Not to belabor the point, but show me how you do it on a 28 gauge without losing either length or height of the butt itself. I have seen it done and it doesn't work. It should be no problem on a 12 or a 20. As a matter of fact, you could make a modified Monte Carlo out of a 12 or 20 stock and it would look great. The 28 gauge butt is too small to do any shortening of the height of the butt. Why did they do it the way they did it on the Cabela's stock. Answer, they couldn't do it any other way.

Regarding case colors; I had my 28 ga Repro re-colored by Brad. Unlike original Parkers, when the sprayed on repro case colors wear off what remains is a shinny nickel-finish receiver that looks cheap. When he did the colors I ask Brad to scrape the piano finish and put on a finish consistent with what would have been found on an original D-grade. The results were impressive and the gun is pretty much identical cosmetically to the $49K Parkers Galazan produced.

Years ago I was spending some idle time with the Porsche dealer. The guy made a simple statement that I'll always remember, and I think it applies equally to guns. He observed that as a rule of thumb, whatever money was spent modifying a car will essentially reduce the car's value by that same amount.

If I might expand on Dean's remarks made @ 11:32, 7/19. Remingtons purchase of the Parker Shotgun took place on June 15, 1934. Remington continued to produce shotguns in Meriden, Conn. until mid 1938, then the opperations were moved to Ilion, NY. Remington produced aprox. 4624 Parker shotguns in Meriden. These guns DID HAVE mullered borders. After the move to Ilion, NY; Remington produced another aprox. 1332 shotguns. The Ilion Remington shotguns ( regrettably ) DID NOT have the mullered borders around the checkering.

I like mine better than before Brad prettied them up. Since they are not for sale, and won't be while I am alive, it was the right decision for me (and for Wyatt). Like Jay said, my 28 ga., which I bought NIB, was a sickly grey after two seasons.
Variety is the spice of life!
-plc-

I didn't wait for my original "case coloring" to wear off so I did it in 5-minutes with a tube of semi-chrome. Here's my 28 ga Repro after Brad worked his magic. I think it's not unreasonable to think this increased the value of my Repro, but....
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...28Repro1BB.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...erRepr01BB.jpg

Well, I'll be darned, amazingly this gun appears to have gotten sold. :shock: We band of originally configured 28-ga. Parker Repro owners can rejoice in knowing that our little jewels took a $1500 leap in value--in just the last couple of weeks! Hallelujah! :cool:. . . or else whacking off a skeleton butt plate only to install a funky looking pad makes no difference. :eek::cuss:

I would say it sold for less than the asking price///? How much less...don't know? It would be interesting to know...SXS ohio

There is no way you can modify a repro to increase its value. That's a starting point.

There are working repros and collector repros, but I would venture to say that the collector attitude holds sway. A person looking for a working gun will not slide as much money across the table as the collector. A gun modified to make it more "workable" is automatically fishing about in the lower pond. A gun modified to make it look better may in fact have added appeal, but the fact remains that it is not original, and that will be a buyer's bargaining chip at the time of sale.

Two of the biggest criticisms of the originals are the finish and the case coloring. Pretty hard to imagine a high quality refinish/re-case not being a positive but perhaps I am a greater fool.