Stock Drop Thoughts
 

Not the Dow Jones Industrial, but the rare small bore stock drops. Just for the giggles of it how much stock drop is too much if you are searching for a rare Parker small bore? Does the rarity of the gun negate excessive stock drop? If you were searching for say a 30" graded 28 gauge or a 32" A grade 20 gauge and you have been searching for years does a 3" or 3+" drop kill the deal for you? I suppose you could ask the same question of any hard to find Parker, not just a smallbore.

Just thought it would be interesting to get opinions from members.

Reggie, I find it so much easier to adapt myself physically to a gun with 3" or even 3 1/2" of DAH than to a gun with minimal DAH, say 2 1/4" or less. There are temporary or removable comb risers of all sorts to attain a more comfortable DAH to the individual, but there is no way around a too shallow DAH.

To me, if I love the gun with excessive DAH, I make it mine and figure it out after the fact.





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Thanks Dean. I hope we hear more thoughts on this. I hear and read often comments like "that is a super nice gun that I would have bought but too much drop" or something similar.

I recently found a rare Parker with 4" of drop at the heel. Oddly, it feels just fine at the shoulder. I also have Parkers with less than 2" at the heel. They feel just fine too. My first Parker, a 28 gauge, was very crooked, probably 3" drop at heel. When I was a teenager, I had to put a pad on the comb to shoot it. Now, sixty years and 70 pounds later, it fits me just fine without the pad.

For me rare would be the 32" 28 gauge in any grade or a B grade or higher 32" 20 gauge. In those instances I am going to make it shootable for me either with a stock bend, addition of some type of comb riser or have it restocked while keeping the original wood. To answer your question Reggie I suppose there is no such thing as to much drop in these very specific instances. On other guns, shooters if you will I have walked away from plenty with to much drop for me. I don't get to worked up over the DAH as it's the DAC that matters most to me.

I saw a shooter just last evening that had a micro fiber towel folded up and taped to his gun with blue masking tape to form a comb riser. Not sure I would want that on my A grade 20 though. :eek:

I sold a dandy little LC 20g that I just could not shoot, the drop was about 3 1/8" if I recall. I have passed up a lot of Parkers that I feared I couldn't shoot well. That being said, I can't shoot a fitting gun well, but certainly worse with too much drop. For me Reggie, the higher the price the less drop I'll tolerate but I'm a shooter, I don't collect for price appreciation. I have a 28g Repro that I don't shoot well and I can't quite figure it out. My buddy thinks there's too little drop, I just don't think I shoot it enough, and the drop is slightly less than what I use and echoing Dean, there isn't much I can do about it. When I naturally mount it, it's like I'm looking up a "ramp" and I'm just not good enough to adapt to so many different guns. If I don't start shooting it better it's being sold.

So Randy, in summary, it its a rare bird stock drop doesn't kill the deal for you even if it means bending it and changing the factory specs? I once owned a very high condition, straight stocked Fox that the previous owner had bent the stock and it no longer matched the factory card dimensions. When I got some opinions on the gun most people would say "its a shame the stock was messed with".

At the price you are going to have to pay for a graded Parker or Fox 32" 20 gauge, the prospect of having to spend the money for a restock due to unshootable dimensions will become a speed bump on the highway of life, trust me. So far as a 32" Parker 28 gauge, the cost becomes almost inconsequential.

Correct Reggie. Bending to fit me is something I will do. If my Executors or the next owner gets all worked up over it they can always bend it back. :)

On a smallbore, as any gauge, it's the barrels that sell the gun to me. I can live and shoot a variety of stock dimensions but if the barrels aren't solid then it's a gun that I will pass on.