doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker Repos - Your Take

It Takes time to add soul to a weapon, part of the fun. I have a 12 ga. reproduction with double triggers and 26" barrels and love it. The REAL Parkers with their age can come with problems of their own. Get a fair price and enjoy!

JohnMc has it right on.
I don't mean to tick anyone off or pick a fight, but in my humble opinion, I also beleive that the Parker Reproduction guns are superior to the originals. I have both! The hand workmanship on the originals was good and a nice touch - BUT the repros have better steel, better weight, better balance, better checkering and in my experience, better triggers. The only place they fall short is the case coloring, which can be taken care of with some shellacking. I also have never had a single problem with the single trigger version, including a twelve gauge that sees a lot of Skeet and Sporting Clays use.
Do they have soul? Me thinks that GregSY is referring to a history, not soul. No that belongs to the really old guns like original Parkers, Foxes, etc. The really old firms that are still in business, H&H, Purdey, etc., don't make guns the way they used to either - they make them better, while making use of modern steels, CNC machining, etc. Does that mean that they don't have soul?
I also like the RBL's (Have 4) but their workmanship is not up to the Parker Reproduction standards.
Don't get me wrong, I like the "old" guns as well - but they aren't a religion with me.

Well said BEAR.

I have a close friend who has an original VHE Parker in 28 gauge and I have used the gun. I like my Repro better.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to own the old VHE but the Repro handles better and is less expensive to own.

Blasphemers!

No shotgun with fake engraving is ever going to have the "soul" of the old guns.

Most people who own and shoot one of the repros could not afford buying and shooting and original. Simple truth is that the originals in fine condition are just too valuable for most people to shoot. If they made high grade Lefever repros I might be in line to buy one of them too.

I wish that I had bought a dozen of the Parkers repros back when they were closing them out. I bought one. I will let the kids figure out which of them gets it when I am dead.

Original Trojans and V's in 12ga aren't that expensive. But it's certainly true that you won't touch an original 28ga for what you'll spend on a Repro.

You boys who think a Repro is a better gun had better get in shape. One day, you will be sitting in the Great Beyond, eating a fried egg sandwich, and Charles Parker will spot you. That's when the running will start.

Yeah,have the "engraving" enhanced by a flesh and blood engraver and give the repros a couple of decades of use and we might talk "soul".

Hunting with a gun can give it soul. A gun that has been carried hundreds of days through the fields, taking many birds along the way, has more soul than it's littermate which has sat unused since it's birth in 1910.

I suppose that in the 1880s there were some old farts that contended only guns with Damascus barrels had soul and that guns with Sir Joseph's Compressed Steel barrels had merely good technical qualities but no artistic merit.

I meant no offense with my "old fart" reference and I am one.

Best,

Mike