Those specification sheets in The Parker Story on pages 164 to 169 call for a 2 3/4 inch chamber for the 2 7/8 inch Super-Ten shell.
My feeling is that the practice of holding chambers an 1/8 inch shorter then the shell goes a lot earlier then the 1930s. The only two A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalogues I've found that mention chamber lengths are the 1913 and 1914, and they both state that Ansley H. Fox guns are regularly chambered for 2 3/4 inch shells in 12-gauge, 2 9/16 inch shells in 16-gauge and 2 1/2 inch shells in 20-gauge. However, on unmolested guns from throughout the Philadelphia era, the chambers usually measure 2 5/8 in 12-gauge, 2 7/16 in 16-gauge and a hair over 2 3/8 in 20-gauge. I have an AE-Grade 20-gauge from 1920 that states on the order card "chamber for 2 3/4 inch shells" and the chambers are in fact 2 5/8 inch.
|