Stock Savable?

[keithelsass]

Hello,

I picked up Parker 12 ga VH on a #2 frame with 30" barrels as a project gun. The metal is in pretty good shape but the stock is questionable at best.

The stock is covered in some sort of varnish, I'm not really sure. It is thick, hard and yellow. I've tried mineral spirits, acetone, and lacquer thinner on a q-tip and nothing happens. It can be scraped off with a fingernail.

The Bigger issue is the stock is loose, and someone ran a wood screw with a bolt to fix a split it has. When removing the stock it pretty much fell off. Any way this is savable or would it be too much work? My ultimate goal is to get this back to being a shooter.

Thanks for all the advice.

[B. Dudley]

It is toast. Any effort put into trying to save it would be a waste. In my opinion.

[keithelsass]

Kind of what I was thinking this one is done.

Current plan is to get this restocked somehow, and keeping the old stock with the shotgun to keep it "complete" . Debating on the best course of action, send it off or try to do some of it myself. I'm not sure if the old one can be useful at all with this.

Looking around I couldn't find any semi-inletted stocks, does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?

[Dean Romig]

Brind Dudley, the gent who answered you is a professional stocker and damn good at it.





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[Joe from MO]

Before I'd ever spend the money on restocking any old gun like that, the rest of the gun had better be in pretty darn good shape, or I also have to be willing to go all in on restoring the rest of the gun. Getting a quality restock is a pretty expensive proposition if it's to be done correctly.... I have seen a lot of Brian's work either on this site, or FB, and it appears to be first rate, so anything he says I'd pretty much take as the good.

For a VH, to do a full blown quality restore, you will have way more into the gun, than it's ever going to be worth. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, because sentimentality, and other things come into play there. If you are capable of doing the work yourself.... That makes the decision easier, but most of us are not quality antigue run restoration experts, and it's time consuming work.

Best of luck with it.

[Andy]

As a point of information I got a quote for a restock of an LC Smith about 7-8 years ago from a respected stock maker (not Brian D. in case you wonder) and it was shy of $8,000, but not by much. I sold the gun for what I paid for it, about a grand.

[John Davis]

I contacted Purdey about a restock. When I converted pounds to dollars the estimate was around $50,000.00. I decided to go a different route.

[charlie cleveland]

some pretty good stock blanks on ebay would do for a cheap shooter..might even look good would depend on how good a stock maker you are...for me I would have to call brian...charlie

[keithelsass]

Thanks for the great replies. I have seen Brian’s and others work on the forum and their websites it’s amazing. They are true masters of the craft.

This is a VH and I have no sentimental value besides I love to keep old guns alive and learn new skills. I don’t see this as a “magazine cover” but it does have life left. I’d love a amazing looking Parker but that will have to be a different one.

I have no problem putting some money into this gun but I’m not going to wrap up 5k+ into a 2k gun at best. I bought it as a project to learn from. So I guess that leaves me and my nonexistent stock making skills.

I think we all agree this stock it toast. From my understanding fitting a different VH stock to this would be extremely difficult at best. I don’t think I can pull off stock from a complete blank. Right now I’m reading about semi-inletted stocks but can’t seem to find any. Hopefully I’ll find one or a reject that won’t work for the fancy guns.

[BRDHNTR]

You can get a nice stock blank from Cecil Fredi in Las Vegas for short money and then try your hand at stock making.