To the best of my recollection, this would have been back in the 1970s. I was at Ray Judges' gun shop one evening. This was located a bit South of Winchester TN in the Cumberland Plateau not far from Keith Springs mountain. While I was there a gentleman came by on his way home from deer hunting on the mountain. He brought in a fired shell he had found & picked up & asked had anyone ever seen one like it.
It was a Remington SP hull plainly marked 3" Magnum 16 gauge. The load was 3DE-1˝oz # 7˝ shot. At the time I wrote to the American Rifleman to see if they had any info on this load. They did not, could only guess that Remington was experimenting with a 3" 16. Obviously, they didn't go to market with it.
My first thought though was WHY would one want an oz & a half of shot in size 7˝. The only reason I could think of was the philosophy of an old bird hunter I once knew.
His idea was to use a cylinder bore loaded heavy with small shot. He then said Fill the Air with shot, then Flush the Birds.
My all-time favorite 16 gauge load is the 2˝-1 load of shot size suitable for the game at hand.
