Parker 8 gauge question?

[Bill Zachow]

The easiest way to figure a price range for the Parker 8s is to assume they would sell the same as Parker 28s. Grade for grade, same condition. 20 years ago when I started buying them, they were cheaper. My first one cost me $2800 with a new Winchester Featherweight 12 thrown in to clinch the deal. My next, an almost new PH, was $3800 and that one had afull unopened box of Remington 8 gauge shells plus 10 Winchester and UMC/Remington brass 8 gauge shells thrown in. Somewhere along the way I purchased a pretty beat Lifter 8 for $2000. I expect that my wife, Sylvia, will get 5 figures for each of the first 2 I mentioned, after I'm outa here.

[Eldon Goddard]

Unfortunately for me 20 years ago when they were cheaper I was 5. Hopefully by the time I can afford one I can find one under $10000.

[Paul Stafford III]

pugsguns had a few on his site, not sure if thats what your looking for.

[Bill Murphy]

He had a major collection of eights a few years ago, priced them high, sold them all. He set the price of eight gauges from then until now. Until Jack sold that collection, the only Parker eights were sold at gun shows and among individuals. One collector bought a bunch, not all. He is hanging out for the time being.

[Bruce Day]

Parker stopped making 8 ga guns for the same reason any producer of goods stops making what he has been making: dismal sales. Look at the production records, few were sold in ever diminishing numbers even during the time when it was lawful to hunt waterfowl with them. The waterfowl market went to 10's and 12's even when you could get an 8. TPS discusses this.

Even after the US prohibited the use of 8ga guns for waterfowl, other countries to whom Parker sold guns had not prohibited them. Eight ga's were and still are lawful in the US for any other game; coyotes, deer, everything else.

I suspect, but can't prove, that a predominant use of the 8ga was flock shooting ducks on the water. When wingshooting became the sportsmanlike method, well, its hard to swing an 8ga on a 40mph duck.

An 8 ga weighs about 15 pounds, that is a lot to carry and swing. There is a lot of recoil, although it is tempered by the gun weight. We have displayed them at Pheasant Fest and we frequently hear "wow, what a gun! I wouldn't want to carry that around!"

So it is interesting to collect 8 ga Parkers because they are so unusual. Yes its fun to shoot off this mini cannon, but their lack of popularity did them in. The popular growth has been in ever smaller gauges----look at how people carry on about 28's which were intended by Parker to be for close small birds and shot by an expert, and 410's which intended for use by children or small women or as a garden pest gun. See Parker's Small Bore Shot Gun brochure for recommendations on use of the 28ga.

[Mills]

One sold at auction this past fall for about $4,500, which probably means $5500 with buyer's premium, etc. It was a hammer gun but had a case and seemed in pretty good condition. There are still a few on Puglisi's website for much more. I am saving up, but figure it will take at least $5500 to get "in the game"