Actually this is the second failure of a Repro Parker for my hunting buddy. He reminded me several years ago a 28 did the same thing. He says Merrington did the repair with a total breakdown and started from scratch. Nice to know Kirk is back in business. He will contact him.

And no, these guns aren't closet queens.

Model 21's are great shotguns! They're just a horse of a different color which IMO shouldn't be compared in this instance when the barrel lug mechanical attachments are so different from each other.

The better comparison in my mind is comparing repro's to original Parkers. Original Parker barrel lugs were brazed, why didn't the contracted Winchester factory in Japan use the same method? If they had done so, we might not be having this conversation about a lug coming loose on this set of repro barrels.

I am afraid Kirk is not in business any longer.

I stopped by Phillips Gunsmithing today in regards to a bit of work he is doing for me. I told him about the Parker in this thread. He told me that he could do the repair. No problem. That was pretty much the conversation.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll pass it on.

After having Phillip do work for me on several occasions I have no doubt that he can.

Who ever you find that's willing to take on the project, more than likely will soft soldered it. To do it proper, the barrels needs to be stripped & the lugs brazed or silver soldered & then the top & bottom ribs can be soft soldered back on. The Parker "lump breach block" is probably the weakest of the various lug types unless it's brased or silver soldered like the original Parkers. Other types of barrel lugs have a different design ( chopper lump, demi-block dovetail, mono block) & can be soft soldered and are very strong because of the different lock up design.

Before I hand the barrel to a gunsmith, I would find out how he plans to fix it. Braze or silver solder, or soft soldered.

Also, if you look at the solder joint you can see the black spots, indicating they got the joint too hot & burnt the flux leaving a weak solder joint.

This forum thread has me a little concerned about the longevity of Parker repro main barrel locking lug. Do we know for sure all were soft soldered? If so why when the original was brazed.