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Julian dEntremont
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| Joined: | Wed Nov 12th, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 14 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 26th, 2009 08:25 pm |
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I thought the subject might get some attention of the irritated kind but i must tell you the issue i was dealt with. i was given a Parker, to my suprise/shegrin and ulitimately pleasure. It was passed to me in small pieces in a clear plastic shopping bag. a little background first.
I joined this forum last fall to get some information and read some parker posts. I am a collector of antiques and understand the value of condition; particularly original. I would never suggest to anyone to refinish a gun, however in my situation when i opened the bag there were pins, springs, screws and small bits of wood all from a 20g VH. A brilliant amature gunsmith had taken the whole thing apart and I believe, forgotten how to reassemble it. In the shopping bag was also a buttstock that was smashed by a jealous wife swinging for the fences in a fit of matirimonial discontent. The same "gunsmith' had started gluing the stock back together with what i believe was possibly liquid weld, grey in color. The forestock was perfect. the receiver was tight with the barrels which were in great shape as well, miraculously no pitting, bluing was gone as was the case hardening. All the serial numbers matched and surprisingly it had a miller trigger.
I sent the gun to a canadian stocksmith in Toronto that has many beautiful and valuable guns to his credit. he's 72 and has done many Parkers (beyond repair) in his past and was thrilled to take this one on. He might be the best in Canada in my humble opinion. He has been doing stocks for both professional and olympic shooters for years. Before I chose him I had called a few of the usual suspects in the USA but i found the prices too high particularly with the inflated exchange rate.
Peter Venet, the gunsmith that did the gun charged me 3100$ Canadian for a new buttstock, case hardening, and bluing. I'm far from a pro but I must say I have shown the results to a gun appraiser locally who is an avid collector, and whom has had many Parkers over the years and has some still in his impressive collection. he was blown away with the quality of work and the hommage paid to original specs by Peter.
I just wanted to show you guys see what you think and let you know that if anyone has a "project" with the exchange rate of about 20% puts this tranformation at about $2500 american. I'm fairly confidant with my research in prices that this is a great deal. I am looking for some input, and more so taking it out this fall for some woodcock.
Here are the pics: http://s644.photobucket.com/albums/uu164/unrulian/
Cheers
Julian
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Jay Gardner
PGCA Member
| Joined: | Thu Jan 6th, 2005 |
| Location: | Michigan USA |
| Posts: | 691 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 26th, 2009 08:43 pm |
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Julian,
Great story - always happy when a lovely little Parker finds a caring home.
The restoration looks to me to have been very well done. The gun is beautiful. Any chance you have a few "before" photos you can share?
JDG
____________________
Weathered corn, an apple left unnoticed on the tree, the crunch of frosted stubble underfoot, wood smoke in the evening - these things remind me of the wild, fall days of boyhood...the best of those days were the Saturday's, afield with my dad.
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Julian dEntremont
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| Joined: | Wed Nov 12th, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 14 |
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Posted: Thu Mar 26th, 2009 09:05 pm |
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| i do, unfortunately they are cell phone pics of poor quality but I will add them when i can, they are on my old computer which is "in the shop" but should be able to retrieve them soon. Last edited on Thu Mar 26th, 2009 09:07 pm by Julian dEntremont
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