Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/401545
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 5 9 An upland gun needs to be light and handy to carry. It needs to be quick, but also have the right combination of weight and balance to enable you to maintain your follow-through on crossing targets. A gun that is primarily a "poker" may work reasonably well on straightaway shots or incomers, but is hard to shoot well on crossing birds. Big bores are not necessary. An ounce of shot to the charge will serve nicely for almost all upland shooting. Quail, woodcock, doves, grouse and simply don't require a huge shot-load. I had almost given up on finding an American gun that fit these requirements. Then one day I stumbled across a Parker Brothers 16 gauge built on a 20-gauge frame. Parker's standard 20 gauges were built on what they referred to as the "O" frame. (Call it a zero or call it an O, either will work.) Generally, their 16s were built on a heavier number 1 or 1½ frame. Twelve-bores, for the most part, were built on 1½ or larger frames. There were exceptions, but those were the customary configurations. The combination of the 16 gauge on an O frame turned out to be pure magic. If furnished with barrels of 28 inches or more, the resulting gun came in at a skosh more than six pounds. It took me a while to find one, because Parker didn't make many. The first one I found had 28-inch barrels and tipped the scales at six pounds, two ounces. Having no ejectors, it was designated a VH grade rather than a VHE. I have never found ejectors to be of any great utility for any upland game with the possible exception of doves, so that suited me just fine. The little Parker had a sweet swing, its recoil proved to be quite comfortable, and its one-ounce standard load was completely adequate for upland game. I snapped it up as fast as I could reach for my wallet. I carried the little 16 for many years and often used it in preference to the finely crafted English and continental guns that I acquired later. I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to the number of miles that it traveled in my hands or the number of birds that it sent to the "promised land." For upwards of 30 years I searched for a higher- grade Parker in the same configuration but never found a gun in quite the condition I wanted and at a price that looked attractive. In time I began to use other guns. I traded for a 16-gauge Purdey that became my go-to upland gun, and the Parker 16 languished in the cabinet. Then, one day we were talking about upland guns at Sporting Classics' office, and I told the guys about the perfect American upland gun. Unfortunately, in an all-too- characteristic lapse in judgment, I allowed Duncan Grant, the