Chamber length

[Paul Harm]

Frank, even some of the early humpback auto guns had short chambers. A friend reloads for his at 2 9/16 - believe it's a 16ga. So yes, the shell manufactures would have made a number of factory shells what we now consider short.

[Researcher]

Originally Posted by Paul Harm

Frank, even some of the early humpback auto guns had short chambers. A friend reloads for his at 2 9/16 - believe it's a 16ga. So yes, the shell manufactures would have made a number of factory shells what we now consider short.

The Browning A5 16-gauge was made for 2 9/16 inch shells up to WW-II, and our North American ammunition manufacturers continued to supply 16-gauge shells in the 2 9/16 inch length up to the early 1960s. The 12-gauge A5 was made for 2 3/4 inch shells from the get go as was the Remington Autoloading Shotgun later known as the Model11.

[James L. Martin]

How about shooting 2 3/4 inch shells in a 20ga that has 2 1/2 chambers?@ #

[charlie cleveland]

i shoot 2 3/4 inch 20 ga shells in 3 of my 2 1/2 inch chambered parker guns with no problems...and please some of you go pattern your longer chambered guns and see if yall see any differance in your patterns..charlie

[Researcher]

About thirty years ago I was shooting a lot of Doves with a 16-gauge 1928 vintage A.H. Fox Sterlingworth Ejector Field chambered 2 7/16 inch intended for 2 9/16 inch shells. I was using those wonderful compression formed 16-gauge 2 3/4 inch Winchester/Western Dove & Quail loads that the folks at Olin provided us for a few years. I didn't see any problems shooting those shells in the gun, but it really ironed the crimp memory out of those cases. When I shot them in my 1909 vintage Remington Arms Co. KE-Grade with full 2 9/16 inch chambers and more modern 2 3/4 inch chambered pumps and autos the crimp memory was great and to this day I get better reloads from the hulls shot in longer chambers then those originally shot in that Fox.

[Kensal Rise]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

i shoot 2 3/4 inch 20 ga shells in 3 of my 2 1/2 inch chambered parker guns with no problems...

Indeed sir. I've used 2 3/4 inch hulls/cartridges in 12, 16, 20 and 28 bore guns for years. Thousands upon thousands of rounds, too. Velocities are around 1150 fps. NEVER a problem. And the hulls come out looking totally normal.

Consider that the forcing cone accommodates an extra 1/8 to 1/4 inch of case material with no issues...

[Cold Spring]

So I'm looking at a 1915 catalogue from the Edw. K. Tryon Company, the large, well known sporting goods distributor in Phila. On just one page there are (33) factory-loaded 12-gauge "high brass" 2-5/8" shells listed, with respected trade names like: Leader, Arrow, Ajax. The named shells were loaded by Winchester, U.M.C. and U.S Cartridge with Bulk and L&R dense smokeless powders.

Wow! There must have been many guns out there with 2-1/2" chambers intended for 2-5/8" shells ..... as per that 1/8" short convention we read about so often.

[Pawel Janusz]

If wooden dowel fits in between 2.86" to 3.1" then its redone to 2-3/4".
If forcing cone look elongated that may mean same, since a lot of time gunsmiths use elongating forcing cone reamers to do that.

[Dean Romig]

I would not trust a wooden dowel to measure chamber length. I would only use an instrument designed for the purpose and that would measure in thousandths of an inch.





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[Paul Harm]

I believe there'll be .005 tapper per inch, then when you hit the forcing cone there'll be a very fast tapper.