Loose Forend.

[paul adams]

Just purchased an SBT and shot (3) lines of trap. The gun works great except that I can detect looseness in the forend upon closing the action. Once the action is closed however, everything seems stable (no looseness). The forend does have a screw at the front. Any suggestions how to eleminate or improve the condition.

[Heff]

My SBT had a small piece of black electric tape in the forend when I bought it, I thought it odd so I took it out. When I did there was a very small amount of movement, so is imply put it back in. I've probably shot a couple thousand round through it since then with no issues.

[Autumn Daze]

This is a very common condition with Parker SBT guns. Both of the guns I now own or have owned had a bit of a loose forend. I think its more due to wood shrinkage than anything else.

[Pa SxS]

Make sure the 3 screws on the underside of the forend iron are tight. If they are loose, there will be a gap between the barrel and the end of the forend. Chad and Dave, this may solve your problem.

[Autumn Daze]

Thanks Chuck, But I check them regularly. If they become loose the forend develops those nasty little cracks where the wood contacts the iron.

[B. Dudley]

Not uncommon in doubles either with ejectors.
Some of the ejector parts want to fight agaist the forend's position on the barrels. That combined with wood shrinkage can cause a little bit of a loose feel.

[paul adams]

Thanks to all that posted. The looseness was pretty much eliminated by tightening (2) screws and the addition of tape.

[Bruce P.]

Had the same issue with my sbt. When I got it, I noticed the forend was a bit loose so I added a felt sticky dot that took care of it for a few months. Last summer I noted that it was getting sloppy again and I assumed it was just the felt compressing. Then one day a couple months back, after shooting, I was removing the forend to put the gun back into its case and the front screw fell out into my hand. Being conditioned to keeping screw drivers at least 10 feet away from a Parker, it never crossed my mind to check the screws! Needless to say, I broke conditioning and now it's nice and snug.

Bruce

[Heff]

Funny, after snapping a pic of the forearm tape job on mine I decided to check the screws just to see. I got about a 1/4 turn on one and 1/2 on the other.

[Pa SxS]

Here is why I suggested checking the tightness of the screws.

I started shooting my grandfathers SC when I was a young teenager. I noticed that there was a gap between the barrel and the end of the forend. You could squeeze the gap shut and when you did, the release lever would partly open yet when you put the forend on, you had to press pretty hard to get the lever to snap closed. I thought, how ingenious of Parker to make a spring loaded forend. Hell, that's the way I thought it was supposed to be. As I got smarter (no comments please) I realized it was not normal and as Bruce did, I put a felt dot in the barrel channel of the forend to make it tight. The gun stayed this way for all these years until recently. For some reason, I thought to tighten the screws. Holy cow, it was just loose screws!

Now you know the rest of the story.

P.S. for you hammer gun owners, check the hammer screws. They do have a tendency to loosen up. Small thread Locktite is the answer.