Parker Hale Ltd Rifle
I came across a 308 bolt action rifle with a Mauser type action. The side of the action has Safari stamped on it. The top of the barrel has Parker Hale Ltd, Birmingham, England about 1/2 way up and on the opposing side of the barrel is a "cold stamp" reading Gunshop Inc, Lancaster, CA. The top of the barrel immediately in front of the action has CAL 308W stamped in it. All numbers match and it has the crown with BMP under it in several places. Serial number D 1XXX M. Any and all help with valuing or history would be appreciated.
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"Gunshop Inc" was Jack First's old place in Lancaster, before he wised up and moved to Sturgis SD.
He use to carry quite a lot of European made guns. Don't know specifically if he imported the rifle new or he picked it up used.
According to John Walters "Rifles of the World" the Safari has a Spanish made Santa Barbara Mauser action and dates to the mid 60's/ early 80's time frame.
Parker Hale has been long out of business, they were sold to Navy Arms company in the U.S. during the late 80's.
Not likely it would have much collector interest/value, at this point in time.0 -
degadude,
Welcome to the Gunbroker forums!
Parker-Hale had an illustrious career in the firearms business. The latter portion of its life was a downward spiral unfortunately and contributed to the impression of lesser quality in their rifles.
The late '50s and early 60's saw P-H bringing in the Mauser M98 barreled actions from Zastava. These are noted by having a 'circle Z' on the underside of the bolt or a marking on the side of the receiver tang. The rifles were proofed, stocked, marked and shipped from Birmingham, England to a few distributors in the U.S.
Later Parker Hale rifles were built on the Spanish Santa Barbara 98 action which featured the streamlined bolt shroud with the solid left rail similar to the 'improved M98' offered by Belgium through FN. These appeared about 1966 and were fitted with a right side sliding safety slide, and hinged magazine floor plate.
Several models were offered throughout the 20 years or so of marketing, some being:
M1100, M1200, Safari, Super Safari, Safari Deluxe
The differences were basically finish, checkering and the inclusion of rosewood accents on the pistol grip and fore end tip.
As with all things, we used to be able to pick these up for somewhere in the neighborhood of $150-200 in many gun shops. However with collectors being the type of folks they are, they managed to drive these prices up for no apparent reason since these are strictly commercial rifles with no inherent collectibility. Think of these as trying to say that the standard generic Remington M700 is collectible.
All this aside, the P-H Mauser-type rifles are superb for hunting and causal shooting. Some of the stock designs are suitable for varmint shooting also. I've seen a number of the .308 Win. rifles re-barreled to a smaller caliber cartridge such as the .22-250 or a wildcat dedicated to varmint shooting.
This is an example (not mine) of the better grade of Parker Hale offerings:
Best.0
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