What can be done with a Repro
 

As most of us know, the engraving on the Repro DHEs was mostly machine cut. Some areas of the gun had hand engraving, like the top lever, the buttplate and the trigger guard. And the flat machine cut areas had a little hand embellishment here and there. For the most part, this results in the lack of dimension and detail in the engraving.

I took a Repro DHE 20g. and polished it all up and then replaced all of the major screws on the action, buttplate and guard with clean thinner slotted screws. Then I asked Mr. Gournet to completely hand embellish the engraving and add as much detail as possible to the scroll work and game scenes. I wanted the gun to look completely hand cut, and more like an original late production Parker gun from Meriden or Ilion.

See below some before and after photos which are really quite striking.

The gun will end up being bone charcoal case colored.

Attachment 76974

Attachment 76975

Attachment 76976

That looks very nice!

I suspect you’re going to get quite a few requests for this “makeover”. I am anxious to see what you do with the stock and fore end. Really nice!

The wood was previously covered in this thread.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26177

I am currently working on a couple repro makeovers and the engraving embellishment was discussed, but the additional money was not wanted to be spent.

This one here is my personal gun and will be used as an example piece for what can be done with these guns if people so desire.

All I can say is "wow". That's going to be a great personal gun. Good job.

Great job Brian & my compliments to the artistry of Mr. Gournet!

I've always wanted to have the engraving enhanced on a repro myself. After seeing this one, I wish I would have!!

I am amazed at how great and real the pheasants look!
Bob Jurewicz

And don’t forget to have all of the Winchester markings and “Made in Japan”
polished off the barrels

Another “wow”

Other than added detail and dimension, the major thing that hand cut engraving adds to the equation is light reflectivity. That shimmer in the cuts are what helps it stand out once case coloring is done.

I was looking at this gun today some more and it is simply knockout!

I need to get it into Nitre Blue with my next batch soon and off to case color once a few others in process are completed and ready for pickup.