Broken Stock
 

This morning while hunting, a bird dog running at full tilt smacked into the stock of my 20 ga parker reproduction knocking it from my hands. The gun hit the ground and the stock broke along a clean diagonal line following the grain from the safety to the middle of the checkering on the english stock. Can any one offer names of gunsmiths who can repair or replace. I live in Gerogia so southeast preferable but not required.

Post a picture so we can learn.
Also it might help who we direct you to.

Contact Brad Bachelder @ Bachelder Master Gunmakers in Grand Rapids, MI. Brad is a member of this forum and you can google him tro get his contact. There are others on the Forum as well, B. Dudley, etc.

Chris Dawe is a magician.

Broken stock
 

Hi Fellows I have used Dave Wolf out of Waco Tx phone is 254-662-6431 or 254 744-9973. I have sent a lot of folks to him and if he can fix it he will and if he can't he will tell you he can't and send it back. I have used him on my presonal gun that the same thing happen to except I went down with the gun. Good luck!

I have to second what Richard has said. I've used Dave Wolf for a number of repairs and refinish and I can't imagine anyone doing a better job. I dropped my 28GA Repro and broke it into two pieces at the wrist and you really had to look hard to find the repair after he was done and it was strong as ever. Plus, he has a super fast turn around. Very nice man to deal with. Not cheap, but you certainly get what you pay for with him. Most repairs are invisible when he finishes with them especially if it is with the grain.

Based on what I have seen. I second that, even if it was Schmeggar who said it.

Photos of damaged stock
 

As any of you may imagine this made me sick!
Does anyone have an opinion about whether this can be repaired? Also looking for names and contact of those who may be able to repair or replace.
See attached photos.

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This should be easier to repair than mine as mine was 90 degrees to the grain of the wood. Yours runs mostly with the grain so you have good gluing surfaces to work with. Give Dave Wolf a call and talk with him. Tell him I told you to call and he will certainly tell you if it can be repaired. Can't recommend him highly enough.

broken stock
 

Thank you all who have responded so quickly - I truly appreciate all the help and advice. I'm brand new to this forum and am touched by the knowledge and care you have shared about this situation. I will follow up on your leads.

I would second Edgar's opinion of Chris Dawe's work. He is a magician. JUst remember that if you have to send anything to Canada with a frame attached, that it will have to go through an importer as it is still treated as a firearm. This will add to the cost, so you should check this out. If you can send just the stock to Chris, you are in good hands. His work is stellar!

Here is the picture of my stock after Dave worked on it. If you look carefully you can see the slightly different color to the right of the drop point and running up through the top tip of the checkering. He didn't even refinish the butt, just blended the affected area to save me some money. Said he could make it completely disappear if we refinished the entire butt. Since this was my grouse gun I thought I would wait until it needed to be refinished and then have him do it.

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Before and after by Dave Wolf:

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Gerry, did Dave re-cut the checkering border closest to break and thereabouts? I couldn't tell from the angle of the photo. Dave did a good job for you.

I'm not really sure. He actually glued it up and sent it back to me to shoot for a while to make sure it held up well to the pressures of shooting and then I returned it to him for the finish work. I shot 200 rounds through it at skeet and there wasn't any movement at all, the the stock was solid as a rock so he finished the affected area. I don't think he has ever had one of my guns for more than 3 weeks. Super quick. Again, this was my hunting gun, so I wasn't as concerned about it being 100% perfect with regards to the cosmetic appearance, but I still think it came out looking very good. I never had anyone that handled the gun pick up on the break.

Contact John Garvin 111 Archie Dr Albany, Ga. 229-888-7891. He repaired a broken stock on my Repo several years ago.

I broke my 28 ga about 4 years ago. Glued it myself. No problems since. The repair is at the front of the checkering; all but invisible.

That break on your gun is pretty clean looking and should repair nicely.

Parker Reproductions. Ended up restocking it because the PGCA was not in existence and the people that had the guns made in Japan, Reagent Chemical Co., could care less.

It may only be that it sticks in my mind, and not so many in reality, but it seems there are more broken repros coming to the surface daily. Maybe there should be a registry for them. Apart from old and abused hammer guns, I don't recall the last time I heard anyone say they broke an original Parker.

Edgar, I read somewhere that there has been a long standing stock issue with the reproduction Parkers. That there has been a tendency for breaking at the wrist.

You probably read it here, in an old thread. There is a good argument that the old stockmakers knew there was more to look for in a blank than figure. If you looks through high grade blanks, you will see that they are sawn such that the grain straightens out significantly at, or slightly behind the wrist. That's why the blanks are often sanded on the upper and lower surfaces, in addition to the sides. There may be as much as an inch extra material on a blank, giving the stockmaker the greatest latitude in choosing where the final piece comes from within the envelope of the blank size.

Nice shot with that hammer Edgar,you hit the nail right on the head!

Edgar,
I have had the stock on my VH16 repaired a couple of times. Grouse hunting in the Appa;achians will take its toll.

Harold, I don't know what your Parker looks like but that is a good looking setter.

If you come to Maine Harold, you'd better bring some glue. You're tough on that old girl.

