doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2" shells in 2 3/4 chamber

I shoot nothing but RST shells. I use them in all my doubles old or new. I shoot a 1961 A5 and a Remington 1187 i bought when they first came out. Both are 12ga and i must shoot 1oz. loads in these for them to function correctly with the 2 1/2" shells but have seen no other problems since. The recoil is much softer and i dont see any difference in the way i shoot. I have been shooting them for several years and i pattern my gun at 40yrds. with them to see what shot works best for me. I have L,C. Smiths', Parkers, Winchesters and Ithacas in 20, 16 and 12ga. All my 20's and 16's are short chamber guns except for a couple newer guns. I hunt doves, quail, chuckars, rabbit and turkey here in Alabama with the same success as i did using 2 3/4" shells.I really like the short chamber shells. Now after seeing the results i have had with them most of my hunting buddies use them also. If you have any conserns just call RST and talk to them. They can probabbly answer your conserns about shooting the shorter shells in longer chambers this is their bussiness. This is just my experience with short chamber shells. I went quail hunting yesterday and out of 21 birds my pointer found i shot 15. Our limit here. Just wanted to chime in.

Thanks

Benelli regularly advertises its SBE as being able to handle the lightest 2 3/4 all the way up to 3 1/2. Why would they do that if there were imminent danger in shooting 2 3/4 in a 3 1/2 chamber? (Same difference 3/4" shorter shell for chamber given)

The "Danger" of this occuring dates way back to the regular use of Card & Filler wadding. These wads did not obturate & were not large enough in diameter to form a seal in the "Chamber" dia of the gun. This was why older guns have short forcing cones, so the wad column could bridge the gap prior to the wad leaving the case mouth. If this did not occur there was a possibility of the hot gases flowing around the wadding & fusing some of the shot. This of course did not always occur, most times it just erroded a little lead from some of the shot, but the possibility definitely existed. There is sufficient corrabarating evidence I believe to confirm it.

The plastic wads with an obturating base cup have virtually eliminated this concern however & no doubt that is what Benelli is counting on.

Also, though I don't have proof for this, I think that shells loaded with high quality felt fillers are less apt to have this problem than those using fiber wads. The felt is I believe much more likely to expand sufficiently under pressure to achieve a seal than the harder fiber wads.

Some yrs back I too fired a number of regular 2 3/4" shells through a 20ga having 3" chambers with no problems, but this was all after the introduction of the plastic wad & these were what I used. I would be personally hesitant to load shells with card & hard fiber wads for use in a gun having chambers significantly longer than the hulls.

While this is not quite answering the question asked about 2� cartridges specificaly I would say that there could be a problem with short cartridges in longer chambers.
One of my clients brought a backbored 3� chambered gun to the ground to try out. Using 2 �� fibre wad cartridges he put several large dents in my pattern plate (re-cycled fuel tanks). One of the dents had the remains of the shot load still stuck to it � it formed a saucer shaped disc about 1 �� across and about 3 - 4 pellets deep all welded together. This was at 25 yards.
This is not anecdotal � this is fact � so ignore it at your peril.
I guess the problem lay with a combination of things. Long chambers relative to the cartridge, backbored barrels and fibre wads.
I imagine the 2� cartridge does not have a long wad so be cautious!!
John