No, I appreciate the depth of this discussion, but Ray's gun is a grade 2 in all aspects except the order book entry. The finished gun is just a change from the original order.

I have seen this before where a higher grade gun was used to fill an order for a lower grade. Believe the stock book. I suspect the gun was in inventory and instead of building a new gun in a lower grade, they pulled the higher grade gun that was collecting dust. Look at the order date compared to the ship date, it is probably just a few days as compared to several months to build a new gun.

Mark, thanks for your thoughts. FYI, the order date was in May but the ship date was in Sep. That seems to indicate that the gun was not in stock.

I don't think Parker would have a stock of 8ga guns on hand. They were special order guns and commanded a $35.00 surcharge over the price of a 10ga. BTW, on the same order, another 8ga gun was ordered.