My experience with Parkers dates to the mid 1970s and I've never had reason to be inside one. Curiosity led me to detach the locks from a hammergun once and the age-old gunk was about what I expected. The coil mainsprings of the hammerless were guaranteed 25 years and I've never heard of a broken one. Babe DelGrego once showed me drawers full of nosed hammers his dad bought from Remington when he went out on his own and said their firm never had reason to replace the hammer/firing pin because none ever broke.
I have attended a great many SxS shoots and double gun get-togethers over the years and think my ear is pretty close to the true skivvy, yet I do not recall chronic failure being part of the doublegun experience. When you get more than 100 Parker and LCS guys shooting it out at Sanford every year one would think gunmaking failures of longstanding would rear their ugly heads; after all, these guns are on the average pushing one hundred years. And it seems to me that generally all the venerable old guns continue to be suitable for purpose, although individual guns, depending on the vagaries of care and usage, may just wear out.
In this context if a seller insisted on showing me the inside of his Parker, I'd just say "No Thanks; I want a gun that hasn't had to be taken apart." The true collector/shooter is always on the lookout for perfect screws; the provocatuer endlessly counts the farries dancing on the heads of screws of guns he never owned. EDM
