doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker Repro's coming apart

Where in the world did you come up with that info? Hearsay? We all know how hearsay holds up. Do you actually have any documentation of these claims? As for your claim that 12ga. Repros were the most produced, of the approximately 12,250 Parker Reproductions produced there were about twice as many 28ga. guns made than 12ga., and about three times as many 20ga. guns produced as 12ga.

Wild Skies, you belong to the Parker gun club ''Union'', ask them how many Parker Repro's are falling apart,
and while you are at it, get it documented. As for the the number of Repro's made, all records were destroyed in a hurricane
in 1999. Jack Skeuse,some years later, gave the number of Repro's made by memory. ''NO DOCUMENTS ON IT''


Dirty Harry

parker gun club union....good one.

The Parker gun collectors Union boys are finally talking more about the Repro's coming apart.
I think they are coming on this tread and ''Learning'' that their are a lot of repro's lugs breaking apart.

Dirty Harry

We've seen photos of exactly one Parker repro that had the barrel lug braze joint separate. We have not heard any information about how it happened.

After all of the hysterical misinformation posted on this and other internet sites concerning a frame cracking problem with small bore Ithaca Flues guns, I need more to make a sound judgement about these "Problem Parkers".

One failure could mean an isolated case of using the wrong method and/or materials. Several failures confined to a very narrow serial number range could mean the same. A bunch of scattered random failures (with evidence) could actually mean something significant. A properly done braze joint can approach the tensile strength of the parent metal.

I'd like to see a lot more photographic evidence, along with serial numbers of the guns that failed... and details of the circumstances leading up to the failure.

I don't care to hear rumors or hearsay. You might as well tell me you saw Bigfoot on water-skis and the Loch Ness Monster flying a UFO.

That same factory also did the Classic Doubles line and all the Winchester 101's.

Keith,
I’ve seen three broken exactly the same way. Details were few. I got a picture of exactly one. Startling to me is, to a one, they were basically brand new guns. I’ve seen broken guns over the years, but, those guns tended to be old, and used hard. On Parker repop gun number 2 that was broken, you could say I started to pay more attention.

I posted the picture above. It isn’t rumor or hearsay. The f-er was broke, bad, and, it was going to take someone of considerable skill to make it right, that, or another set of barrels. I’ve asked right here, a few times, what does it take to repair a gun with brazed ribs that come loose, and I’ve never gotten a satisfactory answer. Repairing a gun with a separated brazed lump would be at least as tough.

The people that run the state of Minnesota have made it far, far tougher to have a gun show, and along with an aging population, they are a shadow of what they once were, and an hour or two gets me through the typical gun show, now. They used to be two or three day events, and you got to see more things, more guns, more friends than you do today. The last broken Parker repop I saw was a solid decade ago. Again, I was never interested in owning one, but, seeing one in the condition of the picture I put up was a bit like seeing a bad wreck I wasn’t involved in. Interesting, in a “Thank God that isn’t my gun” kind of way. Considering the change in the gun show landscape, I don’t know if it is fair to say we are seeing, or have seen every gun that had the problem.

I have no dog in this fight.

Best,
Ted

Ted, I also have no dog in this fight. I have never owned a Parker repro, and probably never will... unless one pops up at a give-away price... never say never.

So the only photo we have to verify a Parker repro with a separated barrel lug was taken by you. That seems rather odd, if this is anything close to a common or widespread problem. Especially in a time where virtually every cell phone has a camera. If it was commonly happening, people like the Preacher would be collecting every photo they could find, and hysterically posting them on multiple firearms forums dozens of times. And for all of the panic over small bore Ithaca Flues frame cracking, we still don't see evidence of even a dozen different guns... out of nearly a quarter million made. And it appears the few that actually did crack at the breech/water table juncture... were severely abused.

That's why I refuse to rush to judgement about these Parkers. I went for years believing that small bore Flues frames were prone to cracking in normal use. That turned out to be bullshit, like many things posted on the internet.

There may be 18 other broken Parker repros out there... or there may be many more... with other potential failures on unfired guns. All anyone needs to change my mind is some verifiable proof.

I have already noted that the braze joint in your photo was indeed a bad one. I see roughly 50% wetting between the two mating surfaces. Some of the bare spots are on the barrels, and some are on the lug.

What we cannot know from a photo is the braze material that was used... the temperature of the parts during brazing... the flux used... the fit of the pieces being mated together... the clamping stability and pressure... contamination of the surfaces... the skill of the person who did it... etc. Analysis by a good metallurgist could tell us a lot. We also don't know what happened at the point of failure. For all we know, the barrels got launched from the gun after being fired with nuclear reloads assembled by the Nutty Professor.

The difference between repairing a braze joint vs. a solder joint lies mainly in the materials used... and an increase in temperature for brazing. Brazing happens at greater than 850° F. and solder less than 840°F. Shotgun barrel rib soldering is normally done with alloys that melt around 400-450° F. Brazing is normally stronger than soldering. But both must be done right.

Bill, you are a lifetime Union member with the Parker Gun Collectors Club Union, so I am sure you have a lot of pull there.
Just ask Dudley the stock maker, He should know. Just in case He doesn't know, there are a few dozen ''Experts'' there that will know.
Than let us know on here what you find out, so we will all know the answer to your question.

Dirty Harry