Tom, I did NOT see a "prototype". I saw two of the early Italian guns at Cabela's in Owatonna. (If they have price tags on them, presumably they are NOT prototypes!) Bill Taylor, who ran the Gun Library back then, agreed with me that the wood to metal fit was really poor (very proud wood). I have seen several others, some with much better fit. You (and others here) have admitted to various functioning problems with the ICD's, mostly the early ones. So . . . does that mean you need to check the SN before you buy? Far as I know, early to late, Parker Repro quality was quite consistent. (You get that on production guns; you don't always on "custom" guns, if the quality of the parts and the custom work isn't the same.)
The Parker Repro used the Parker single trigger. Many guys that reported problems with the trigger also reported that those problems were solved fairly quickly. No question, however, it's not as good a single trigger as the Miller. More Parker ST problems out there? Certainly . . . but then there must be something close to 10,000 ST Repros floating around, which is about 10x the entire ICD production--and kinda puts into perspective problems of any kind reported with Repros vs ICD's. However, DT guns to DT guns, what are the complaints about the Repros? The case colors fade, the DHE's don't have hand engraving. But they work very well, and consistently--and you don't need to check to see whether they were made with Italian parts or not--and the wood to metal fit is very consistent. Barrel blue . . . regardless of who did the ICD's and who did the Repros, I've never seen any kind of issue with Repro barrel blue. Very good work.
Whether SOME Italian guns are of "better" quality is not the issue. The issue is the inconsistency of the quality of the Italian guns, and there's no way you can talk your way around that--regardless who did the work.
It's not a question of my "loving" the Repro. I'm into calling a spade a spade. I've often commented that I don't particularly care for the Repro 20's, because I think they're on the heavy side--for 20's. The 28's and the 12's, I think are about where they need to be in terms of weight, for my taste, for those two gauges. But then I find many of the ICD's too heavy too, for either 20's or 28's.
And I beat you to the old RR station, Tom. I was there in the summer of 1999; don't know when Gunter took charge of the assembly process, but he wasn't there then--which means not all the guns were made under his watchful eye. (Again, consistency issues.)
