Let's see some wood!

[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Greg Baehman

12-ga. Repro with 30" barrels that one of our members has reported having?

Is that unusual?

[Wild Skies]

Yes Edgar, they are unusual. The owner has mentioned his set on more than one occasion in this forum, here's one of those mentions:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15370

I hope the owner sees this request and will post pics of his complete gun, including the wood. Not only is the gun unusual, but an original Parker Reproduction 2-bbl. case capable of housing a set 30" tubes is unusual as well.

[edgarspencer]

Thanks Greg. We all have seen the cyclical whims of whats the current trend, if we've been dealing with this affliction for very long. I've been actively collecting and hunting with Parkers, as well as other double guns, for over 50 years. My dad was my greatest mentor, also having the 'affliction'.
There was a time when he thought shorter barreled guns were the be all and end all. He had rows of 26" doubles, and rarely paid attention to the 30" guns, despite having a few nice ones.
He wasn't alone in his thinking and the prices of long barreled guns, back in his hay day of collecting, reflected this obsession with fast, short guns. The Churhill XXV was king in the moderately priced English market. Coincidentally, this point in the up and down cycle of barrel lengths coincided with virtually the entire manufacturing life of the Parker Reproduction. For this reason, I can easily understand why this fluke of timing resulted in so few long barreled guns.
I find there's a use, and a place for all the popular lengths, hence my trio of 20ga. DHEs. The 24" gun was all I used last year in the grouse woods, and yet I was beside myself with excitements to recently find my straight gripped 30" gun. Here's a situation a diehard Reroduction collector could benefit from a walk thru some of the better shops, as there is an ample supply of the long guns no one wanted 30 years ago.

[Tony Guccioni]

Obliquely viewed and in favourable light, relatively significant rippling of the more expansive areas of the buttstock could be seen.

[Steve Hodges]

Tony, you are a VERY patient person.

[BRDHNTR]

Amen to that Steve

[MD*GSP]

Here's one of my workhorse guns for training (28ga)

I really like the nicely streaked EW found on some of the Repros. This is one I refinished. It's an oil finish with a very thin coat of Spar Urethane rubbed in for moisture resistance.

[Kirk Potter]

Nice, reminds me of my 12.. Having mine refinished as well.

[Cold Spring]

Ooops, it's a Fox.

XE 20, 2 barrel set

I'm still looking for a nice Parker Repro 20 bore, straight stock, splinter, 28-inch tubes, double triggers. Case and accessories optional. Nothing else please!

[Wild Skies]

Back on page 12 of this thread I posted pics of a NOS Parker Reproduction replacement stock. This stock was to be a replacement for one of my consecutively numbered pair of Sporting Clays Classics -- one I shoot, the other is NIB unfired. A previous owner whacked the SSBP off to install a recoil pad of the gun I use, the pad has bothered me to the bejeezus as I wanted to bring the gun back to its original configuration. However, the color of the wood of this replacement stock turned out not a particularly good match to that gun's forend and that gun's wood was not a good match to its consecutive numbered gun. I tried to find an original Repro forend to match this stock, but to no avail. So I decided to purchase a blank from Cecil Fredi and have a new splinter forend made to compliment the replacement stock. The color and figure of the replacement stock and soon-to-be-made forend should make this consecutively numbered pair of SCCs appear the factory intended them to be a true pair.

Here's are a couple of pics of the new forend blank with that NOS replacement stock.