[VH20]

Yes, when firing the gun. Recoil is the cause. The beavertail provides a large surface area for you to grip firmly, while a splinter just rests on top of your palm, essentially. It's too small to grasp firmly. With a firm grip on a beavertail, recoil tries to pull (and the rebound tries to push) the forend out of your grip. As a result, your grip tries to pull the forend off the gun. The stress is transferred directly to the screws holding the wood to the forend iron, and ultimately to the forend loop on the barrel.

Since it wasn't stated and it isn't immediately obvious in the pics, the non-reinforced loop like yours (bottom pic) is independent of the lower rib. The only solder attaching it to the barrels is just that on the footprint of the loop itself. For the reinforced loop in the upper pic, it is made in one piece with the lower rib section that runs from the loop back to the barrel lug. This means that the loop is held to the barrels by a much larger/longer solder joint as it takes advantage of the rear section of the lower rib's solder attachment. The fact that your forend goes on and off with ease only means that the stocker did a good job of fitting it, and is not directly related to the problem being discussed. I suppose a poorly-fit forend that is difficult to remove would only add to the stress on the lug, but the loop and wood failures that Parker experienced with their early beavertail ("Trap-Style") forends can be presumed to have been well-fit from the factory. Their "fix" was to redesign the forend loop solder attachment as shown and add the long bolt through the tip of the forend wood and into the iron.

Will trouble ensue? I suppose it depends on your shooting style and the amount of recoil generated by your choice of loads. If you shoot with a firm grip on the forend and use loads with heavy recoil, expect trouble. If you shoot lighter loads and simply rest the forend in your hand as you would a splinter, perhaps not.

Jim