Apparantly Parker Bros. had the experience and reputation to uphold in the area of stocks breaking at the wrist. The Parker gun is generally noted for its very desirable and classic 'thin wrist' and because of this, coupled with nicely figured wood on the graded guns, (gererally Grade 3 and higher) the necessity of the 'invention' of the hickory reinforcing rod became paramount and was possibly (or probably) an oversight on the part of those who designed/developed/commissioned the "Parker Reproduction by Winchester".

I bet if you took the stock off alot of old Parkers we would find some old repairs and/or cracks in the wood. Hell, they are 100 years old and I think the wood just becomes brittle. Had the stock off a SW16 to take care of a safety issue and found a crack that would probably have broken with a good fall, so we pre-emptively accraglassed it.
E-setter, yes, Betty is a little sweetheart. Has an unbelievable nose, will back forever, retrieves and loves me to death. Tried to breed her in Feb., but was unsuccessful. BTW, I live in Wheeling now but lived the majority of my life in Belmont County, Oh and do most of my local hunting in Oh where I still own 170 acres. It is an absolute shame what has happened to the Ohio grouse population. I talk to several Cincinati grouse hunters each year in the UP.
Damn, I missedethat bird!

IMHO, the Repros are getting a bad rap for breaking at the wrist that has been propagated by an uninformed few so often that the the peanut gallery have come to believe it as fact -- and now they are repeating it. The facts are the Repros that have broken at the wrist have broken accidentally by a variety of catostrophic experiences such as by dropping, taking a fall with the gun in hand and as we learned in this thread -- by dog, etc.

She looks great and at one time we had unbelievable grouse hunting in Ohio, but no more. Now it is Wisconsin for me. I'll bet I know the guys you talk to in the UP.
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Broken Stocks
 

Thank You Wild Skyes, I can not tell you the amount of people that sent broken stocks in that said" I don't know what happened to it, I took it out of the case put it together and it broke". Yet some of those very stocks came in with dented barrels ,stone dust stuck to the wood, scratches where it fell of the car roof, muddy dog foot prints on it. you name it and the customer wanted us to fix it or replace it. There had been stocks that were replaced with defects in the wood, but the vast majority were broken by accident. One of the posters said we(Reagent) did not care about the customer and that is just not true. We tried to please every customer. If we didn't we would not have been in business very long with many repeat customers. Thanks and have a Happy Easter.

Harold, Any recommendations as to where I could locate a nice setter pup? Did you at one time raise setters? Thanks, Rob

I might be able to help you with the setter pup. A good friend has a well bred litter of setters on the ground right now. You can email me at esetter5@me.com and I'll give you his info.

Rob,
my female(in the picture) was in heat in Feb but she was quite uncooperative and it never happened. I was disappointed cause my male will be 12 this fall.
Gerry, send me the info on those pups also if you can.
Harold

broken Repro stock
 

Edwin,
I have a similar break on my parker 28 Repro.
Did you send you parker to Dave wolf in Waco TX as shown in this thread-
or did you go somewhere else for the repair, and were you satisfied with the results?

Thanks,
Mark Germain

Add me to the long list of Repro 28 owners that had to restock the gun. What made me most angry was the manufacturer/distributor did absolutely nothing when I asked if it were possible to get a replacement stock from them. And this was back in 1988 as I recall. I think all the stocks on the Repros were Larch or possibly a Japanese Linden that is used for the lightweight paper covered doors used in the Japanese homes for partitions.

And, don't even get me started on the built-in defect that Larry Del Grego finally found after I sent the gun to him. It had been at the factory gunsmith twice and came back with the same problem twice. Couldn't get rid of that POS fast enough.

What was the built in defect John?

It's not the gun that's a POS but some of the wood they used.

I will pay scrap price!....send them all to ME......(-:
I have fallen a few times with my repro's....They took a slam and did not brake. Im sure if a void was under the grip area it could have been bad. Parker repro's wood is petite, thin in the wrist area, like the originals. This is part of the reason they are so well liked. I do not feel they have any factory defect or inferior wood. Its a small trade off for how dynamic, light and nice the guns are. They are more fragile than say a stevens 311 or a model 21 but they do not feel clubby either. I do wish we still had the factory repair parts that were lost in the flood, and had less expensive replacement stocks for repairs when needed.
I think Parker Reproductions as a company did great service to its customers.....I have had some business in the past with Richard and found him very helpful. He even sent me a surprise package of memorabilia that I still have. Thanks all SXS ohio....(-:

On the skeet field, taking a station 8 high house straight overhead would result in the gun locking up and not opening for reload for the low house. Sometimes I could give the underside of the receiver a good whack with the heel of my hand and the gun would open. The real pain in the butt was in the hunting field when shooting at a high incoming bird caused the same problem. The gun would lock closed and not open at all. Several times it was a long walk back to the car to get my spare gun. It never happened except on that straight overhead shot. Larry Del Grego shot it and could not make it lock up until I told him of the exact situation. Then he had it happen. Upon taking it down to parts he found a burr on the spindle shaft (?), filed it off and the gun could be used. I was never relaxed shooting the gun; after the cyanide bluing rubbed off during the first hunting season, the broken stock, then that problem, I had enough and found a VH28. It was like owning an Edsel.

And, I'm not a picky guy. I can accommodate the peculiarities of life easily, but not with that Repro.