All elements kept equal but chamber length, is there any reason a shotgun would have more recoil when firing a 2 &3/4" shell in a shorter chamber? Thanks for the replies!
Several years ago Kent gave me various 12 guage Tung. Matrix duck loads to test (before Katrina) when Destry and I were still shooting ducks at Delacroix LA (soon to suffer again with a dose of BP's oil). To compare the 2 3/4-inch Kent TM Waterfowl loads I bought several boxes of 2 3/4-inch Bismuth; some of the boxes of Bismuth were loaded in Winchester-marked shells while other Bismuth boxes held shells marked Eley. All shells, Kent and Bismuth were clearly marked 2 3/4-inch on the boxes and the shell casings. I was shooting my 1928 Parker GH F&F...
When the gun doubled and the recoil was severe! I don't recall whether I got the duck...but when I tried to open the "Old Reliable" it was stuck shut. I intuited that the shells were swollen and the extractor rods would not push the shells and, thus, the extractor rods were holding the gun closed. I removed the fore-end to release the push rods and the gun opened, albeit with the Bismuth/Eley shells firmly stuck. Destry cut a rod from the blind brush and we were able to push the shells out. The Parker Gun--to its credit--suffered no damage.
The Bismuth/Eley shells, however, were destroyed with mouths stretched and shredded and brass bases swollen, distorted, and cracked. Each Bismuth/Eley shell was clearly stamped 2 3/4-inch, but measured over 3-inches open!
So there it is: 3-inch shells in 2 3/4-inch chambers are not good. I stopped shooting the Bismuth. When I got home I did some forensic research by deconstructing some of the loaded shells: The Bismuth-Winchester shells were all 2 3/4-inch as marked; the Bismuth/Eley shells all opened to 3-inches even though they were marked 2 3/4-inch both on the box and shell casing.
I called Ken Levine at Bismuth and he blew me off; I wrote an article praising Kent and blasting Bismuth...R. E. Petersen passed away and I heard from a source that the widow's lawyers advised her not to sell the Bismuth brand for the liability, but I believe that someone is still making the stuff. I hope they measure their powder and shot loads better than they measured their shells.
I sold the remainder of those bogus Bismuth/Eley mis-marked accident-waiting-to-happen shells (about 15 boxes) to none other than Doug Turnbull last year. We marked each box "3-inches" with a black magic marker.
And the point of all this is that over-long shells can produce great recoil causing a gun to double. Fortunately the gun was not damaged, probably due to the manufacturing date coincidental with Lindbergh flying solo across the Atlantic versus a turn of the century gun reflecting the technology and metallurgy which preceded the Wright brothers barely getting off the ground. EDM
