Help please to identify my Parker Hale

[nfarmer]

I purchased a PH 308 recently on the spur of the moment and while it shoots fine I would love to actually identify both its age and the exact model. The only markings are 'Parker Hale Birmingham' 'BNP' and '078'. Ive seen various examples on YouTube and the diagrams on the Norman Smith Gunsmiths web site and they have given me the impression that the rifle is probably a Safari or an 1000. but the saftey catch on my bolt appears to be different.

I am hoping that people on here can help! I have included a number of photographs which I hope will help.



















Thanks in advance

Norman

[dodgyrog]

Safari?

[Chapuis]

I'm inclined to say that it may not be a Parker Hale but a rifle assembled after the demise of Parker Hale using a Parker Hale barrel and some other parts sourced from the original PH parts bin.

My reason for suggesting this is that it is based on a ex military K98 action and while Parker Hale used these on their earlier rifles the later rifles were based on commercial Santa Barbara actions that did not have the charger loading cut out in the left wall of the action. Also the bolt shroud with the swing safety is not a type normally encountered on most Parker Hale rifles. The stock is also slightly different to the usual Parker Hale Italian made stocks.

Nice looking rifle though and one that I would be happy to own and use even if it does turn out to be a Bitsa. After all most Parker Hale rifles were really bitsa's anyway.

I would have expected the numbers engraved on the bolt to be the last three numbers of the rifle's serial number.

[Laurie]

I think P-H worked on a revised bolt shroud incorporating a Ruger 77 MkII type swing safety at one stage. I did some work for a large dealership with close links to the pre collapse Parker-Hale and it acquired a small collection of part rifles, one-offs, and prototype models when the company folded. There were three, maybe four such rifles including a couple of late models, 308 P-H Scouts, that had variations on this bolt form. None had serial numbers. The OP's rifle may be one of those, or being based on the older 1200 modified ex military K98 action, an earlier initiative.

Incidentally, it's not 100% correct to call the later P-H actions 'Santa Barbera'. They were new actions made by the former Spanish government La Corunna arsenal, or in some late P-H models, just the bolt, the receiver manufactured in Birmingham. 'Santa Barbera' was the American name for La Corunna imports into the USA for that country's gun trade to build custom rifles on when Mauser 98s were still widely used. I have a feeling it wasn't the manufacturer's product name, rather that of the Californian importer based in the town of that name. As a result, many American commentators refer to these and similar actions as 'Santa Barbera' as the name was the one they were most likely to encounter.

[Chapuis]

Laurie yes my mistake with the spelling of Santa Barbera, but we are talking about the same actions from Spain and not the Californian city of a similar name. When you mention the late P-H models I presume you are referring to the Midland rifle where a surplus 1903 Springfield bolt was mated to a receiver of Parker Hale's own design.

I've seen similar safety/bolt shrouds and identical stocks to those on the OP's rifle advertised in German shooting suppliers catalogues reinforcing my initial thoughts that this rifle isn't an original Parker Hale but one assembled by someone else using a Parker Hale barrel. There again PH often seemed to use whatever parts were in the parts bin or available at a particular time so it is still quite possible that they assembled it. It's certainly not a standard P-H rifle that I am familiar with.

I would think that a trip to Norman Clarke would shed a lot of light on the origins of this particular rifle.

Wasn't the last model of sporting rifle that P-H produced the M81 classic? (It certainly isn't one of these.)

[Laurie]

When I say early / late / very late Mauser actions, the company originally refurbished and modified actions from surplus miliary rifles. There was a period in the 50s through 70s when the world was awash with cheap surplus K98s and similar and P-H bought them almost by weight, junking everything except the action from what were effectively 'scrap grade' products. So, many early P-H sporting and target rifles have military style receivers with a thumb slot for charger loading as seen in the OP's pics. I had a P-H 1200TX target rifle like this, but with an original Mauser style shroud with the round gas shield.

Then there were the nicer later models with La Coruna actions, effectively an updated '98 action with a solid left receiver wall, side mounted slide safety etc and a new bolt shroud.

