Stock Savable?

[keithelsass]

Hello,

I picked up Parker 12 ga VH on a #2 frame with 30" barrels as a project gun. The metal is in pretty good shape but the stock is questionable at best.

The stock is covered in some sort of varnish, I'm not really sure. It is thick, hard and yellow. I've tried mineral spirits, acetone, and lacquer thinner on a q-tip and nothing happens. It can be scraped off with a fingernail.

The Bigger issue is the stock is loose, and someone ran a wood screw with a bolt to fix a split it has. When removing the stock it pretty much fell off. Any way this is savable or would it be too much work? My ultimate goal is to get this back to being a shooter.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Brian Dudley]

It is toast. Any effort put into trying to save it would be a waste. In my opinion.

[keithelsass]

Kind of what I was thinking this one is done.

Current plan is to get this restocked somehow, and keeping the old stock with the shotgun to keep it "complete" . Debating on the best course of action, send it off or try to do some of it myself. I'm not sure if the old one can be useful at all with this.

Looking around I couldn't find any semi-inletted stocks, does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?

[Dean Romig]

Brind Dudley, the gent who answered you is a professional stocker and damn good at it.





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[Joseph Sheerin]

Before I'd ever spend the money on restocking any old gun like that, the rest of the gun had better be in pretty darn good shape, or I also have to be willing to go all in on restoring the rest of the gun. Getting a quality restock is a pretty expensive proposition if it's to be done correctly.... I have seen a lot of Brian's work either on this site, or FB, and it appears to be first rate, so anything he says I'd pretty much take as the good.

For a VH, to do a full blown quality restore, you will have way more into the gun, than it's ever going to be worth. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, because sentimentality, and other things come into play there. If you are capable of doing the work yourself.... That makes the decision easier, but most of us are not quality antigue run restoration experts, and it's time consuming work.

Best of luck with it.

[Andrew Sacco]

As a point of information I got a quote for a restock of an LC Smith about 7-8 years ago from a respected stock maker (not Brian D. in case you wonder) and it was shy of $8,000, but not by much. I sold the gun for what I paid for it, about a grand.

[John Davis]

I contacted Purdey about a restock. When I converted pounds to dollars the estimate was around $50,000.00. I decided to go a different route.

[charlie cleveland]

some pretty good stock blanks on ebay would do for a cheap shooter..might even look good would depend on how good a stock maker you are...for me I would have to call brian...charlie

[keithelsass]

Thanks for the great replies. I have seen Brian’s and others work on the forum and their websites it’s amazing. They are true masters of the craft.

This is a VH and I have no sentimental value besides I love to keep old guns alive and learn new skills. I don’t see this as a “magazine cover” but it does have life left. I’d love a amazing looking Parker but that will have to be a different one.

I have no problem putting some money into this gun but I’m not going to wrap up 5k+ into a 2k gun at best. I bought it as a project to learn from. So I guess that leaves me and my nonexistent stock making skills.

I think we all agree this stock it toast. From my understanding fitting a different VH stock to this would be extremely difficult at best. I don’t think I can pull off stock from a complete blank. Right now I’m reading about semi-inletted stocks but can’t seem to find any. Hopefully I’ll find one or a reject that won’t work for the fancy guns.

[allen newell]

You can get a nice stock blank from Cecil Fredi in Las Vegas for short money and then try your hand at stock making.

[Eric Estes]

Used ones do show up on ebay or even this site from time to time. Although even if you get the frame size to match it can be crap shoot if they will fit. May be worth looking. I have gotten lucky this way twice. Both cases some fitting was needed, but in the end it worked for a tiny fraction of new. Making my own from a blank is beyond my skills or patience.

[allen newell]

I had Lawrence DelGrego restock my grandfathers/my Dad's 16 ga VH about 5 or 6 yrs ago and the cost was around $3k as I recall.

