A was down at Robin Hollow Outfitters over the weekend, trying to make the most of a miserable, rainy day. Robin Hollow had a bunch of nice double barrel shotguns in stock and they were kind enough to let me photo a few. First up is this 12 gauge Parker AAHE grade side by side.
Parker introduced the AAHE in about 1895. Priced at $400, it was their highest grade gun at the time. An even higher grade — the A-1 Special — was introduced about 1907 and priced at $500. In all, Parker made about 243 AAHEs: 5 were hammerguns, 238 were hammerless
A bit more about AHEs, taken from the Parker Collector’s Site:
“The early AA guns engraving tended to be deep chisel but later the engraving became lighter in style; although both were elegantly done by the best engravers of the time. The stocks were made of the finest Circassian walnut which was dense enough to allow the very fine checkering at about thirty lines per inch. The stock has a gold shield and gold pistol grip cap. Stocks were fitted with a skeleton butt plate as standard but recoil pads were an option. The barrels were made of the finest Damascus steel or Whitworth fluid steel. The hammer gun barrel bolsters have the characteristic teardrop sculpture and hammerless guns have one or two extra beads around the barrel bolsters. Ejectors were a standard option found on the AAH grade.”
