2 3/4" chambers were cut in many 12ga guns long prior to 1935 & well prior to the Super X, Express etc class of shells. My 1889 Lefever Arms Co catalog lists 1¼oz loads as being suitable for 12 ga guns with those of 7-8lbs handling 3-3½ drams of powder, while those of 8-9lbs wt can use 4-4½ drams of powder, this all black powder of course. The 1913 catalog gives loads for several smokeless powders with 1¼oz of shot & charges up to 3½ drams equivelent.
These were "Not" powder puff loads, but "Remember" guns DO NOT grow stronger with age.
I suspect that many of the makers had calls for their heavier guns to be used for waterfowling, trap or live pigeon shooting to be cut with 2 3/4" chambers while most of their field guns went out with the 2 5/8" standard. 2 3/4" chambers are simply not that uncommon in these old guns & I don't think they have all been rechambered. L C Smith chamber drawings dated Dec 21, 1907 incidently list the 10ga @ 2 7/8", 12ga @ 2 3/4", 16ga @ 2 9/16" & 20ga @ 2 1/2". The Super X loadings brought out in the 20's & the later Super 10 were new only in loads, not in the size of their shells.
The matter of shells longer than their chambers was settled in England with the introduction of the fold crimp. I believe that essentially all shells loaded with a fold crimp intended for the 2½" chambered British game gun have been put up in hulls longer than the chamber. This took place probably before Bell was born. Somehow he simply seemed to be unable to understand what he read. I have no qualms with people doing testing for themselves, but he mis-quoted Burrard so bad it was simply pitiful. What he actually did was re-confirm data at least 55-60 yrs old.
