POTD: Little Parker – Factory Game Scene Engraved 28 Gauge DH Grade

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Parker in the gauge everybody wants and almost nobody ordered. This is a DH grade 28 gauge, built in 1910 on the small 0 frame with 28 inch barrels.

Parker built something like 242,000 guns over the life of the company. Well under 2,000 of them were 28 gauge. In 1910 the 28 was a fringe order, something you specified for quail, grouse, or a small framed shooter, and most buyers who wanted a light gun took a 20. The gauge did not get real traction here until skeet arrived in the late 1920s and gave the little shells a competitive class to live in. That timing is why prewar small bore Parkers are the ones collectors fight over now.

Look at the barrel marking and you get a piece of trivia. Titanic Steel was Parker’s own name for one of their fluid steel barrel grades, and they had been stamping it for years before a certain ship made the word mean something else.

DH sits in the middle of the Parker grade ladder, and here it buys three engraved game scenes: grouse going up on the right, a setter working quail on the underside, and ducks on the left. Double triggers, splinter forend, Deeley release, dog’s head buttplate. At six pounds nine ounces it is a little heavier than most 0 frame 28s run.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Extremely Rare Parker Brothers 28 Gauge DH Grade Shotgun.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/423/extremely-rare-parker-brothers-28-gauge-dh-grade-shotgun. Accessed 2 Aug. 2026.

The post POTD: Little Parker – Factory Game Scene Engraved 28 Gauge DH Grade appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.