Yes there is always a new disaster to be found. Of all the things I have learned in life, this one invariably stands me in good stead - If something is getting difficult, you are doing it wrong The design engineers usually made things as simple as possible. I think Parkers are very well designed and easy to work on. I am no gunsmith, just a guy with screwdrivers (hollow ground of course), a couple punch pins, a variety of wood dowels, a light amber/rubber hammer, a pair of vise grips (just for the top lever spring and only after lifting it gently with a small screwdriver blade in the very convenient location the engineers made for me to do that). Open to better methods any time but I don't have any qualms over cleaning the innards. There is no such thing as "patina" inside the frame. Cheers, Jack

PS: Tomorrow is the opener for pheasants. I'm ready and will take three new to me guns to try out. The VH 12 and Darne 20 get to digest old paper Canucks. Don't have any for the VH 16 so that one will be treated to new Gamebore 2.5" #6 shotshells.

good luck jack....charlie

Thanks Charlie: I took the VH16 and VH12 and the little French Darne 20. Never shot a Darne before. Handled nicely but bird and pattern never met so after wasting a bit of ammo, I put that away for the day. Next was the VH 16. I discovered in the clean-up that the butt stock is from a different Parker 16 and that the bores were not well cared for over it's life to date. That said, I knew it would be a good shooter. First shot was a bit different. A rooster flushed and just as I am pulling the trigger, a second flushed right into the shot. No chance for that one to get out aways, so hit pretty hard. Second and third shots each brought down a rooster. So, 3 shots, 3 roosters. I guess I'm a Parker guy for sure. Cheers, Jackhttp://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=7404

great hunt ! 3 shots, 3 pheasants. Outstanding ! Did the same thing last year with my first Parker. now hunting Parker number 4 and am a parker man for life. Dan

Here are some pics of the tools used for disassembly/reassembly. Not that many. Close up shows the hollow ground tip sizes. The gold tips are very small for the few tiny screws encountered.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=7458
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...pictureid=7459