Restore, refinish, or leave it alone?

[Troy Marsh]

Good point Bruce. Can you recommend someone to check the barrels? Also, can you recommend an appraiser, as I need to know the value of the gun "AS IS" and the anticipated value after the work is done. Thanks again.

[Bruce Day]

I sold a decent enough, original condition circa 1900 GH 16ga O frame 28" damascus for $1800 eighteen months ago to a member here. Was a public sale at the Tulsa Gun Show. The barrels were starting to be a little loose on the face,the stock could benefit from refinishing which could be amateur done, dogs head butt plate, the barrels had decent pattern and could be redone or not depending on the purchaser. Could be shot as is and after a couple more thousand rounds, would need to be brought on face. The gun had good barrels and original tight chokes.

Yes I could recommend somebody to check the barrels but you are down in Georgia and none of them that I know are around there. Maybe some Georgians have people or if you want to get into Parkers, take it to a PGCA event, someone there will have gauges and can look at it. Or take it to the Southern Side by Side in NC in April and bring your checkbook.

[Troy Marsh]

Thanks so much Jack. I have no desire to try to do any of this myself. I've already spoken to Brad Bachelder, who gave me an estimate of 2-4 months turnaround time. Pricey, but you get what you pay for. If the wood turns out like I hope, maybe I'll invest some more in the barrels. We'll have to wait and see...

And I agree that shooting them is fun. I still remember killing my first deer, a 7 point, in October, 1974, with my 20 gauge DHE.

[charlie cleveland]

im glad you got that buck with your 20 ga parker....i like to here stories about deer hunting with the double barrels... i killed a doe last year with a 8 ga hammer gun parker o grade...used 00 buck 24 pellets to the load....range estmated 50 yards 7 hits in deer...clean kill...what load did you use to get that buck... charlie

[Troy Marsh]

#1 buckshot at 10 steps. I was 10 years old, first time on a stand by myself. There was no such thing as "still hunting," only running them with dogs. I heard the dogs bringing him and didn't appreciate how close they were until the old boy popped out of the woods right in front of me. We were so close that our eyes locked and he froze for a split second, broad sided, just long enough for me to get off a shot. I can still see his eyes like it was yesterday. My second shot missed as he wheeled around and headed back the way he came from. We found him about 20 yards inside the woods.