kaboku6;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day has been a good one for you and you're well.
Since you're more well versed in .458's than I am, I'll leave you to know the spots to check the stocks for cracking or getting pounded out.
The Parker Hale rifles that I've looked at or worked on had actions which were made by Santa Barbara in Spain, with the barrels made in the UK by PH.
I've built a couple rifles with PH barrels and they aren't terrible as far as accuracy goes. A gunsmith I trust said they were well enough made but tended to be somewhat softer than some other barrel makers. Again I've fooled with a few PH rifles and most were capable of decent accuracy, that includes the ones I used in builds.
The one thing that's a possible issue with PH rifles is the trigger is made of some sort of pot metal and I've seen a couple where the trigger housing was cracked.
If the rifle was for ursine social purposes, I'd be inclined to consider replacing the trigger as a start.
The trigger guard/bottom metal isn't exactly aluminum either as it's heavier than aluminum.
When PH went out of business there were parts and pieces sold all over and I ended up with at least 3 sets of unfinished PH bottom metal. Where one went I've no clue, one went to New Brunswick I think and one is still hanging in the garage, but it's nearly as heavy as steel bottom metal.
Hopefully that's useful to you or someone out there tonight.
Good luck with the rifle whichever way you decide.
Dwayne
Dwayne , How do you identify a Santa Barbara action?
There is a Parker Hale that was bought @ 1959. in B.C. A Safari Model. What would show it up as a Santa Barbara action? It looks like the one in Alaska above except the back sight , a Lyman flip up ( for scope ) is not on a ramp.
