Stock Removal

[Dave Fuller]

A while back someone posted a very nice set of instructions on removing butt stocks from Parkers. I saved it somewhere but can't find it (its probably with my glasses and my keys which I can never find either). I also can't seem to make the search function work for the old BBS to locate it. Thanks in advance if the poster would be willing to offer that up again.

[Robin Lewis]

I thought it was a great post too. I have a copy of it, I assume this is the one you are looking for?

From an earlier post:

Removing the stock isn't all that difficult, but it does require a few tools and a LOT of care. The most important things you will need are a screw driver or three that actually FIT the different sized screws, a non-marring drift pin to drive out the sear pin, and a non-marring hammer (plastic-faced, etc). The first step is to dry fire the gun on snap caps, remove the fore end (so as not to re-cock the hammers), and then remove the barrels. Next is to remove the screw in the trigger guard (by the serial #) and gently lift the guard from it's inletted bed (pushing forward on the guard may help), then unscrew the guard from the trigger plate by revolving the whole guard around the front stud about 4-5 turns. Under the trigger guard you will find another screw head which you can remove next (the tip (other end) of this screw is visible on the top tang by the safety). Next, you can remove the large screw under the top lever. This requires a different size screw driver. Next, remove the three screws in the trigger plate. (Note: it may be easier to remove these screws if you only break each screw loose sequentially, a little at a time. If you completely loosen them one at a time, the last screw may be under an uneven strain and be more difficult to break loose). After these screws are out you turn the receiver over and use a wooden dowel, or a non-marring soft-metal drift inserted into the rear of the slot in the water table and tap gently to drive the trigger plate from the bottom of the frame. At this point the stock will become very loose and floppy on the receiver, but you CANNOT remove it yet! Be very careful as the trigger plate comes out, making sure that the stock doesn't jump around and break some of the wood in the fragile head portion. Also be sure to catch the cocking slide which rides just inside the trigger plate. Once the trigger plate is off, the final step is to remove the sears. If you try to remove the stock without removing the sears, you WILL break the stock. This is the reason you let the hammers down before you even began. Pay careful attention to how the sears are oriented (draw a picture if you have a poor memory). The sear pin is visible on either side of the outside of the frame at the lower rear corner. Using a drift slightly smaller than the sear pin, carefully drive it out the other side of the receiver, removing each sear as it is cleared by the pin. You may now remove the stock. There will be a few parts left in the stock (safety mechanism, automatic safety rod, mainscrew ferrule) but it is not necessary to remove these for normal cleaning. You can clean the receiver out with your favorite gun solvent, then blow the crud out with compressed air. After it is clean to your satisfaction, spray the inside with something like RemOil, wipe most of it out, and add a drop of gun oil to each joint between moving parts. While you're at it, now would be a great time to add a coat of sealer (like Tru-Oil) to the inletting in the head of the stock, to keep gun oil from ruining the wood. Don't let it collect in puddles anywhere, because the fit between wood and metal is a close tolerance.

Re-assembly is the reverse of the above, except that you must make sure to engage the safety slide on the tang with the safety lever in the stock as you slide the receiver back into the stock. This is a little tricky, so make sure it works properly before continuing. The sears go back in next, the pin is driven through, and the cocking slide is put in place to engage the cocking hook and hammer notches, then the trigger plate is put into place and tapped with a plastic-faced, etc. hammer until it is fully seated. After that, it is just a matter of replacing screws.

Do all work with the receiver firmly supported in a vise with soft jaws. To not do so is to invite ruined screw heads, broken inletting, etc. There are a few operations (like removing the sear pin) that will be easier out of the vise, but be very careful! For screw drivers, you need the hollow-ground tipped ones, and will likely have to shape the tips with a file a little to get proper fit in the slots.

