Type 3 Perazzi forend wood

A friend is offering a Perazzi with the type 3 wood up front. I have been told they will all crack. Fact or fiction.

 

I have one with the original, over 250,000 through it with the original fore end wood. No problem with mine.
Ed Yanchok

 

I have shot an old Type 3 till it cracked but it got shot A LOT. If the wood is properly fit (like was done at the Perazzi factory) cracking is not a problem.
If you do crack an old type 3, they can be pretty hard to come by.

 

I bought my well used type lll MX8 so long ago I can't remember the exact date, and ran quite a few Federal P154's through it since.
The thing would double if I didn't keep the triggers clean and even with those shells in both barrels when it happened the forearm didn't crack.
The pigeon got the worst of it.
Hey, the rules say you have to shoot 2 shots, nothing about how far apart they had to be.

 

Glass bed it AND keep the fittings tightened and you might be ok

BUT remember Type 3s sell at a huge discount to type 4s

 

A HUGE discount? For a nice type 3, unmolested with matching numbers?
Well heck. The next time you see one like that please let me know. I wouldn't want it to go begging.

 

Or get a stockmaker to repair or replace it.

 

I attempted to get my MX8 type 3 repaired. The forarm was loose on both the single and o/u. Not a lot but had about 1/16" of play in it, just enough you could feel it slide. The only fix was to get new wood fitted to the metal. The wood can wear overtime if not kept tight and eventually you get some slop ad ultimately a crack if not attended to.

The type 3s are fine guns but a poor design on the forarms.There is a reason Perazzi evolved to the type 4 frame (new style iron, barrel lug and I believe top lever release mechanism?)

And assuming we are talking a nice used Perazzi that's been shot but in good shape (not collectors grade, safe queen, etc.), you can expect to pay apprx. $1000 less for a type 3 single vs. a type 4. If it's a combo, maybe around $1500 less?

 

Not all type III FE wood will crack. Most of them don't.

I have two used type III loan to kid's shooting programs one after another, both got shot a lot by the previous owners and the boys, One came with a cracked wood that had probably over 100,000 rounds through it, the crack was from metal to metal, nothing happened.

The other one is about equally used, all finish worn out, I had new locking blot in it, but the wood never cracked.

Either way, cracked or not, the gun will still work, and the fix is not expensive. So, unless you have OCD, don't worry about it.

 

And, I have said it many times on this forum but if your old Perazzi needs any kind of work there is none better at making it EXACTLY right than Lucio Sosta in Asuza, CA. I realize we have other P-gun mechanics here and some are very good. But Lucio was hired by Danielle in Italy to come to America and be the in house gunsmith when Perazzi was in New York. When Perazzi moved to the the west coast he was the manager of the whole facility and also was the primary (almost only) gunsmith who worked on Perazzis.
When Danielle died in 2012 the kids reorganized and Lucio chose to move on and simply open his shop in Azusa (about a mile from Perazzi USA) doing almost exclusively gunsmithing.
He can literally build a Perazzi from scratch and can fix ANYTHING that can be fixed on them.
If you have an issue, call him and send him your gun. You will be glad you did.
Jake