doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Warped action

After being annealed, engraved and case color hardened, the action on an 0 frame Parker is warped. Is there a fix?

Wyobirds:
Yes. Send it to Del Grego for corrective work. Which is where you should have sent it to begin with.

If the frame is significantly warped, only an expert should attempt correction.

Best, Kensal

Who did the work? Scary!

T

Agree with KR. It can be bent back to original dimensions when returned to soft by annealing. This is a simple enough process, but not necessarily an easy thing to get right. Expert time.

How warped? Some movement is to be expected and can often be rectified through hard fitting, other times it can not.

I for one am relieved that the problem is fixable.
The whole story:
A friend of mine decided to upgrade his field gun and he bought a very used 16 Ga. Parker VH grade (?) on an "O" frame. Before buying he had a gunsmith checkout the gun and discovered that the gun was basically sound, but had been previously restored and needed it again. The smith told him that to restore the gun back to original would cost more than the gun is currently worth. Because the gun felt perfect when my friend mounted and shot it, he bought the gun and sent it to a shop that specialized in annealing and case color hardening. After annealing the gun was sent to an engraver to touch up the minimal engraving which include the name parker that had almost been polished out. The gunsmith that previously advised him, attempted to assemble the action and said that because the action was warped during case color hardening, the hammers would not line up to the firing pins. He is very disheartened and will take the action back to the shop that did the work. The original shop is considered by many to be experts in case coloring and I won't disclose their name until they have an opportunity to fix the problem. The gunsmith is outraged and has said that if things are not made right, he will no longer send them work. Please excuse any misstatements on my part as you are reading this second hand.

CCH. Always a risk. I do my own, on my own guns, not all but some. Always very scary when annealing and more so dumping red hot metal parts at 723 degrees into freezing cold water. A lot of it comes down to the metal quality and compound make-up and hence the risk of it happening. I hope you/your friend gets it sorted out!

Cheers
T

Well,there go's any thought's I had of having gun's re-cc'd !!!awful disappointing stuff,I hope it all work's out for you in the end,the way fella's talk of it around here and other place's make's one think it's no big deal...

Apparently it can be.
I do hope it get's made right,all the best

Chris

In the British Trade after hardening the gun was passed to a "Free'er" who did all the complicated stuff,making sure it was on face tight in the action and that the bites were correct. and made it work .The Free'er could make the difference between a good gun and a bad one.After this the barrels were blacked[blued]the furniture's blacked and the gun would be assembled and tested before delivery. I did this for 4 years for a well known Birmingham Gun Maker,some actions needed hardly any work at all but some seemed to have moved in three if not four dimensions.
You have my sympathies.

Yes

It would be interesting to know who did the case hardening; that is some serious movement.

I had a Wincester 1886 that came into the shop, owner claimed that his gunsmith sent it out to have CCH by someone who "specializes" in CCH. and when he got it back couldn't get it back together.

Sent it to me to fix.. I could immediately tell that the frame had been quenched at too high a temp in a brine solution (colors told it all). Frame was badly warped, I annealed the frame, then about 5 hours of work to get it straight, and re-Case harden.

The owner spent quite a few dollars

V/R

Mike