Figure choke from pellet count ?

[Bill Murphy]

Parker pattern counts are made with different sizes of shot, different brands of shot, different sizes of target, different shapes of target, targets shot at different ranges, different charge weights of shot, you name it. To determine what your original test target was, you have to read the stock book entry. The alternative is seeing the order book entry, which may say tight, open, close, full, 250 shot in target with the target either specified or not. It could say even, modified, 300 shot, nearly full, bore for #4 shot, bore for buckshot without mentioning the size, you name it.

[Pa SxS]

To make matters more difficult, back in the day, the same size shot from one manufacturer would be different than another manufacturer. The pellet count for the same weight would vary. You would have to know who the shot manufacturer was, the pellet count for each barrel, and the shot weight, the size of the pattern and the distance plus the gauge to figure out the percentage. Some of the Parker catalogs had a chart of shot sizes and manufacturers. I'll try and scan it and post in but may not be for a couple of days.

[Pa SxS]

When the stock books were copied, evidently the copier wasn't quite long enough to copy the entire page. If I'm lucky, I can see the pellet count at the end of the page. If I'm a little more lucky, I can see the pellet count plus the size of the shot, if I'm even more lucky, I can see what the distance and pattern was.

What I learned from looking at an original stock book at the Remington Museum was that there was another column to the right of the patterning information. That column gave the type of powder used, shot weight, and shell. Rarely you will see that info in the Order Book. The customer specified the type of shell to use.

[Bill Murphy]

Chuck will give you what is available to him. As he says, not all information is available in most instances because the copies of the stock books are not as long as the original stock book pages. Originality in individual guns is usually determined by comparing order book information with the bore and choke measurements gleaned from the micrometer.