Bill and David, the reference you saw to the possible existence of a #8 frame was in The Parker Story. This reference turned out to be incorrect. Some years ago, I mentioned on the forum that I had examined and measured an eight gauge top action gun with the "8" on the lug. The gun actually was a #7 frame gun made after the advent of gauge marking on the lug. It is a D grade with 36" Titanic steel barrels. That would also be the case with the gun that David examined, except that gun would be a #6 frame since it is a hammerless. The authors were aware of my finding, but I'm not sure it got into the printed errata listing for TPS. The D grade top action gun is owned by a local PGCA member.

Bill, you are probably right. I won't dispute that. That was the first time that I had ever seen an 8 stamped on a barrel lug, and it was the only number stamped there. If I ever run across an 8 gauge gun with a number 6 frame and 36 inch barrels, I'll pick it up and see if it matches what I remember so many years ago. Anyway, I would have traded my whole Parker collection at that time for that gun. It was unmolested and and in beautiful condition. I never got to meet the owner, and he never contacted me to say thanks for recovering his gun.

A collector named Bill Furnish was said to have actually seen an 8 frame Parker. I believe I read this in the Double Gun Journal.

It's also possible that they did stamp an '8' for 8 ga rather than frame size. It would have obviously been a very unusual gun to come down the line and could well have received unusual stampings. It also could have been a '6' that looked like an '8'.

My friend's D grade top action is stamped with a definite "8". It is hard to make a 7 look like an 8. Let's see if we can find the Bill Furnish article.

Austin Hogan wrote an article for the Spring 2008 DGJ. On page 60, he stated, "....Bill Furnish reported examining two (8 frame Parkers), in his correspondence with the authors of The Parker Story." That's all there was.

In the early days of Parker research, many collectors did not carry a ruler, much less a micrometer or vernier caliper. Bill Furnish may have been one of those collectors. Show me someone who has reportedly seen a #8 frame Parker, and I'll show you someone who did not measure the pin separation. My friend's gun marked 8 mentioned in the earlier post is a #7 frame gun.