The obvious reason that LC books list 1895 as the first year the Pigeon Grade gun was available is because that is the first year that model is listed in a factory catalog. Did the gun actually ship in 1893? Possibly and possibily not. I say that because of the inconsistency as to the amount of information contained in many of the early records; some have nothing but a serial number, grade, gauge, and barrel length entered onto a ledger page having the date that particular frame was entered into the inventory ledger book. But I have a copy of a page from an 1895 ledger featuring early ejector guns and having some extra and unusual detail. Provided on this page are actual order and ship dates; and a number of these guns have order and shipping dates well into 1898. From that information, and the fact that all Pigeon guns were special ordered, it is entirely possible that the serial number for your gun frame (and Hunter inventoried all their gun frames numerically) was included in an 1893 ledger; but not actually shipped until much later. The only method to determine for sure is to request a letter and specially ask if an actual ship date is included in the records. To date, Researcher's referenced 1894 ad is the earliest printed reference we have to the Pigeon Grade; but guns with features prior to catalog announcements are not uncommon; some more obvious examples are guns with type II ejectors and guns with Hunter One-triggers that pre-date period and catalog announcements. Many times these items were factory retro-fitted after these options became available; but a fair number of these guns were factory fitted with such options and "field tested" prior to cataloged availability. Such minutuae holds great appeal to gun nuts like me and Researcher.