Drew, yes that was 86000. Better late than never.

Bill, 86988 is a CH with 2 sets of Bernard barrels. One is 32" and put 5 pellets of 0 size shot in the pattern. The other set of barrels were 28" and put 125 pellets of size 7 in the pattern. The size and distance was cut off.

I looked up some other 8 ga. guns. Too bad they didn't pay more attention to how the ledger was placed on the copier.

20845 100 pellets of size 4 shot at 45 yards. Probably a 24" circle.
80647 120 pellets of size 4 shot at 45 yards
80646 same
172527 60 and 75 pellets of size 00 shot probably at 40 yards
173590 90 pellets of size 2 shot and 9 pellets of size BB shot.
174013 125 pellets of size 2 shot.

Gee Bill, what a coincidence, 86988 is your gun! Now that I've answered your question how about ordering a letter???

Chuck, only today did I discover that I have not ordered a letter on 86988. I wish to order a letter on that gun and will forward a check immediately. I found information on the gun in 1998 when I was on the PGCA Research Committee Ilion trip in 1998. Silly me to think that the information I found in the Parker records was the only information available. Thanks for digging deeper and providing more information.

I wonder what the 00 shot was in the pattern for #172527? Certainly not 00 buckshot.

Is it possible the pattern test parameters were linked to the buyers order ?

William

Yes, that is very common. You want to shoot #4, they will give you #4 patterns.

By the way, Chuck, "They", the PGCA Research Committee, did not copy the stock books. Our good friend and The Parker Story author, Captain Roy Gunther copied the stock books.

Correction
 

172527 should be 60 pellets (size unreadable) and 75 pellets of size BB shot (not 00) probably at 40 yards

I know the PGCA Research Committee wasn't involved but if Gunther did all that work without any outside help,, that was quite an achievement. He even took the time to edit hard to read entries in Red Ink which later turned out to be mistakes in many instances.