I don't know if the question "why the 1/2 frame?" has ever been answered sufficiently. Parker Bros., well before the Remington days, was experimenting with smaller frame twelve gauge guns and this may have been the intended/unintended result of that endeavor but, the question remains, why not stick with the 1-frame twelve that had always been so popular in the hammer gun and early hammerless days? The 0-frame sixteen and the 1-frame twelve were made to allow for a lighter carrying gun in the gauge of choice to the buyer but the 1/2-frame is an enigma. We may never learn the answer to this question. I've read that there may have been somewhere around 250 1/2-frame Parkers made.
