to sell them a gun like this they get out the BlueBook to make sure they are getting a deal when they pay you $600-800.00 for your gun.
They are so on top of things that they call it a boxlock receiver?!?
Daryl: Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the black finish on the the receiver. The gun appears 90+% and the engraving is sharp. Is it correct that there would be no markings on the barrels or the top rib?
Best Regards, George
Probably is correct. I have seen Krupp on a couple and sometimes Belgian proofs on the underside near the flats.
An S isn't really a low grade Baker. It is a hammer block gun, and has some modest engraving.
I've looked for a 16 for years, no luck. I wouldn't pay Cabelas' prices, anyway, and I'm over my refinished gun stage. Honest wear and tear in a functional package would be just fine.
You won't see many for sale. I wonder how many they built?
Best,
Ted
From the serial numbers I have observed there were about 900 R and S grades built, with about a quarter of them being S Grades. I have never seen a 16 ga. S Grade and only about 5% of the R Grades were 16 gauges from the samples I have seen. The Rest were 12 gauges.
That explains it. I'll keep looking, anyway.
We can dream, right?
Best,
Ted