[Richard Flanders]

I put 4 boxes through my recent acquisition and by that time there were sprays of old brown oil on the tables that had been thrown out the firing pin holes or from the slot in the tables, so today I figured I better dismantle it and getterdone. Phew. Took all day to dismantle, clean, and reassemble it. I thought the trigger guard was going to break before breaking loose; I had to gently knock it loose with the little Lyman nylon hammer. Take a look at these pictures. Look at the case colors and the tables. This gun has not seen that much use and was well cared for. All you guys who have Parkers that have not been apart in 50+ yrs, this is what they will look like inside, regardless of how clean they look externally. EVERY Parker I have taken apart looked at least this bad, save for one that someone got to before I got it. The trigger blades and parts always show the most corrosion from water easily getting in. Some are FAR worse than this. I've spent up to 10 days on this same chore in the past, especially on old hammer guns that have screws to tight they just don't want to budge. Heating the head up with an electric soldering gun is the best way to loosen them if they're glued in by old oil. Works like magic; I used that on several screws on this gun, including all the floorplate screws. Every little spring in the gun was totally gummed up with solidified old oil and nearly inoperable, which is a safety issue in my book. I'm never sure an old Parker is going to always work out in the woods until I dismantle and inspect/clean it out like this. Despite the amount of old oil inside the wood is near pristine, for which I am very grateful. I was expecting much much worse considering all the hardened oil on the outside that clogged the engraving and screw slots. All I did to the inletting was wipe it down with a cloth and scrape out a little oil. This series of pics starts with the grunge and corrosion then proceeds to clean parts ready for reassembly. The two trigger blades show one clean and one grungy; which one do you want in your gun?? This is why I take every Parker I purchase apart, usually before I ever shoot it, as I like to inspect the sears so I know the gun is safe. Trust me, they are not all safe when we buy them; I had to send the locks on one hammer gun out to have the mangled and broken sear ends rebuilt. I did a little dressing of the sears on this one but they were pretty good really. I just can't live with leaving a gun this dirty inside as the corrosion will just get worse. Save the resource I say; these treasures are just on temporary loan to us.