[Jim Williams]

I am the one who wrote that post a few years ago. If the original post were still available for editing, I'd add the following: As soon as the floorplate comes off, the stock becomes very loose and wobbly on the receiver, and you can break some of the fragile inletting if you aren't careful. To provide some stability while you remove the sears, you can re-insert the lower tang screw (although the lower tang is now removed) back through the stock and re-tighten it (it threads into the underside of the upper tang). It will not tighten all the way, because the thickness of the lower tang is no longer under the head of the screw. But, it will take out all but just a little of the floppiness of the stock on the receiver, making it easier to concentrate on removing the sear pin without having to simultaneously hold the stock firm to the receiver. It will only have a little wiggle left in it, and you can essentially forget worrying about the stock while you work on removing the sears. Once the sears are out, remove the lower tang screw again and the stock will separate from the receiver. Be careful and hold the stock and receiver firmly together as you re-extract the screw for the final time so they don't inadvertently fall apart in an uncontrolled manner, possibly allowing the receiver to damage the stock. When the screw is out, keep a firm grip on the receiver and stock with each hand and gently separate them in a controlled manner.

I hope that makes sense.

Jim

[Dave Fuller]

Thanks for the update to your excellent original post Jim. I am copying both to a word document and its going in my file cabinet this time.

[James Underwood]

is the procedure different for a hammer gun? I have gotten to the point in removing my stock where it is loose but I don't want to force it and break something. Thanks Jim

[Dean Romig]

Additionally, and I posted this caution when these instructions were first posted, when "catching the cocking slide" one must also be sure to catch the tiny detent and spring which will surely fall out as soon as the cocking slide id removed.

[Matthew Nonnenmann]

Hi, all.

I disassembled my DHE 12 bore. I really enjoyed the experience given all the expert guidance posted. Everything has gone well, with the exception of the reassembly. I seem to be struggling a bit when it comes to aligning all the parts to get the the sear pin back into the receiver. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Matt

[Dave Suponski]

Matt, I use a pin smaller in diameter from the left side to get the sears close. Then insert the sear pin from the right. This makes it a whole lot easier.

[Richard Flanders]

I do the same as Dave with the pin and use a piece of aluminum welding rod with a tapered and rounded point as my guide pin. No way you can mar anything with that. Brass would also work well.

[Paul Plager]

There are photos on hoy to dissassemble a hammer gun and a hammerless gun in albums section posted by Brian Dudley. I found them very helpful when doing this procedure.

[Jim Williams]

Hi, all.

I disassembled my DHE 12 bore. I really enjoyed the experience given all the expert guidance posted. Everything has gone well, with the exception of the reassembly. I seem to be struggling a bit when it comes to aligning all the parts to get the the sear pin back into the receiver. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Matt

Well, for one thing you have to compress the sear springs with your thumb to get the hole for the sear pin to align. Compress the first one, get the pin through it, and then through the center section of the receiver, then compress the second one and get the pin through it and the second side of the receiver. It takes a bit of fumbling, but with a little practice you can feel your way through it without having to use a smaller pin, etc (although they can be helpful if you are having difficulty).

Jim

[Paul Harm]

Hammer guns - I'm going by memory. The locks are held in by one screw going from one lock to the other. On top levers it's right behind the hammer. There's also a small tang on the front of the lock that you can't see that's inletted into the receiver. Loosen the screw a couple of turns and tap it with the back of the srcew driver or plastic hammer- this will loosen the right lock. Now turn the screw out and remove the right lock. You will see a hole going through the stock in the rear of where the lock was and in there are the top of the triggers. Useing a small drift and holding the triggers forward, push the drift through the hole till you hit the other lock. Now tap the drift to loosen the left lock. With both locks removed next remove the trigger guard screw and pull the trigger guard up and out. The two trigger plate screws can now come out. Next the big screw under the top lever can be loosen a turn or two and tapped down flush to loosen the trigger plate. Take the screw out and now the trigger plate should come out. The stock can now be removed. Hope this helps and others may chime in.

[Brian Dudley]

Depressing the sears down against their springs on hammerless guns can be difficult at times. Jim's description of the proceedure above is just right. The older 2pc. sear springs are more difficult to compress since they are stiffer. Comparatevey speaking the later 1pc. springs are a piece of cake.
You want to push it down into place and then right away tap the pin into place with a brass or plastic hammer.

