Ed, that info had to have come from the Order Book. Was there Stock Book info in your letter? If there was then the patterning info was cut off when copied as I stated in a previous post. The weight, type of powder/grains, and shell used is that last column in the original Stock Books that couldn't be copied.

Chuck - is there any reference to the load weight for the 10 gauge load in the Parker documentation? 1 1/4?

and was there a normal shot size if it isn't shown in the letters, #6 is referenced in the barrels chapter of the Parker Story, but not said to be a standard

Rick, attached is a "Charge To Be Used" found in the 1888 catalog. It shows the recommended shot weight and drams for each gauge. Looking at the same time frame in the stock books, normally for a 10ga you see Parker using size 8 shot in a 24" circle at 45 yards. Parker seemed to switch back and forth using either size 7 or 8 shot through the years. That was their default size. Customers sometimes specified to use a certain size shot in the Order Book depending on what the gun was going to be used for.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Chuck

now that I have the load on a letter, i will be interesting to see if I can duplicate the results. black powder fiber wads an all

great chart
interesting that the powder charge changes with the barrel length and weight of the gun - for 10 gauges 9 1/2 lb is the break point and its lists 30 and 32 inch appropriate loads.

i can understand the charge and recoil, not sure if 2 inches of tube after 30" will make much velocity difference. but great data

We discussed the different variations of patterns used by Parker Brothers some time back. It is a real tossup determining what combination of target size, range, load weight, shot size and brand were used. A 24" target at 45 yards doesn't catch nearly as many shot as a 30" target at 40 yards. As I have mentioned before, I have not seen an order book pattern entry for an eight gauge gun. Maybe our research committee would find an entry like that of enought interest to share it.

Bill, in the quote above, you mentioned "order book pattern entry". Do you mean the Order Book or Stock Book entry? Unless the buyer specified what pattern to use when the initial order was placed in the Order Book, it would be very rare. If on the other hand, you meant the Stock Book pattern information, I might be able to find some S/N's that show all the patterning information. Remember, much of the patterning info was not shown in it's entirety due to the width of the copier at Remington.

The Parker Story has a list of 8 gauge S/N's. To find each gun in the database, then pull the Order Book for all those guns is A LOT OF WORK

Chuck is right. I meant to say "stock book entry".

I was able to find pattern info for 8ga guns in the stock books. These were 174xxx guns made about 1916. Patterns were 30" at 40 yards. I've seen shot sizes of 2,4, and 00.

One gun had 125 pellets of size 2, one gun had RH 90 pellets of 2's and LH 9 pellets of 00, and another had RH 90 and LH >90 pellets BB size. Anyway, it looks like Parker used large shot for the 8 gauges.

thats great info on the 8 ga patterns..i wonder how many 00 buck was in that 8 ga shell that put 9 of them pellets in that 30 inch circle at 40 yards... i will record this info for my own files...charlie

Charlie, I'm not real familiar with those large shot sizes but the one chart said that the recommended shot charge for the 8ga was 2 ounces. The other table lists Tatum shot as having 50 BB sized pellets per ounce so 2 ounces would be 100 pellets. I don't know if 00 buck is smaller or larger than BB. Size 2 shot would have 172 pellets in 2 ounces.