16-gauge Remington Express XLR

[Cold Spring]

I shoot sporting with friends who reload mainly to save money (at 150-200 rounds fired per week) and no one bothers to load Federal straight-wall Riefenhauser type hulls. There are tons of Federals and similar hulls in station containers and on the ground but they stay there until collected by trap tenders and into the trash dumpster. Some have tried to reload and report it's too much of a hassle playing with different wads, stack heights and trying to get good crimps. Of course that's with 12-gauge. These new 16-gauge Remingtons have basically the same design as straight-wall Cheddite hulls used in RST's and plenty of vintage gunners do reload those. The question I have is if the new Remington hulls are a full 2-3/4" long or something like 2-5/8" as with the black-colored Remington Game Load hulls that are in high demand by 16g enthusiasts? Another question: is this the shape of things to come with the current Gun Club compression formed 12 and 20g shells?