My Sick Parker
 

Hello,

I have kind of a disappointing story regarding a Parker that was recently passed down to me from my dad. It's a 16 gauge (Trojan steel), photos attached. The gun was a wedding gift to my dad from my mom's side of the family. Growing up it always intrigued me, never shot it, my dad wasn't really into it. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago it fell off the wall along with the antler rack that was supporting it and split the buttstock, dented one of the barrels and...a small metal piece, rectangular in shape, approximately the size of a fingernail fell out (dad thinks it had to do with the safety). Anyway, I was still very happy to take on the responsibility of ownership in a piece of my family history.

Since transplanting the gun from it's home in AZ to mine in CA I have seen rust develop on the receiver and have misplaced the missing piece. It's been a losing situation that I look forward to turning around.

Never had to contend with rust issues like this on any of my other guns.

I'm waiting for a call back from a gunsmith. I'm going to ask to have the dent, rust and stock addressed. The missing piece...I don't know, will have to wait till it turns up, I guess. If this isn't a good plan feel free to stop me in my tracks, I do care about this gun.

Thanks for reading my story and by the way this is a fantastic site, very happy I bumped into this resource. I never would've learned so much so quickly about Parker shotguns.

It looks like a keeper to me. The dent isn't much of a problem. Dose look like you have a head separation. Any good stock person should be able to fix the wood. I think it is well worth fixing. Don't send it to just any old gun smith. Send it to someone familiar with parkers. Read some of the past threads on restoration. You will figure it out pretty quickly.

There are several good gunsmiths you can find on here, but I have used Brian Dudley with great results. Here is his website

http://bmdgunstocks.com/

You're doing the right thing Michael.
Keep in mind that not every 'gunsmith' is qualified to do the work on these old guns in the manner that they deserve. Some can even do more damage to these guns through their ignorance of proper repair procedures. And there are those whose work is so perfect that you can't even tell there was ever a problem with the gun.... we hope you have chosen one of these. Good Luck.

yeah, everything that Dean said.. Plus there are more smiths out there that can screw up a Parker then there are good ones that know what they are doing.

Mike,

Too bad about that mishap with the gun falling from the wall.
The good thing is that it COULD have been much worse.
The damage to the gun looks very repairable from the little that I can see.

Goerres, Mills, Romig, Opening Day and Dudley,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I won't wait for the call back from my local gunsmith. I'll research the forum and probably reach out to Dudley. See if I can follow this up with after photos. From someone who's a gun owner but not exactly an expert thanks again for the advice.

I would like to put in a word for my friend, Mr. James Flynn. James is a gun maker whose specialty is stocking. James has written more than one article for "Shooting Sportsman and has been doing work now for forty years and is quite good. His site address is : www.doublegunshop.com/flynns_custom_guns.htm.

Michael, you won't go wrong following the sage advice of the above members. Use one of the recommended gunsmiths noted in this forum. You wouldn't send the Mona Lisa to your local art shop for repair and nor should a nice restorable Parker.

I just called Brian and he sure knows his trade.
Ralph