Remington 1/2 Frame Parkers

[Austin W Hogan]

I have been told there is a question on another forum relative to the PGCA archive on 1/2 frame guns. This appeared in Parker Pages Vol 9, Issue 2. If you have the Parker Pages disk it can be called up, or a printed copy can be obtained from Jim Hall ( sjhall@haloisp.net) as noted on the masthead of Parker Pages. There are other articles that have half frame information as well.
If the Parker Pages page is too large to attach, I will ask to have it posted on the FAQ

Best, Austin
The table is too large; I will try to have it posted on the FAQ

[Bindlestiff]

Austin, here is the table for you.

[Rod N. Gunn]

Are these factory data? Interesting that almost half the D's have pads rather than skeleton butts... huh!

[Dean Romig]

And less than 1/3 of the guns with recorded weights are over 7 lbs. indicating that the 1/2 frame truly was a lighter 12 gauge than has been rumored in the last several years.

[Autumn Daze]

But...The one 30" A1S is still an 8 lb. gun.

[Bill Murphy]

Austin, you can add 241,672, a DHE with Parker single trigger, splinter forend, skeleton butt, straight grip, and replacement PSS 28" 16 gauge barrels. By the way, what happened to the early guns that seem to have been prototypes for 1/2 frame guns? I guess we have not found any of those guns. Have any guns in the latest stock books been identified as 1/2 frame guns by the entry in the frame size column?

[Austin W Hogan]

I have learned that this question arose on the Doublegun? Doublegunshop? forum; I am not a member and I hope one of you will transfer this material there.
Robin was able to extract and post this table from Vol 9 Issue 2 (2002) Parker Pages. It came from an article by Ron Kirby that appeared in DGJ. The table follows several pages of discussion on the original Parkergun Forum. A note follows this table indicating that there is no 1/2 frame size data entered in the Remington/Parker records or the Remington IBM cards. The table was prepared by noting the s/n and details of guns seen or reported and is not a record of manufacture from the order or stock books.
We found an internal Remington memo that suggested forging of additional 1/2 frames if Parker production were to continue, and noted it in the series of Parker Pages articles about the "cessation of the Parker operation". Craig Reynolds also noted a statistical forecast of the number of 1/2 frames in a related article.
I think that the way to determine the number of 1/2 frames made would be to take the approach Dave and Larry have used to examine the tooling used to bore damascus barrels. If someone could extract some info about Parker's forge ( or the forge used by Parker's frame forging supplier) the number of frames made per batch could be estimated. It appears that Parker may have made a batch of 1/2 frames, finished one or two as prototypes and abandoned the idea. The left over frames were shipped to Ilion were they were used as the supply of frames available dwindled. Some of the letters /memos in the shutdown articles indicate that some sizes of frames/fore end irons were not available.
Best, Austin

[Bindlestiff]

I the Volume 7, Issue 3 Parker Pages from 2000, Ron Kirby wrote that there was speculation that the 1/2 frame was a Remington innovation but there is evidence that they were working on the 1/2 frame as early as 1929, Ron said there is a blue print of the 1/2 frame dimensions. He did say where he found the blue print? He did however have a chart from a Remington Catalog, Dept 50 which I will post here.

After a quick computer search of the Parker Pages DVD, it looks like there have been at least four articles written about the Half Frame Parker.

Sometime ago, I sent 1/2 frame data I had collected over the years from auction sales to someone on the forum working on an article for Parker Pages. I don't know why but I can't locate the mail exchange and I don't remember who it was. But, the table I posted above has been updated but I can't verify if 241,672 was among the additions.

[Bill Murphy]

I have seen this chart. As a chart showing which gauges were made on which frame sizes, it is very incomplete. As a supposedly late Remington illustration, it does not indicate the abbreviated frame versus gauge usage that was proposed for the end of production. It seems to be a very early chart of frames that Remington intended to use for various gauges. This chart is not intended to illustrate all gauges built on all frames. It also does not show the use of the 000 frame for the 28 gauge, which was a very late proposal that was to take Remington into the end of Parker production.

[Austin W Hogan]

Has anyone seen a 3 frame 8 ga?

Best, Austin