congratulations on being the new caretaker of that old 8 ga....shes a beauty for sure mills.....she will no doubt be thetalk of the town for a while... i envey all you fellows on the good times and fellowship...hope all got home safe and sound..... charlie

That old 8 Gauge sure has some secrets... Take a look at the identical clamp marke on either side of the stock. That gun was clamped into position on something back in the day... It may even have been the bow-gun on an early "Prarie Schooner".

Mills: any chance that you could post a photo of your new to you 8 Ga. Thomas

Dean, It has lots of secrets and lots of very interesting features to it. I am going to do some research on it to learn more about it.

Thomas, I will get some pictures up soon.

This should get you to three pictures of the 8 gauge Silent Auction gun.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...silent+auction

8 Gauge
 

By popular request . . . a whole bunch of pictures of the 8 gauge. I also included a photo with my new 1 frame 12 gauge for comparison (I did get some that work too).

According to the Research Letter included, it was purchased by E. T. Allen of San Francisco. According to Google, he made hunting knives and ran an early sporting goods store in San Francisco. Whether this was his personal gun or whether it was bought for inventory, we don't know, but all of the repairs/alterations must have been done by someone with his metal working abilities. Very interesting piece of gun history regardless.

More finds in Georgetown
 

For those of you who are concerned . . . I did get some that work. Here is an L C Smith Grade 2 12 gauge with chain Damascus and a 12 gauge toplever Parker on the 1 Frame - a light bird gun. Sorry I am no Bill Headrick

Mills
I want the decoy on the right!!

Those came from my father in law and I know nothing about them except I like them.

It looks like a Wildfowler from Old Saybrook. When you come to Connecticut i'll show you some.