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Unread 10-21-2011, 03:00 PM   #8
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Don Kaas
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Luxus and Chiron (hunterbid.com) have some nice Turkish regia. I have bought directly from Turkey as well ( Denili (sp.)) quite a few times. eBay is actually a good place to browse. I have bought a lot of wood off of eBay. When you really look at a lot of D grade + Parkers as many of us have, it is actually remarkable how "modest" most of the wood is compared to modern guns like higher grade Perazzis. You can say the same thing about Purdeys for that matter. However, within reason, when re-stocking a higher grade Parker a little more figure in the butt livens up the their look considerably.

My one pet peeve, (I take that back- I have a menagerie of pet peeves) is when someone restocks a nice D or higher Parker with the wrong wood. G grade can have nigra (most) or regia. Ds and above need regia (unless it is one of the rarer late Remington high grade guns that originally had fancy nigra even then I'd go regia)Having said that there is nothing wrong with putting a plain piece of regia on a VH or lower grade hammer gun if you have one sitting around- you just won't get the red/brown look typical of the nigra stocked factory guns just as you won't get the blonde look typical of most DHs if you use nigra onthem I've been slowing down on the stocking in the past few years...too many guns already. As the Duchess of Windsor is said to have remarked. "You can not be too rich or too thin." but when it comes to a blank of well laid out Juglans regia, it can't be too well seasoned or have too much figure and color. The only problem is good Turkish regia is expensive. I am just an amatuer enthusiastic consumer of gunstock wood. Talk to professional stockers and they will give you the real low down (but do not assume they know anything in particular about Parkers)...

Below is a rather plainish piece of regia (still probably French in origin) put on my 1893 Purdey pigeon gun when Purdey re-stocked it in 1967...
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