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Originally Posted by Todd Poer
That is awesome that you tackle restorations. Sorry to hear the stock on your uncles gun was punky. Being able to shoot that gun knowing he shot it would be special. To me it would be like a warm hand shake with him every time you hunted or shot with it knowing he was one that wore the checkering in. Even though you needed to do a lot to the furniture that gun is still special for you and hope you have many fond memories of it.
Good luck.
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Thanks Todd. That gun is special and will never be sold. It will be passed to a family member with the history of the gun. I plan to hunt with it this year. I started restoring guns at 16 years old. I did a ton of Remington 1100's and 870's for friends. I would refit the stocks properly, make the stock look like it grew on the receiver and sand off all the horrible pressed in checkering and re-do it by hand, I stripped off the obnoxious RKW finish and gave the wood a nice oil finish. I worked on a lot of those guns before I ever touched a Parker.
When word of my work got around, I also did a number of Ithaca single trap guns for members of the venerable old Dutchess Valley Club in Pawling and a few Model 21's. I did a Purdy for the founder and owner of Business Week magazine, Elliot Bell. For this gun, I bought Purdy's slackum and rubbing oil finish. Each iteration is a two step process using the slackum and rubbing oil. Elliot Bell was a close friend of my grandfather and left me a nice 16 bore Belgian gun in his will and a full case of Eley 2" shells that he used in the Purdy. His wife sold the Purdey before he died when he came down with Parkinson’s. I was happy with the 16 bore. That gun and the case of Eley shells will never be sold either.