You are killin' me with that big 8, Charlie. Forty grains of Blue Dot?!?! How can that not have pretty vicious recoil? I've been looking for one of those guns for years and they have always managed to elude me. I recently found a fairly nice (okay...shootable) Parker 10 gauge top-lever hammer gun local, but the bores are rough and it's priced right at the absolute high end of what I'd be willing to give for it at $700. I have an SP-10 Remington that's been my waterfowl gun for years, but I don't reload for it as it doesn't get shot that much. It's not an 8, but those otherwise useless 3.5" hulls could easily be cut down to 2-7/8 and re-purposed...
When are you gonna post some more pics of that big gun?
