A day with Parker and his Brothers

[Sharps40]

Parker Brothers Number 2, 12 gauge.....made 1928.

All original...traces of color case on the action....stock broken, buttplate missing.

I must be out of my mind. Ain't no affordable wood for this one and the average restocking price exceeds $500. That, and the action parts are secured inside channels in the broken wood. It occasionally doubles when firing the left barrel first......might be the broken stock cause the guts look awesome.

While the action soaks in cleaner and oil....nope I ain't taking this one apart.....but I will try to recover the buttstock.

Here we go....action screws, this one is buttmangled but I got it free.

And the dry but relatively oil free original buttstock comes out in four pieces.

A little dirt inside but not a ton and the parts are all numbers matched....stock too. All the more reason to try to save this stock.

And then the phone rings and I have another home showing with a real estate agent tomorrow morning, so, so much for turkey hunting in the morning...but back to the Parker......

The fit of the central wood lug that broke out.

Stock back on and the action parts in their ways within the wrist.....

Another chunk of wood laid in place.

And the outside of the wrist where it belongs....

 

[Sharps40]

Long dry thick and slow setting ProBed 2000.....epoxy will have to do it. There is no room inside this wrist for cross pinning.

The lug, fitted in place, both mating edges smeared with the thin coat of epoxy and clamped. Gotta get it just right so the parts move freely but are held in the right relationships to each other.

After kicking over several hours, not set but enough to move forward with the final pieces and clamp up......green clay in the ways within the stock. So much easier to clean out than gobs of dried epoxy.....

Taping the edges of the split and then waxing the bare spots so clean up is easier and there is less gunk stuck in the lil diamond thingies on the grippie parts.

Smeared and clamped, here's the ooze out.....

And before it kicks, the ooze out is cleaned out and the joints can be checked/moved as needed.

 

[Sharps40]

Several hours of fiddling blind to get the tip of the safety lever into the tiny slot of the safety slide......done. Parkers cost a lot to restock....here's about $200 of the price....blind cussin 7 handed reassembly job!

Here, the safety parts in place, safety on

Safety Off.....

Safety plunger....

Not as pretty as it once was. I'd like to cross pin it but there ain't enough room for a strong threaded pin to be epoxied in place so we'll rely on the bond. If it breaks again, it won't be on the bond line. The epoxy bond is stronger than the wood. But everything fits well and the bolts pull down to a dead stop with no crush and nothing moves from a range of snug to tight on the screws.....I think we're good to go.

Some work to do with stain and a buttplate is needed and I have a clamp mark to try to steam up but, its still original and that pleases me.

Now it just needs a week to sit while we wait for a repop buttplate to arrive.

 

[GA Cracker]

I enjoyed that Sharps40.
I was watching one of the African big game hunting shows on TV. While the PH had his client shooting the big double rifle after travel barrel 1 was shooting 8 inches to the left and barrel 2 was shooting to POA. Before shooting the elephant the PH told the shooter to fire barrel 2 first and then go to barrel 1. BIG MISTAKE! The rifle was designed so that barrel 2 had a stronger (seer or sear? spelling?) to adjust for the heavy recoil than barrel 1 had. The elephant dropped in it's tracks but so the did the shooter. The shooter came to his senses lying on his back with blood trickling out of his nose. Live and learn huh?
So possibly the shotgun you are working on may be designed the same way? Just a thought.

 

[golferboy426]

really nice work,

 

[Sharps40]

Cleaning up the damaged checkering with a triangular ignition file....work that is rapidly getting beyond my visual acuity. I used to be able to checker, did a lot of impressed to cut checkering do overs in my day. No more.....hard to see.

But.......the cuts in progress.

A clamp mark on the off side.....the worst one, but hard to avoid but should be fixable with steam.

Fire, steel and brass rods and a wet terry.....heat, dip, touch, steam, repeat.....dent comes out.

Happy joy.......the stock has its fair share of dents and scrapes but this one wasn't a keeper....not earned so to speak.

No sense in trying to stain an old stock to match up where the checkering was recut. Instead, mimic the dirt of 94 years of use on the freshly cleaned and recut areas. Several coats of urethane (thin, thin, thin) rubbed into the checkering with a dirty gun cleaning tooth brush (the dirtier the better). Give it 15 minutes to start to flash. Wipe over the tops of the diamonds while the urethane is tacky with a sharpie, immediately wipe with thumb, and scrub with the filthy (greasy, dirty, carbon and oil infused was gonna throw it away dirty type of gun cleaning toothbrush, the worst nastiest dirtiest one you can find in the junk box) toothbrush. Repeat until slightly darker than ya want the look. Final drop of two of that super thin urethane (Wiping Poly they call it) and scrub it in with the grubby tooth brush to level it out and knock off the shine and lighten/blend the new faux dirty spot into the real dirt in the checkering. Done.

 

[Sharps40]

I enjoyed that Sharps40.
I was watching one of the African big game hunting shows on TV. While the PH had his client shooting the big double rifle after travel barrel 1 was shooting 8 inches to the left and barrel 2 was shooting to POA. Before shooting the elephant the PH told the shooter to fire barrel 2 first and then go to barrel 1. BIG MISTAKE! The rifle was designed so that barrel 2 had a stronger (seer or sear? spelling?) to adjust for the heavy recoil than barrel 1 had. The elephant dropped in it's tracks but so the did the shooter. The shooter came to his senses lying on his back with blood trickling out of his nose. Live and learn huh?
So possibly the shotgun you are working on may be designed the same way? Just a thought.

Yep, any proper double has a rear trigger much heavier than the front..... That said, they must never double unless both triggers are pulled. When the heavy sets off the light, its time to get inside and see what's wrong.

 

[Sharps40]

Put 50 through it. Shoots well.....stock survived. The forward/right barrel still releases if the rear/left barrel is fired first. Ain't no sears for this one and that's probably what it needs. But, I ain't opening this one up for that work....should be turned over to a professional familiar with the action type. Not an unusual occurrence though....the forward/right barrel gets fired about a million to one times more than the rear/left barrel. Of course, if you double one a time or two you learn to leave the rear trigger alone till the first shot is gone!

 

[Sharps40]

Original buttplates were probably hard rubber....this replacement is urethane and too large. There is only two sizes on the repop market, one too large and one too small. So after some fitting and a bit of rub out with 0000 steel wool to take off the urethane gloss and make it look older and more like the hard rubber.....the back end is done.

I did locate a right barrel sear...used. Its on the way. Hopefully it will fix the weak trigger engagement on the front barrel. If not, I'll assume it needs a hammer fix as well and perhaps refitting. Not a job for me....at least not on this gun.

But, to the butt....

 

[snakeeyes4445]

Nice save on this Parker...it was worth the amazing reconstruction that you did. I always wanted to know what the inletting looked like on the inside of mine. Now the gun owns you.
I hope the barrel set, the real heart of the gun, gets used. The finish looks to be origional. Tony Galazan has screw sets I would think......great story and photos!
An engraver friend of mine was paid four thousand for a from the blank restock on a B grade Parker.....did not include the wood.

 

[Sharps40]

Yep, they are salty to redo. But, I promise never to take the buttstock off a Parker again. In fact, I think I'll never take the trigger plate off one again either. Fiddly lil farts they are to put back together!

 

[Shotter11]

Great job on the redo. I always like it when someone shares their projects. Thank you for giving us all a peek at what it took to bring Parker back on line! Nice work.

 

[UmpquaCharlie]

Very impressive and informative, the next broken stock Fox Sterlingworth or Parker I run across, I'll come begging.