Question on Chamber Length

[Researcher]

The Remington era specification sheets for their Parker guns are reproduced on pages 164 to 169 of The Parker Story and show the chambers 1/8 inch shorter then the intended shell. A.P. Curtis did a couple of articles in The American Rifleman (July 1936 and March 1938) on the virtue of short chambers.

Pete, my Mahoney girl is 7 1/2 and is at the height of her powers. She is a bird machine. Currently her daughter is pregnant and I'm first in line for a puppy.

[Bill Murphy]

The A.P. Curtis articles that Dave mentions are the articles that I alluded to earlier in this thread. The Remington specifications that Dave mentions were dated as late as February 20, 1940, so, obviously, Remington kept the short chamber specifications to the end of production. Notice the marking on late Remington guns says "For 2 3/4" Shells" with no mention of chamber length. The chambers for 28 gauge and .410 bore guns were 1/16" shorter than the shells intended to be used.

[Bill Murphy]

Austin, I think you will find the "theory" of short shells in slightly longer chambers in the Curtis articles. I haven't read them for a while, but I think you will find that the "theory" involves gas rather than pattern. On the other hand, in the 1916 article I mentioned earlier, Askins mentions the 80% patterns that were shot in Edwin Hedderly's little gun. I thought he was referring to a 20, but later I see that Hedderly claims 80% patterns in his 16. Now, 94 years later, we find that Hedderly's smallbores were chambered very short, 2 3/8" in the 20 and 2 1/2" in the 16 as I recall.