To Restore or Not to Restore
 

All:

Please forgive if this sounds like a noob question. I inherited a Remington Made Parker after my dad died last December. Dad loved shotguns of all kinds and he held onto this one thinking it might be worth something.

The gun is post Remington #237XXX VM 16 GA. The "Parker" is on the bottom of the Receiver and not on the side. The bluing on the barrel is gone. The flame treatment on the receiver, if there ever was any, is gone. The receiver and barrels are engraved. There is a duck/goose engraved on the left inside a circle. The circle on the right side is empty. The butt stock has some issues. One of the previous owners carved his name just above the butt plate.

Overall to me it looks like a neglected old gun that you usually see at the swap meet. The real question I suppose is - Is this a diamond in the rough or should I sell it at the next gun show to somebody looking for a gun to use as parts?

Please forgive me if that sounds too matter of fact. Dad raised us around shotguns and rifles our entire lives, and we have our own collections. Now we are tasked with sorting dads collection of 20+ shotguns of various manufacturers and actions.

Is this old girl worth refinishing? What is the market or value of a refinished Remington built Parker?

welcome Shawn

the "flame treatment " was case coloring- not propane- it wears off with use

if you could post some pictures we could help you identify the grade

but- sounds like a diamond in the rough to me

From your description of the engraving it sounds like you have a higher grade than a V grade. Just because it has honest wear it doesn't always warrant restoration. In fact it may be worth more as it is. Please post photos the more the better.

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What you have there is a custom engraved VH grade. The original VH zig zag border engraving is there still, but someone tried their hand at adding some additional engraving to the frame and the barrels.

This would not be considered any sort of an upgrade since it is not trying to replicate an actual Parker grade.

Restoration would technically mean putting back as a proper VH, which would mean very extensive work and money which would not realize itself in the end in regards to market value.

The wood had also been replaced with something to be intended to be more fancy as well.

So what you are saying is it is a worthless "put together". Worthless in collectible value, but not worthless as a shooter if I choose to refinish it and shoot it.

As a collector piece it has no value, as a shooter it does, nice double barrel shotgun to shoot but it has been messed with too much for it to be anything but a shooter. Use it as is do not refinish it as it will not add any value to it.

As Eric suggested. Any money spent on cosmetic restoration of the gun would be putting good money after bad so to speak. Unless you are doing the work yourself. Then your labor is free.

I actually like the gun just the way it is. Has a lot of character. Kind of classy.