Right now, I'm leaning towards that number/fraction being the width across the breach. This should also be the width across the bolsters. Every so often there is extra info to the right of the number/fraction and I can make out the abbreviation for barrels (Bbl).
Brian, in the example of a stock book page in TPS, that's from 1923 and the page I scanned is from 1880 so they may have changed as to what was put in each column. I do agree that what you see is dram equivalent. But notice that 12ga's were at 3dr and 16ga's were 2 1/2. Parker recommended 3dr for 12ga's and 2 3/4 to 3 dr for 16ga's.
In looking at a lot of stock book pages, the most common number/fraction found is 2 3/8 which would be a 2 frame. 2 frames were the most common for 12ga back then and also used sometimes for the 10ga. 2 1/4 would be a 1 frame, 2 3/8 would be a 2 frame (most commonly found in my scan), 2 12 for a 3 frame, and 2 5/8 for a size 4 frame.
S/N's 16985 to 18282 in stock book #6 are the only examples found with these numbers/fractions. I'll have Larry Frey measure across the bolsters on his hammer gun and see if correlates to what is found in the stock book. If anyone has a hammer gun in those S/N ranges, measure the width across the bolsters and let me know.
One other thing, did they make shells back in those days that correlate to those numbers/fractions? Did they make 2 1/2, 2 3/4, 2 1/4 2 5/8 dram shells???
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