rear sight puzzle on smooth bore ? "Topper Buck"

[preventec47]

I have a pardner 12 ga and have been agonizing over how to add a rear sight
and last week I was at a gun show where they had what was I think
( best of my memory ) a " TOPPER BUCK "  slug gun  that was smooth
bore and had a small peep hole rear sight mounted on the last half inch
of the barrel.   The barrel did not seem any thicker than on my gun
in the chamber area and when I called H&R they said they had never
mounted any peeps on smooth bore barrels and that it was extremely
unsafe to drill holes in that location of such a thin barrel.

Maybe the peep was added by someone other than the factory
and this gun is unsafe.    OR  the older TOPPER guns
had options no one remembers today at H&R.

Has anyone ever heard of or remember a Topper Buck model  ?

[Jack Pine Savage]

A few months back I saw an old used H&R model just as you described. I asked the gun shop owner if the peep sight was added and he said no and pointed to the letter "P" designation after the model name stamped on the gun. He said it was to indicate it was equipped with a peep sight and that the sight was factory installed. He is an old time dealer who usually knows what he' talking about. I believe it was called a Topper Buck or something very similar to that.

I think your idea about some old model info being unfamiliar to current employees at H&R could be correct.