Argentina Doves W/ a Repro. ??

[GH-16]

Sorry I didn't follow-up on this months ago.

I did take the repro to Argentina last June and had a blast shooting it. "Pun Intended"

Here's the way it broke down as far as the amount of ammo I ran through the gun is a fairly short amount of time. Before I went I shot the gun quite a bit at clay targets. Both trying to get myself into shooting condition and also hopefully to shake out any problems the gun might have. In doing so I ended up buying three different slip-on recoil pads before I finally settled on a lace up type with some sorbathane inserts so I wouldn't damage the skeleton butt and not beat the daylights out of my shoulder. I went through 2500 rounds during this practice in about six weeks time with no problems.

In Argentina we did six days of shooting & I managed to run 10,000 rounds through it in twelve shoots. Two of the shoots were over 2000 rounds each with the high one being just over 2500. The gun took all the abuse I could hand it. When you shoot 2500 rounds in a little over three hours you can imagine how many times the gun get's opened & slammed shut let alone how hot it gets. Overall it performed to perfection with only a small flaw that wasn't totally unexpected. I'm sorry to report that on the last shoot of the last day the left ejector malfuctioned and I had to finish the shoot using a different gun. It would still extract, it just wouldn't eject. But I'm happy to report that Brad Bachelder was able to work his magic and the gun is ready for the next fight.

The gun between practice and the hunt digested approximately 12,500 rounds in a fairly short period of time. The 10,000 rounds that were run through it in Argentina were done as fast as the gun could take them and all that happened to it was a left ejector malfunction. Other than that the gun is still like new including the case colors.

I'm very impressed at how well the gun did. I did this as a personal challenge to see what it would be like to be able to shoot as much as you wanted and to see for myself how well a Parker Reproduction could hold up to this kind of shooting. I'm now satisfied in both regards. I now know that I could be just as happy on an Argentina hunt shooting a thousand rounds a day or less and still be a very happy camper.

Would I take a repro again? You bet, in a New York second, but it would have to be a beavertail, double trigger gun just like the one I had with me. The barrels just plain get to hot for a splinter forearm. I'm not saying a single trigger wouldn't do the job, I'm just saying that with traveling this far and spending this much, Why take the chance on a single trigger messing up.

Once again I'm sorry for the late report!

Paul

[Autumn Daze]

Paul, Thanks for the report and that is one hell of a testement to the stoutness of the Parker Reproduction. I hope Richard reads this report as well. This should put to bed any concerns about the quality of these great guns.

[TARNATION !!!]

Paul: Still trying to digest the numbers. In a lifetime of hunting, I doubt I've reached my first 1000 rounds. I imagine you must have qualified for a doubles pin
Cheers,
Jack

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Paul. That is a great testamonial of the Repro. Aside from factory endurance testing that is about as much punishment as we could ever expect to see a double gun put through.

[charlie cleveland]

i dont own a repo but they are beautiful guns..ive watched and read everthing about them even before they were made....those small bores are beautiful....you fellows shoot a dove for all the rest of us parker lovers....charlie

[Richard Flanders]

I think Pauls info would make a nice little Parker Pages article so that it's in the permanent record. It really is one hell of a testimonial to the reliability of a Repro. A friend did the Argentina dove thing a few yrs back with an 1897? LC Smith 20ga he had personally restored and restocked. Others brought Winchesters, Berettas-S/S's, autos, you name it. I think they shot 5500 doves between them; dont' remember the ammo count but it was impressive, and the only gun fully functional in the end was the LCSmith.

[charlie cleveland]

takes a tough gun to go through that many shells...i bought a new revelation 12 ga double back in the 60 s and before the end of the first day of dove season the right side barrel quit working and the rear trigger guard screw fell out and would not tighten up...also talk with some boys that hunted south america for doves.they carried bennlis rem. winchester and other makes...they said it was a tough hunt on guns that not many if any came through with out having some kind of problem... charlie

[charlie cleveland]

i also meant to say this just goes to show you that double barrels such as the parker repo is as good as any thing out there.... charlie

[Ray Alvey]

Thanks for the information on the Parker Reproduction. I've been curious as to how they would hold up under heavy prolonged shooting. I've been an O/U shooter most of my life, but became captivated by the little 28ga repo's. - both in style and feel. I've used the repo on a couple of Dove hunts in the states, and have really enjoyed shooting it. I've been to Argentina 2x's, and we've had problems with most of the guns our group has taken. I'll take the 28 Repo on my next trip.

[Richard Flanders]

Here is my friends story from Argentina. I sent Paul's story to him and he replied with this.

"I went down to Argentina with a group of 5 11 years ago. we took nine shotguns,
eight 12 ga. autos and my 20 ga L.C. Smith with ejectors. We shot 14,250 rounds
in 3.5 days and the only gun that was still functioning properly at the end was
my L.C. Smith. In one shoot I shot 250 rounds in 90 minutes. And the author is
correct about the barrels getting enough to burn, severely burn, your hand, even
with a semi beavertail forearm. I had to use a glove and a rag to hold the gun.
It was a good shoot!!!"