Back in my (even more) naive days, I followed the gun writers of the day (about 35 years ago) and their recommendation to lengthen the chambers from 2 1/2" to 2/3/4" and lengthen the forcing cones. I sent a pristine, original Fox AE 16 to Griffen and Howe. They said that in their judgement the chambers could be lengthened, but there was insufficient wall thickness to relieve the forcing cones. Thank goodness for a professional to do the work, but I still regret lengthening the chambers those many years ago. Lesson learned.
I left another Fox CE with a dealer (same timeframe as the gun above) who said he'd get the chambers lengthened to 2 3/4." When I got it back, the chambers had been cut to 3 inches. According to the smith, he did so to "keep some dummy from sticking 3 inch shells in the gun." Another lesson learned (and I'm still wondering if I was the dummy or the gunsmith...or both of us).
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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