The 'Metal Lined' is pre-1901 and was sold as NPEs. The 1899,1905 and 1911 WRA Co. catalogs do not list factory loaded 4 gauge shells. Large bore shotshells, such as the 4 and 8, seem to show up quite frequently as handloads. I buy them when they are affordable, especially if I know that the shell was only sold empty to begin with. As Destry said, follow the auction sites. Unlike coins and stamps, there are no recognized set prices for cartridges.

None of my UMC or Rem-UMC catalogues offer loaded 4-gauge shells. They offer both 4-inch paper and 4-inch brass NPEs, for black powder only. By the Rem-UMC years they also offer No. 3, No. 2 and 1 1/2 inch NPEs for Yacht Guns. By the 1918-19 Rem-UMC catalogue they offer 4-gauge yacht shell loaded with 18 drams of black powder and 8-gauge yacht shells loaded with 11 drams of black powder. By the Remington Arms Co., Inc. 1923 catalogue they offer no Yacht Gun loaded shells larger than 8-gauge, and the largest NPEs offered are 4-inch 4-gauge (still black powder only) and 3 1/4 inch 8-gauge paper hulls (still not made for dense powder).

There are at least two eight gauge Parkers for sale at the Chantilly VA show this weekend. One is a D Grade #5 frame hammer gun with 32" barrels. The other is the gun pictured on this forum a few days ago.

18 and 11 drams?!! Wow what a cannon! ........ almost 500 grains of black in one shell in the 4 bore. Amazing.

Good stuff Dave. Thanks for all your interesting research.

Bill,
What was the asking price on the D grade, and did it sell?
Thanks
Jeff

Hopefully those two and or a couple others will be at the Baltimore show in a few weeks !

Jeff not sure of the asking price for the Grade 3 lifter.

Thanks Bill, I found out last nite.
Jeff

I may have erred and said the D eight gauge is a lifter. It is a top lever. It is in high four figures.

Destry: The gun that goes with it is priced at $50,000 and I don't care if I sell it or not.

Best Regards, George

You'll have to pardon me George, the shells must be worth $1500 each then.

DLH

Well Destry: I didn't know they were worth that much! WOW! How many would you like to buy? I have seven.

Best Regards, George

I didn't know bored out double rifles were worth $50,0000 either, so ain't we both surprised.

DLH

The history on the gun that I received from the family that consigned it to auction states that the gun was purchased by their great great grandfather from Reilly's shop in London. It goes on to say that he used it for waterfowling while in England and later on the Mississippi Flyway after returning to the U.S. It states that it was originally a 4 bore pinfire gun and he later returned it to Reilly to be converted to central fire. They have sent me several 4 bore pinfire brass cased shells that they later found in the home along with another cleaning rod set.

Destry, I have yet to hear you say anything positive regarding my posts. I have never met you, to my knowledge and for the life of me I can't understand your negativity. As we used to say in Uncle Sam's Navy: "Shape Up Or Ship Out"

Best Regards, George

The pinfire cases would be another fabulous rarity, just like the only known shotgun with a stalking safety setup. That is if the cases are all brass like you say. Since pinfire shells weren't made to be reloaded, all brass would have made for an awfully expensive throw away.

DLH

Only known? Hmmm, I've had 2, one a Steven Grant hammergun with individual stalking safeties, the other an H&H with tang mounted, above the safety.
The Grant was a Jones underlever with Perkes patent self cocking mechanism.

I'm sure there are a few out there. To me that's a big bore rifle set up, maybe they were intended as round ball guns or had another set of barrels at one time. I'm really just giving our boy George a hard time for the most part, he loves it.......


DLH

The Grant was a 16, The Holland a 12, 30" 5# gun, so I doubt it was ever barreled with anything else as it was straight stocked, 1913 mfg.