[Mike Poindexter]

I have seen worse successfully repaired by milling out the interior and fitting a piece of marine plywood into the gap, then milling and fitting the necessary slots into the now solid piece of wood. I would give Dennis Earl Smith a call (the Stock Doctor) in Oregon and see what he thinks. If he says no, then I am out of suggestions.

[Aaron Beck]

I believe Brian's point was not that it couldnt be repaired, just that its not worth the time vs restocking. I have just been through this with a stock that was in better (but not much better) shape. I learned a lot and enjoyed some cabin fever relief but the time involved was sobering and Ive learned i might have been better off restocking from a duplicated blank. If the repair doesnt hold, ill really be kicking myself.
Regarding a new stock, If youre looking for a gun to use, consider the value of a custom fit stock. You may never recoup the cost in dollars from a collector but that doesnt mean its not worth it ever.

[keithelsass]

Thank you for all the advise guys.

Aaron I took his post the exact same way. I'm itching to learn so my current plan is two fold.

Find a semi-inletted stock and try to fit that myself. If you know of one please let me know. Only thing I can find so far is one from Malcolm gun works, which seems to have pretty bad reviews.

The old stock has been in and out of lacquer baths for around a month now, and it's showing a few more cracks but cleaning up all the years of gunk. The idea is to do something link Mike mentioned, fit some wood into the gap then refit the stock. I'm looking at glass bedding it if possible. I'm pretty new to this so it's more research now than anything.

This was bought as a learning gun so I have to learn something, even if it's when to throw in the towel haha.

[Aaron Beck]

You could also fix the original stock enough to send out and have duplicated, which could get you experience on both fronts.

My stock was not split but despite this it spread after drying from repeated acetone soaks.
so i repaired it with some epoxy and more wood and a stainless staple. I intended to write an after action report about it so here goes.
I didnt find the "quart jar of acetone" method useful at all, the soluble oil wicked up the stock and left and ugly line at the surface of the jar. Perhaps this would sand out but I switched to full immersion/
I used a combination of west systems 105/ resin and west systems Gflex which is alleged to be able to bond across blush for secondary glue ups. The g flex is pretty thick and i used that as a bedding material, its worth noting that it thins out some as it cures due to the heat created by the chemical process so plan your bedding and release agent accordingly. You can mix the two types of west system to blend characteristics and use fillers too.

Mineral oil on the metal as a release agent

I also cant say enough about the utility of surgical tubing for clamping on the stock head and wrist. Got it from mcmaster carr/

Also from Mcmaster were some handy glue applicators and syringes which proved less useful. The epoxy wouldnt flow through the needle even when the pot was new and any reapplications later before cure, forget it. So I ended up using some no 3 round artist paintbrushes to apply epoxy and found you can drip it into a pretty fine crack without making a mess. capillary action plus flexing the joint will do most of the work and you can clean the brush with acetone for the next glue up. I took it in many stages using the primary or secondary epoxy as needed.
If you wet out the surfaces when the pot is new you can add thicker glue later in the pot either on top to replace sag or as a bedding right before assembly.

Thats pretty much the feedback. Many of the methods I read about here or on the lc smith website. Lots of good info and very grateful to learn from those who have tried these things before.

[keithelsass]

You could also fix the original stock enough to send out and have duplicated, which could get you experience on both fronts.


Thank you for the great reply, it's tremendously helpful.

I agree 100% the jar soaking the head didn't work. I have the same line halfway up my stock. I'm doing full lacquer soaks now. I might pickup more acetone and do a full soak with that also.

I've attached a picture of its current state. Yes that is a nail sticking through the side, 1 of three I found so far!

Once I get done soaking it the plan is to pull all the nails, chisel/flatten the sides where the nails where and embed a new piece of wood between sides. I do plan on doing the staple trick as well. After all that I'm going to use west systems or acraglas to bed the whole area.

I figure doing all this will give me time to find a good semi inletted or replacement stock.