doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Need advice on Parker vh grade 20ga. barrels.

The cost is now 4100$ and includes rejointing, relaying the ribs, re-browning and shipping. Before 2,400 just covered the lining and everything else was added in. The cost of shipping has risen dramatically since the days when you could ship to Teague directly. All guns are now having the ribs re-layed.

Unfortunately, with that increase in price, a lot of otherwise nice guns that have been relegated to those pegs over the mantle are very likely to remain there.

It just depends on the gun. The next shipment going out has a matched pair of Powell SLE's, a H&H and a Purdey. It is not a service that is applicable to your typical Birmingham boxlock.

Pawnbroker:
With all due respect, what for you is "really bad" as a pit, may not be so bad for a practical shooting gun -- which is what most VH guns are. The rivels are something else. I'd send the tubes to Kirk Merrington and see what he thinks. He may be able to hone, etc. and get you shooting at very reasonable cost... compared. An expert opinion is always worth the price.

Best, Kensal

We sawed a barrel in two length wise off a '97 that appeared to be a sewer pipe and upon inspection the pits weren't more than .003 or so deep. Crud and lighting can play tricks and make the pitting look worse than it is.

Let's assume that Pawnbrokers' VH right barrel is pitted too deeply to be safe but the left barrel is shootable. What then, is the feasability of finding another bad set of tubes that has a useable right barrel, separating the barrels on both sets, and rejointing the two good barrels to make up a useable set?

We've seen examples of barrels with two different serial numbers or two different Damascus patterns that were apparently at one time returned to the maker to have a damaged tube replaced. It seems to me that if it is possible to mate an original tube with a new replacement tube, it would be just as possible to mate two used tubes.

I'd be interested to hear what you all think of this... feasability, cost, safety, etc., as compared to sleeving or lining which often costs more than the value of the gun in the case of lower grade doubles.

Why all this other stuff if the gun doesn't need it? They were doing them before just relining, right?

I am faced with a similar problem right now and have spoken with Doug Turnbull and other expert gunsmiths who have all said that they do not have anything capable of producing the kind of heat necessary to seperate the brazed joints of the barrel breechs and lug area and then reassembling them. Kirk Merrington said that he doubts that he can do it but would like me to send him the gun so he can "look it over".

The ribs did not need to be relayed in the past. The process has changed slightly and Jon Corner now feels that relaying the ribs gives the customer the best product with the least chance of issues in the future. We have had several "good ribs" that rang like a bell break free during the honing process. We feel offering the service as a complete package takes the guess work out of it and gives an excellent product for a reasonable price.

"Reasonable price"....now that was funny.