I was recently looking at an English gun. It was marked on the barrel flats "2 1/2" and 1 1/8 oz." Ever the skeptic, I had the owner measure the chambers with his Galazan flat-leaf chamber gauge. They measured 2 3/4". I used my own gauge, a cylinder-type made in England and it showed 2 1/2"!
Yikes, is this gun in or out of proof?
With all the discussions on this board about guns in and out of proof, shooting 2 3/4" shells in 2 1/2" guns, impacts of potential value, etc., how is one to tell exactly what length the cambers REALLY are on a gun?
Someone in an earlier post said that he made a chamber gauge with an end diameter of .774". Mine measures .800", who knows what the Galazan gauge measures. This may be significant.
If not all gauges are of the same end diameter, how can we possibly know what's what?
I understand that chambers are tapered, wider at the breach end, BUT:
1. What exact diameter should the forward end diameter of a chamber be?
2. Is there a standard measurement in English guns?
3. Is the diameter consistent between European, USA and English guns?
4. Does a gun chambered for 2 1/2" shell have a chamber 2 1/2" long from the breech face to the end of the chamber?
I know that there is a lot of variance in dimension of chokes, therefor I always measure them in thousandths, not relying on the terms IC, M, IM, F, etc. But with such inexact chamber gauges, do we really know what our guns are chambered for, and whether they have been opened or not?
