Three inch 20 gauge....

[Drew Hause]

This is a 1931 ad. The box at the top is a 12g "Arrow Express". I do not know when the load was introduced



When Western Cartridge Co. introduced the 1 ounce 20g Super X load in a 2 3/4 inch case, Peters Cartridge Co. offered their High Velocity loads in the 2 7/8 and 3-inch hulls.

[Researcher]

I searched through the first 2000 or so Ansley H. Fox graded 20-gauge cards looking for requests for long chambers and found 40 for 3-inch shells and 7 for 2 7/8 inch shells. Wonder if I'll live long enough to get back at it and do the remaining 1800 or so cards?

Requests for long chambers for 16-gauge guns seem to be few and far between. The late R.W. Harris searched the records and found nine requests for 3-inch shells and I found one for 2 7/8 inch shells.

Drew, those green Remington two-piece boxes were introduced along with the KLEANBORE priming in 1931. My guess is that my box of 3-inch ARROW EXPRESS 20-gauge shells must have been from right at that time but they didn't yet have a green box for 20-gauges and still used a cream color box. The Remington ARROW EXPRESS was sort of the parallel to some of the Western Cartridge Co.'s Super-X loads that were put up in their high brass RECORD case while the bulk of the Super-X loads were put up in the FIELD case. The "regular" Remington progressive burning powder high velocity loads were called NITRO EXPRESS and were put up in their NITRO CLUB hull. The ARROW EXPRESS were progressive burning powder high velocity loads put up in their high brass ARROW hull. Just before WW-II Remington streamlined and they all became REMINGTON EXPRESS

[Researcher]

Peters offered their High Velocity loads in a full variety of lengths by their 1927 catalog --

Peters High-Velocity loads 1927.jpg

But, all their HIGH VELOCITY 1 ounce 20-gauge loads I've seen are 2 3/4 drams equiv.

20-gauge 3-inch.jpg

[Jeff K.]

I have only run across one vh 3" 16. It was at a little gun show in Illinois. I'm still kicking
myself for not buying it.

[charlie cleveland]

a j your question is not dumb...people did not shoot the 3 inch shell in there short chambered guns to get a better seal....and 3 inch chambered guns of those years were special order..fellows like us would have never seen one....to be honest i still have not seen one in person just pictures... would love to own one of those guns with 32 inch barrels and 3 inch chambers and extra full chokes....i was reading on one of the boxes here it said thier shells would kill at 70 - 80 yards and even farther....wish they would sale these shells again...i do like to look at these old shell boxes as much as i do guns...thanks fellas... charlie