[John Farrell]

I recently sent a gun off to Larry DelGrego for some tuning after removing the stock and cleaning stuff out of the receiver. The cleaning did not solve the problem. Since I was not going to learn how to completely dissassemble the receiver parts, in reassembling the stock I noted that a sear spring was missing from the receiver. I sent the gun off to LDG with a note that the missing sear spring was probably the issue.

A phone conversation with LDG informed me that the missing sear spring was hard to solve since the machinist that made them for him had retired. I would have to be patient until a sear spring came available. I agreed to be patient.

Two weeks after the patient period started, while sweeping the floor of my shop, there was the missing sear spring among the dust. It had fallen out of the gun while I was cleaning the interior and I never noticed it dropping to the floor. God is good to Parker owners and Irishmen. JF

[Brian Dudley]

And those 2pc. sear springs do not always come out that easily.

[Fred Lauer]

A large, clean piece of cardboard under the bench or vise can save a guy an hour of crawling around on the floor looking for a missing spring or detent pin. I've tried it both ways and I like the cardboard better.

[John Farrell]

Sweeping the floor at least weekly, gives me a chance to spot a dropped part, tool, a cork for the current bottle of single malt I just emptied, or on occasion, a ten spot. JF

[Brian Dudley]

Try finding a small part in piles of wood shavings and dust. Been there before. Springs are like a football, you never know which way they will go when they hit the ground.

[Bob Roberts]

on a stick.

[Matthew Nonnenmann]

Hi, all.

Well. I put the stock back on and the hammers did not cock on the gun when I opened the breech. When I disassembled the gun again, the safety lever mechanism seemed to come apart. I tried to line up the safety lever with the mechanism during assembly. Did all the parts seem to go together correctly. Did I miss something fellas?

Cheers,

Matt

[Brian Dudley]

Niether of the hammers cock? Did you put the cocking slide back in? :-) Is the cocking hook properly engaging the bellcrank?

One thing you can do since you have it back apart is to put everything back together, just without the stock. The only part missing would be the safety jacket. In this situation, the gun can be opened and cocked and dry fired to test operation. And then if something is amiss, you can see what is going on. If all parts are in correctly and the sear springs are putting proper tension on the sears, then the gun should cock and stay cocked.

Getting the safety slide engaged with the arm is tricky some times, I usually pu the button forward and also make sure that the arm is forward and they usually go together, but sometimes they take trial and error. The whole safety jacket assembly is one of my few complaints with the Parker mechanism design. I much more prefer the fox style of safety from a standpoint of simplicity and also in stock fitting.

[Matthew Nonnenmann]

HI
Thanks so much for the info...I think I had the slide upside down. :) I did also notice that one of the hammers did not cock. It would slide rearward when I opened the breech, just not stay cocked....hmm. It seems easier to depress the sear arm(?) on the side that did not cock...is my sear spring worn out?

thanks for your help!

:banghead:

Matt

[Brian Dudley]

Well if they are pulling back, then the cocking slide is in correctly. If they are not staying back, then the issue is the sears. Is the spring on that side broken or missing?

[Matthew Nonnenmann]

The springs appear to be intact and functional...one side is easier to depress than the other...maybe she has lost some spring in her step. :) I imagine that new ones are hard to come by...

Best,

Matt

[Brian Dudley]

Not really all that hard if you look in the right place. :-)

In fact, I have two spare ones on hand. Let me know if you end up needing one. Send me a PM.

If there is any spring tension at all, even light, it should still cock and hold. If it is not, then I bet the spring might be barely hanging on.

Now also make sure that there is nothing pushing up on the sear when it is trying to cock.

[Dave Suponski]

Also inspect the end of the sear and sear notch in the hammer assembly for damage /dirt. It doesn't take much for the sears to not engage properly.

[calvin humburg]

I wish the person that took the stock off my hammergun would of read this post few chips gone but I can live with it. I suppose the stock fellows can even fix the very small peices (sometimes it's the easy words give me fits) in the tang channels? best

[Bill Murphy]

Calvin, you don't have the same sear spring installation problems with the hammer gun as you do with the hammerless gun. Your chips were just from carelessness or years of shooting with loose screws.