I'm bad and Dean's correct that "U" wasn't a alpha grade until 1882 and then it was a 0 grade twist gun.
In my defense I made a quick reference to Parker grades on our website and got sucked in by the lifter frame photo labeled "u grade frame". I should have known better.
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture...809490&thumb=1
Maybe the photo title can be corrected for future researchers
Erick