1914 12 ga

[Holeshot]

I hate to admit but my ole trojan eats factory loaded steel shot and never complains.

[Chuck Heald]

If you want to keep the value up, don't have the reciever blued nor have a common local gunsmith reblue the barrels. The reciever was originally color casehardened. The case hardening is still there, but the thin colors of the oxides are long worn off. It's probably turned a gray color from wear by now. Leave that be or have the color casehardening process properly redone. Nothing else, no polishing, no plating, no blueing. Those things are sure sign of an amatuerish attempt at restoration.

The barrels are soldered together. Modern blueing uses heated molten salts. Two things can happen if you blue it with modern hot salts. One is that the barrels fall apart in the blueing tank from the heat or the heated salts will have permeated the solder and begin a slow process of deteriorating the solder. Polishing barrels and hot blueing is the kiss of death for a double. Barrels on a double are polished by hand (no power equipment that rounds corners) rust blued by swabbing on an acid, allowed to rust for period of hours, then boiled in water, mildly abraded with fine steel wool or a very fine wire wheel. This is repeated from 6 to 20 times to get the desired blue.

Sanding the wood below the edges of the metal is another amatuer mistake. The wood should be chemically stripped and the dents steam raised. Oil soaked stocks need that extracted by a chemical process.

Buggered screws should be replaced or repaired by welding the slots and recutting.

All the above is why it's much more desireable to leave most guns alone rather than do a home brewed restoration. A true professional restoration to original finishes is so costly as to be out of the question for a Trojan to most people.

If you give your location, these members can direct you to some gunsmiths that can do the mechanical repairs and maybe give you some advice on any other work.

[Craig]

Thank you everyone for your replys (especially CraigThompson)

I'm in S. Florida. I'd be willing to drive at least some distance to have the gun properly done. I've looked up some gunsmiths on the web but i'd like to find one that knows parkers well and others have used for restoration work.

The gun is actually still more of a blue'd color than a grey as compared to an old .30-30 I had reblue'd when I was 16. The .30-.30 still looks the same as when I got it back.

All of the screws are of original condition and the parker appears untampered with. My father-in-law was no gunsmith and said he never messed with it outside of shooting it. I guess I was the first person to fire it since it was put away probably 20 years ago. It's always been stored properly and thankfully never in a shed or garage corner or basement.

If all else fails I'd probably just have the barrel latch spring repaired and the butt plate replaced.

I'm still on the hunt for a stoeger 12ga sxs or a cz ringneck if I can find a good deal for walking around in swamps. I'll save the parker for shooting skeet and looking cool at the range. It's ridiculously accurate and fun to shoot.

[Bruce Day]

Originally Posted by David Holes

I hate to admit but my ole trojan eats factory loaded steel shot and never complains.

OMG, be careful. If the rabble hears of you using steel shot in a Parker, they will be getting the dogs, torches and ropes and be down on you in the night.

[Craig]

So does anyone know of a reputable gunsmith who is known for parker restorations in S. Florida?