Henry,
By all means I recommend you buying a re-pro 20ga. you'll never be sorry you did.
But there are a few things you should take into consideration about the re-pro's. Even though they are manufactured with more modern materials than the original Parkers. They are still an exact reprodution of the original guns as far as design is concerned. What that means is they still head-up the same as the originals where the stock meet's the action and they are still subject to the same stresses that the wood takes in this area.
The problem I have with the current offerings of steel shot is in the last few years the steel shot ammo manufactures have had a race to out-do each other in the ultra high speed hyper velocity magnum race. Because of this these shells have to be extremly high pressure loads that could be very tough on any small bore Parker.
The good news here is that there are now a lot of alternatives to steel for non-toxic ammo that are low pressure, softer shot materials and therefore kinder to the older double gun designs. I'll bet your gun club rules don't specify steel shot, they are probably just banning the use of lead.
I own several repro's and I know that I would never stuff a steel load down one of my 20 or 28ga guns simply for that fact that I know there are alternatives to steel that will be much kinder to the gun over the long haul. Look into the offerings by RST, New Era, Polywad, heavy shot, kent, bismuth, etc.
Buy the re-pro and enjoy it, but remember these low pressure non-toxic loads can also be used in your Elsie as well.
Just some food for thought and good luck with the hunt for the re-pro.
Paul
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