Parker 8 gauge question?
 

Did Parker make more 8 Gauges then L.C. smith? Do we know how many did they make? What is the common chamber length for 8 ga Parkers and did they ever make a 4'' chamber(Mr. Clevend got me wondering about this one)?

Parker made approx. 400 eight gauges and quit production around 1915. They were banned outright in 1918. The most popular chamber lenght tends to be 3 1/4". I do think they made some 4" guns but do not own one. They are all wonderful guns.

My 8 bore was sent back to Parker to be chambered in 4".

we rarely see 8 bores or their cartridges.
who made 4 inch 8 bore shells?

If I remember correctly, Bill Brophy stated that there were 20 L.C. Smith 8 gauge shotguns made. I believe he also had them categorized by grade.

NPEs were available in a 4" length. For many years, the big companies did special orders with a minimum order of one case. I see no reason why 4" shells could not have been factory loaded.

No offense but what are NPE's? Sometimes you old timers on the forum do abbreviations etc. and the rest of us have no idea what you are talking about.

Why did Parker stop making them? They really weren't banned- they just couldn't be used to hunt waterfowl. Down here we can still use them to hunt all game but migratory birds. I've seen old ads from the thirties where they were offered for handsome prices. You would think Parker would have made them to the end.

I expect that the market for 8 gauges was very limited outside of the serious waterfowling world, and those that could no longer be hunted with were often sold off and that number would had more than satisfied the other limited market's needs

New Primed Empty (NPE).

and who ya callin an old timer ya whippersnapper

That does it! My new dream upland gun is a short and light 8ga with open chokes and light loads!

the old 8 ga is a wonderful gun to shoot..lots of fun and not very expensive to shoot once you learn how to load your own shells...as BILL stated there were about 400 of them old parker 8 ga made...yes the common chamber lenth was 3 1/4 inch.both of the old parker 8 ga i have are 3 1/4 inch but they did make the 4 inch chambered in parker 8 ga also as BILL HAS ALREADY STATED...here are the chamber lenths i know of in the 8 ga around the world...3 1/4 3 1/2 which i have gotten from DESTRY a FA LOOMIS... a 3 3/4 a 4inch and a4 1/4... there were some made in shorter lengths than 3 1/4.... charlie

Great info on the 8 gauges. Just one more reason to love Parkers. Went out and shot my 10 gauge this morning. It is not fine gun but a japanese BPS 10, had to test it out after installing a new recoil pad. It just plain fun to shoot now. Just makes me wonder the kind of wallop the old 8 packs, with that 3 oz round ball Charlie is loading, it must be a blast.

Sorry for spelling your name wrong Mr. Cleveland.

If L.C. Smith only made twenty 8 gauge guns then they're all known to exist and most are owned by one guy. I've always thought that count was a bit off......


Destry

Can someone give me price ranges on 8 bore Parkers- hammerless?
Assuming reasonable hunted condition?
We dont see them very often.

George, What the hell are you doing sitting in your hotel room lurking on this board. We were so looking forward to a break, and you're supposed to be taking your wife to all those places around London I told you about. You are such a cheap ba$tard.

eldon that is a 2 ounce round ball load i loaded up for deer..but i have fired a few 3 ounce loads through the old 8 s in bb and no 2 lead shot..the recoil is not real bad its not near as bad as a mossberg poump 3 1-2 inch 12 ga...the old 8 s weigh enough to keep recoil down....i would like to shoot a 4 ga some day... charlie

http://www.pugsguns.com/findItem.action?id=1440

Here is a nice one.

hahaaha- too funny
We were in the lobby of our old hotel in Paris, Had to move back in because the French cant deal with 2-3 inches of snow and we cant get our train to London. We may miss London conpletely. No H&H, no Harrods.....

The easiest way to figure a price range for the Parker 8s is to assume they would sell the same as Parker 28s. Grade for grade, same condition. 20 years ago when I started buying them, they were cheaper. My first one cost me $2800 with a new Winchester Featherweight 12 thrown in to clinch the deal. My next, an almost new PH, was $3800 and that one had afull unopened box of Remington 8 gauge shells plus 10 Winchester and UMC/Remington brass 8 gauge shells thrown in. Somewhere along the way I purchased a pretty beat Lifter 8 for $2000. I expect that my wife, Sylvia, will get 5 figures for each of the first 2 I mentioned, after I'm outa here.

Unfortunately for me 20 years ago when they were cheaper I was 5. Hopefully by the time I can afford one I can find one under $10000.

pugsguns had a few on his site, not sure if thats what your looking for.

He had a major collection of eights a few years ago, priced them high, sold them all. He set the price of eight gauges from then until now. Until Jack sold that collection, the only Parker eights were sold at gun shows and among individuals. One collector bought a bunch, not all. He is hanging out for the time being.

Parker stopped making 8 ga guns for the same reason any producer of goods stops making what he has been making: dismal sales. Look at the production records, few were sold in ever diminishing numbers even during the time when it was lawful to hunt waterfowl with them. The waterfowl market went to 10's and 12's even when you could get an 8. TPS discusses this.

Even after the US prohibited the use of 8ga guns for waterfowl, other countries to whom Parker sold guns had not prohibited them. Eight ga's were and still are lawful in the US for any other game; coyotes, deer, everything else.

I suspect, but can't prove, that a predominant use of the 8ga was flock shooting ducks on the water. When wingshooting became the sportsmanlike method, well, its hard to swing an 8ga on a 40mph duck.

An 8 ga weighs about 15 pounds, that is a lot to carry and swing. There is a lot of recoil, although it is tempered by the gun weight. We have displayed them at Pheasant Fest and we frequently hear "wow, what a gun! I wouldn't want to carry that around!"

So it is interesting to collect 8 ga Parkers because they are so unusual. Yes its fun to shoot off this mini cannon, but their lack of popularity did them in. The popular growth has been in ever smaller gauges----look at how people carry on about 28's which were intended by Parker to be for close small birds and shot by an expert, and 410's which intended for use by children or small women or as a garden pest gun. See Parker's Small Bore Shot Gun brochure for recommendations on use of the 28ga.

One sold at auction this past fall for about $4,500, which probably means $5500 with buyer's premium, etc. It was a hammer gun but had a case and seemed in pretty good condition. There are still a few on Puglisi's website for much more. I am saving up, but figure it will take at least $5500 to get "in the game"