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Getting Technical
By Tim Greenwood
the best of
both worlds
Tim restores one of his long-time favourites, a much-neglected
Perazzi MX8 SC3, ideal for those who want more than a basic gun
L
ast month I wrote about Perazzi MX8s as a crossover
gun between Sporting clays and driven game
shooting, retro-fitting an auto-safety catch to the MX8
trigger unit.
MX8s are a superbly reliable gun but, in their
plain black format, not to everyone’s taste. There are several more
up-to-date models, such as the MX2000, but one of my favourites
has always been the Perazzi MX8 SC3, the silver action game
scene engraved model. As with all the Perazzi higher grades,
the wood is much improved, and the fine game scene engraving
makes this gun the ideal choice for those who want something a
little bit more than a basic gun, for either Sporting clays or a day’s
driven game shooting.
I believe the current list price for a new one of these guns
is around the £12,000 mark, but second-hand, depending on
condition, they can be found for less than half this price, which
brings me nicely to the subject of this month’s article.
I was recently brought a fairly elderly and well-used SC3,
bought second-hand and quite neglected over its years of use, but
much loved by its current owner, Dr Nicol Murray, an enthusiastic
and excellent coach from the Bedfordshire area. He had shot the
gun for a while to be sure he liked it, but knew it needed a small
amount of fitting to make it perfect and a lot of restoration work to
bring it back to its former glory.
On his first visit, playing around in the workshop, we both
agreed that the pitch of the gun was not quite right to allow a
consistent, comfortable gun mount. Dr Murray wanted to use
the gun for both clay and game, so I inserted a small wedge
underneath the top of the pad at the heel to produce more negative
pitch, as shown in picture one. With this simple alteration, time
3 Stripped of the old dirt and oil,
ready to re-cut the chequering
1 A small wedge inserted in the top of
the pad increased the negative pitch
2 The pistol grip chequering,
worn and filled with dirt and oil
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getting technical
By Tim Greenwood
4 the lAcquer hAs worn off, Allowing
the Action to discolour And rust
after time mounting the gun, it went straight into the shoulder
pocket. Too much positive pitch had caused the toe to “hang up”
when the gun was mounted, leading to the gun mounting low
in the shoulder and making it difficult to place his cheek on the
stock consistently.
You can also see in this picture the condition of the wood,
which is dented and dirty, hiding the full beauty of a really good,
highly figured piece of walnut. As you would expect with a gun of
this age and usage, the chequering to the pistol grip and forend
was badly worn, filled with old stock oil and the natural oils and dirt
from the user’s hands when out in the field shooting, illustrated
clearly in picture two.
Even after stripping all the oil and dirt away, picture three
shows how smooth the chequering on the forend has become over
the years. When buying any second-hand gun, the chequering
is always the clue to its usage. Take the time to look at it closely:
if it is smooth and dirty, it has had a lot of use. If it has been
re-chequered, check the diamonds are crisp and even and run
to a nice sharp border. I have always felt a gunsmith’s skill and
attention to chequering is a good indication to the quality of any
other work which may have been carried out, when you don’t have
the opportunity to take the gun apart and examine it.
Some guns, after they have been engraved, are plated to
protect the action from rusting. I have to say, I do not like this
practice as you lose some of the subtleties of the engraving. Perazzi
does not plate its actions, so the full beauty of the engraver’s skill
5 some of the pArts in A poor
And very dirty condition
can be seen. Instead, the action is coated with
a thin layer of lacquer to act as a rust
inhibitor. Unfortunately, over a fairly
short space of time, this will
wear, or get chipped, allowing
water to get trapped under the
finish, causing discolouration
and even rust. This SC3 was
no exception and, as you can see in
picture four, it had deteriorated quite badly.
Once again, when buying a second-hand example, look
carefully at the action. When new, Perazzis are not highly polished,
they’re more of a matt, brushed finish. If the action has been
polished, some of the engraving definition will have been lost.
Although this can be recovered to a degree, as dealt with earlier
in the year when I was renovating a Browning B25, it is better
to buy one in the condition of this gun and have it re-brushed
by a competent gunsmith to its original look. I do not believe in
re-lacquering the action, instead I treat it with silicone as a rust
preventer and water repellent, one of the best products on the
market, and available in most gun shops.
Lastly, before we start looking at the resurrected gun, in
picture five you can see an example of some of the internal parts
you cannot see when you drop the trigger out, which, incidentally,
7 the pitch Altered And A new leAther
fAced KicK-eeZ pAd fitted
6 A little Bit of time And effort
trAnsforms the chequering
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getting technical
By Tim Greenwood
9 looKs A Bit different
to picture four?
needed a great deal of effort and to my shame
some bad language, to remove, as the locking
catch bar, bottom left in the picture, had
seized solid with old dried out stock oil.
And so, here it is, the fully renovated and,
if I may say, a very beautiful old gun bought
back to its former glory. Picture six shows the
alteration carried out to the pitch of the stock
8 the Action And
trigger restored to
their proper finish
11 neXt month – whAt
mAde these irish eyes smile?
to make the gun mount consistently. The length at the toe has been
reduced to increase the negative pitch and a Kick-Eez pad has
been fitted, re-shaped and leather faced.
Picture seven shows a good example of how I like my
chequering to look – crisp, sharp, even and running to a
clean border.
Pictures eight and nine show the action and trigger unit
with their correct “brushed” finish, and the blueing to the trigger
unit, top lever and safety catch fully restored with the help of my
blacking tank shown in last month’s issue.
While working on the action and woodwork, I sent the barrels
to our excellent Kentish barrel maker to relay the ribs, which were
loose, and to polish and re-black, so finally, in picture 10 you can
see the finished gun. It is always such a pleasure to work on guns
of this quality because they look so good when you have finished.
Next month, find out why the Irishman’s eyes are smiling in
picture 11.
10 A gun to Be proud of,
whether gAme or clAy shooting
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