I think IJ ceased production of the skeeter in 1941

According to the I.J. catalogs the stocks and forearms were "lacquer finished."

Attachment 115961

DuPont Duco would be a likely candidate.

i like the info in the ad of the shot % at 30 and 20 yds for skeet bore. going to test my fox skeet and upland at those distances. :) i just noticed that the skeet guns had reversed choking. Ad said " Rt barrel 75 % at 30 yds (out going birds) and Lt barrel 75% at 20 yds."( in coming birds) choked like a Parker skeet gun. The fox skeet and upland choke like a normal SxS Lt tighter than the Rt.
scott

If it is laquered and with a very glossy finish, it was likely a French Polished finish, which required more work than a well finished oil. It is a method used on best quality guitars and violins for centuries. Given that it is original, I would personally live with the gloss. JMHO.

The advertisement notes the .410 was built on a different frame size. Does this mean they used the same frame for 12s and 28s? I've only seen a few of these and handled just a handful, so I'm now curious about the frame sizing.

As for the finish and whether to change or leave it, my two cents ain't worth a nickel.:)

Here is an extensive PGCA Forum thread on achieving a French polish. I do not believe the word,” lacquer” comes up at any point.

https://parkerguns.org/forums/showth...=French+polish

Highlights from the thread:

"Please note that french polish, for those that dont know, is a shellac finish" –Brian Dudley

"French Polish is just shellac with a little oil applied to the pad to keep the pad from sticking to the wood when applied. Oil and shellac don't mix so only the shellac goes on the wood except if you use too much oil, Shellac dries almost immediately so when you complete one application, you can start again. Many applications can be put on in one day. Search the Internet for how to do french polish. I use amber shellac from Bullseye which can be thinned if needed. If you use flakes it needs to be cut down for the proper thickness." -Chuck Bishop

And, as for THE PARKER STORY, in a section on “Stock Finishing”, page 439, the phrase “French polish” is absent, but Charles Parker explains a Parker application process that uses simultaneously shellac and linseed oil.

Last month I attended a large, long gun auction where there were a number of Parkers advertised. There were some "Skeeters" included in the auction. The first one was a 20 ga that sold for $2100. The second was a 410 that went for $4400.00. My interest, as has long been the case, was for a 16ga DHE Parker. Unfortunately, for me was that this was a one of one Parker with factory 25" barrels. I thought it would bring much more than my meager budget would allow and it did. The ironic thing is that there was a PGCA letter to the then owner and at the time the letter was furnished the Parker resided just a few miles from me.

Texan K.C. Miller ran the first .410 100X100 in NSSA competition. K.C. owned a .410 Skeeter and a .410 Parker and no one seems to know which gun he was shooting the day he ran that "first 100 straight". He was noted in Iver Johnson ads but there was no mention of the 100 straight. His .410 Parker was a 28" 00 frame horse of a gun that weighs over seven pounds, maybe closer to eight pounds. Where is that gun today? Anyone know?

Van Campen Heilner, famous waterfowl author, now long-deceased, owned a .410 SKEET-ER and his name appears on the same page, I think 1 line above the one I owned, in the A&F records of IJ SKEET-ERs that Bob Beach supplied to me in his wonderfully extensive research package. I wonder if he hunted dovekies, pied-billed greebes and sandpipers with it.... :rolleyes:





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Im going to leave the stock alone for now. My priority at the moment is to get it on the skeet field at my club (Plymouth Rod and Gun) and shoot clays with it. Thanks for all the input gents.