Finally, P-H designed the actions for the final match and sniper models in-house around the La Coruna bolt - the M85, M86, M87, and the contemporary single shot match version. They have much heavier receivers than the military / improved military models. the M85 entrant to the British Army sniper procurement process had a huge amount of work put into it and varies considerably from the other models in this M8x series with a longer and heavier receiver tenon for instance to provide massive support and rigidity for the barrel. I was once told that one of the (many) reasons for P-H's demise was problems in getting more La Coruna bolts, or maybe what the manufacturer wanted to charge was unreasonable. I Googling the La Coruna faciloity showed it survived until a couple of years ago.

Looking up Frank De Haas on the S-B Mauser, you've got the correct spelling - it's Santa Barbara. De Haas describes the Centurion Mauser action followed by the S-B and says they're identical, neither showing these names, any maker or model number, just 'Spain' and the serial number. He (correctly) surmises they originate at La Coruna.

Here's what he says as an intro for the S-B whose description follows that of the 'Centurion':

"I don't know what connection there is between the Santa Barbara Mauser action and the Centurion action, but there must be some link. I say this because the receivers and bolts of these two actions are almost exact duplicates of each other.

....................... There are no markings on the action to indicate it is a 'Santa Barbara' action or any other action. Why the name stamping is omitted is beyond me. Santa Barbara actions were first advertised shortly after Golden State Arms [the Centurion action importer] went out of business, so I suspect both actions were made by the same manufacturer in Spain. [............ La Coruna]. The Santa Barbara action is being imported by Santa Barbara of America Ltd., 930 Beltline Rd., #132 Irving, Texas 75060."

The by then defunct Centurion Arms, importers of the earlier identical action, had been resident in Pasadena, California and had obviously upped sticks and moved to Texas (probably after becoming insolvent one imagines), hence the Californian coastal resort name used. When I first heard the S-B named used many years ago, I assumed it was Spanish too, but California is full of Spanish nameplaces and it seems more likely to have been dreamt up by the importer. La Coruna was obviously peddling these improved but relatively cheap Mauser actions on a much wider scale to would be riflemakers and importers, When I say 'relatively cheap' that is compared to the other postwar commercial Mauser actions from Brevex, FN and Mauser sold to H&H, Rigby, and the American bespoke riflemakers supplying the rich, famous, and would-be safari shooters.

The 'Midland Rifle' you mention resulted from P-H finding a large supply of M1903 bolts somewhere, presumably dirt cheap. P-H built this budget sporter entirely around these bolts, this component being such an expensive part to manufacture it was cost effective to do so apparently. The actions were never M1903s - if they had been they would have been snapped up by some US company or other such was (and is) the demand for genuine complete 1903 actions.

[nfarmer]

My goodness its MUCH more complicated than I thought!! Please keep the ideas etc coming.

Many thanks for the inputs already received.

Norman

[huntervixen]

When I say early / late / very late Mauser actions, the company originally refurbished and modified actions from surplus miliary rifles. There was a period in the 50s through 70s when the world was awash with cheap surplus K98s and similar and P-H bought them almost by weight, junking everything except the action from what were effectively 'scrap grade' products. So, many early P-H sporting and target rifles have military style receivers with a thumb slot for charger loading as seen in the OP's pics. I had a P-H 1200TX target rifle like this, but with an original Mauser style shroud with the round gas shield.

Indeed they did, they also procured along with Interarms hundreds of thousands of Enfields of all types, in the 1960's from MOD stock, the origins of my Maltby No4 rebuild project came from that enormous buy.

Interarms and Parker Hale only re-used/traded on a tiny fraction of that buy and the rest were reduced to parts and sold to the trade or scrapped.

[nfarmer]

Have arranged to go Norman Clark in the new year, I will report back

[nfarmer]

Well I've had an answer from Bill Smallwood at Norman Clark which I have copied below.

Your gun is a Pro stalker with a Voure action and bolt. These were made approx between 1997 – 2000.

Very few were made yours had a walnut stock but they also did a laminate stock version. The very last few had a Parker Hale shroud, trigger and safety catch but yours has the military trigger.

So that leads on to the next question, how good a rifle is it (it shoots very well) and whats its worth, any ideas??

Norman