Winter Project

[10ga Hammer]

Scott, Your test data seems to indicate 195#8's in a 24" circle at 45 yards to be in the realm of reality. Accounting for the differences in pellet count,chokes and yardage we're in the ball park.
Any 10 ga I've ever shot threw nice patterns,don't know if it's the extra payload or something inherent in the ballistics.
But you say you've got mouse holes in you patterns huh? I'd try mothballs in the shot hopper

[Bill Murphy]

Parker Brothers claims, right on the pattern tag, that a pattern on a 30" circle at 40 yards will show a pattern of one half again as much as the pattern in a 24" circle at 45 yards. Those of you who are inclined, can prove or disprove that claim empirically. We'll be waiting for the results. I also have a set of tags for the same gun, 15 years apart, with percentages that are, oddly, much tighter on the later tag. I will order a letter on the gun and post the results here. I have seen the occasional Parker Brothers order that requests that the choke in a certain barrel be made tighter, but many more that request that choke be made more open. The letter may clear things up, but measuring the bores of the gun would be much more interesting. In case anyone here owns Parker #57,103, we may actually be able to measure the bores and chokes and pattern the gun in its present configuration. To clarify, I do not own the gun nor do I know where it is.

[Bill Murphy]

To "clarify" an earlier post, #7 shot is not the only size used in patterning Parker shotguns at the factory. Another point that I will make in the defense of our historian: The full patterning information is not always visible in the stock book copies that he has at his disposal. The stock books were too big to copy in one piece and sometimes the pattern information was the piece of the original stock book page that was cut off in the copy machine. Refer to stock book copies of various eras in The Parker Story to better understand the situation.