I fully understand the prudent concern on this subject. And I also fully understand the very real danger of someone reading this thread and only walking away with overly simplistic mantra of "it is now OK to shoot long shells in short chambers" because I read it on the DGJ BBS.

That all said, the issue is pressue - specifically the impact to pressure due to the slighlty longer shells in shorter chambers.

Bell, Burrard, and others have shown that while there undoubtably IS an increase in chamber pressure with slightly longer shells, that the pressure increase is not huge - nominally about 15%. If that additional 15% increase in pressure pushes the total pressure above the working pressures the gun was designed to operate in, then I agree you have a problem. If that pressure is still well below the safe threshold, then you are within the pressures that the gun was designed to handle.

I agree with several posters that it is pretty easy to obtain 2.5" shells that are loaded to lower pressures. So there is no pressing need to do this. Still, it makes me uncomfortable to hear the overly simplistic cries of "extreme danger" when the people who have obviously read up on the issues and taken the time to think hard about the subject are characterized as some type of looneys for doing so. Reminds me of the "damanscus" threads on other boards.

Geno is also right. Just because you are shooting 2.75" shells in 2.75" chambers (or 2.5" shells in 2.5" chambers) is no guarantee in of itself of safety in older guns. The issue is pressure. And of course the biggest problem here is that MOST commercial 2.75" shells are loaded to higher pressures than 2.5" shells. So it is not an apples to apples comparison from the start.


We have thrashed out this topic on the board before. For the vast majority who do not want to work through the intricacies of the pressure issues on their particulr gun, then it is best to stick with the low pressure 2.5 shells in 2.5 chambers. It just irks me to be characterized as doing something dangerous from some have not read in depth on the topic. It reminds me of the time a fellow "expert" shooter about yanked the double out of my hands on the range because he saw it to be a nice damascus double.

Ken