Are Pressure Measurements Useful?

[Austin W Hogan]

The original Parker 1 and 2 frame designs preceeded chamber pressure measurements by forty or more years. King's addition of the zero frame size came less than 10 years later.A matrix accompanies this, showing the shot column length of load weight against nominal bore diameter. The 1890 Winchester and other catalogs show that the 20 ga was introduced at 1/2 and 5/8 ounce, the 28 at 5/8, the 16 at 7/8 ounce. The pre 1900 ten gauge load was 1 1/4 ounces.
Examining this matrix indicates that, in the days before pressure measurements, King and others simply used a criteria that a shot column less than .8 bore diameter was compatable with a frame width comparable to bore diameter, plus a minimum chamber wall thickness.
The traditional loads are entered in red. Note the adaptability of the zero frame to loads of 1/2 to 7/8 ounce through the 28 to 16 gauge range. The loads that exceed .8 are shown in blue; perhaps this accounts for the preponderance of 1 frame 16 ga guns in later production as well as the long barrelled 1 and 1 1/2 frame twenty ga guns. The 1 1/4 ounce 12 is in blue; has anyone found a 1 1/4 ounce hang tag on a 1 frame 12? We know that there is a one frame ten gauge gun; Bogardus and others preffered a 1 ounce ten gauge load for upland hunting in the 1880's, note the orange entry of .6 for a one ounce ten ga load.
This could make a very interesting and useful story - we need some hang tag and frame size observations to support this.
The matrix exceedes postable txt dimensions. I will scan a copy a post it as a jpeg
Best, Austin