doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any 3.5 inch chambered vintage 12ga guns?

I assume these must have been built in some number, because I have come across a bunch of 3.5 inch bismuth shells in #4 launching a 1 5/8 oz. payload.

Who routinely manufactured a 3.5 inch 12 ga.? Do any of you own one?

Regards,
GG

have seen some recent plastic pump guns...but there are no sxs's that i know of...

I have a Browning Citori in 3 1/2" 12 gauge. Not vintage but at least classic

Heavy goose loads.
Makes a 12 into a 10.
Not for the recoil sensitive, or the delicate firearm.

Mossberg pioneered the concept with the model 835, 25 years+ ago.
Overbored barrel, recoil pad on stock, porting, etc.

Benelli followed suit with the SBE l.
And ouila' a star was born.


Never saw a 12 bore was PROOFED for that load.

There were some deeper chambered 12's early on when wads and wadding were being extended to cushion payloads.
But they weren't for those shells!

A friend had a 3-1/2� Citori and it was a beast. I have a 3-1/2� Beretta 686 Onyx and it is too light for those loads.

1988.

You can blame Mossberg and Federal.

I had the pleasure of sharing a duck blind with a guy who had a first year version.

It would not eject shells.

This was somehow my fault because I'm the 'gun guy'.

We drove each shell out of his 'gun' with a rod for two days.

I will buy every one you can get for 1.50 each.
I need the shot.

Hello Clapper Zapper:
Thanks for the offer. I watched these sit dusty on a sporting good store's shelf here in Montana for two years, and had a couple conversations with the manager about whether he'd ever seen a vintage 3.5 inch gun. Nope.
After a good paycheck I offered to buy all they had well below retail. I've been gutting the shells and moving the shot into various 16 and 20 ga. hulls to exercise my Parkers and M21's afield ever since.
Regards,
GG

Beretta built the 626 Onyx in 3.5 for a short time.

Didn�t federal partner with browning for the first 3-1/2� 12�s? I�ve got a first year BPS a friend bought new that year. Heavy as hell, but kills like the devil.

I had a 3.5 Citori, the first time I used it was in TX on snow geese. shot 2 flats of 3.5 T's in three days. I would sit in the motel with a cup of ice on my shoulder in theevening. Damn thing kicked but with Briley extended IM choke it killed many geese at 90 yards. Last 10 years I have shot a 390 with 1 1/4 shot a ducks. Just not mad enough to shoot a 3.5.
bill

Recoil...Bah. I went the first 65 years of my life with complete recoil tolerance. My first shot was when my Granddaddy (unwisely, I think) handed me a 12ga Browning A-5 and asked if I wanted to shoot it.

It knocked me flat on my back with the first shot and all my grandfather could think about was the other two rounds in the automatic. I was ready for more!

I never worried about recoil until recovering from some serious heart surgery, my shotguns began kicking the snot out of me. Now I am recoil shy. Luckily, they make extra thick pads...Geo

How did you measure that 90 yards? Even Nash Buckingham in his Hey-Days with either the first, or the later "Bo Whoopie" A.H. Fox/Burt Becker shotguns and his 3" special Western shells stopped at about 70 yards, according to what I have read. You might hit a goose at that extreme range, but a clean kill. The old timers I did my apprenticeship with on waterfowl liked 'em in close, so's they could see the color of their eyeballs. I've shot and killed clean many geese at 20 yards, steel shot, full choked M12's- than I ever have at 50-- RWTF

Nash wrote of his father having a W W Greener hammer 12 gauge with 3�" chambers in Nash's youth. So far as I have ever seen by record of that was as long as they were chambered prior to the above mentioned 1988 date

Certainly there are some modern made Turkish side by sides and over unders being sold here in the U.K. with 3 1/2" chambers. Only 3 1/2" I have is a Winchester SX4.

Does anyone remember the Armitalia Double Discharge over under 12 bore gun? It fired both barrels together if the back trigger was pulled first. A couple of 3" magnums in that would rattle the teeth a bit!

Yep. Federal designed the shell and Mossberg built the 835 pump to accommodate it. While the chamber was 12 ga., the barrel was and still is overbored to 10 ga. specs. Same for the 935 auto. Gil

I had a sxs about 20 years ago that had 3 1/2" chambers.
I think it was a Dr. Franco Beretta and I think the model was "the Chesapeake" it weighed about 7 1/2 lbs and it kicked pretty hard with 2 3/4" loads.
I never fired any magnum shells in it.
Pete

I have seen photos of 19th century French doubles chambered for 7.5, 8.0, and 8.5. Journee notes that at the time there where shotguns (gauge not mentioned) chambered up to 9.0 cm (4 1/2").

16 gauge French gun from pre 1900 chambered for 8.0 (3 1/2").
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=516435&page=1
Didier-Drevet barrel, 16 gauge which looks to be chambered for 8.0. It is double proofed in Saint-Etienne for PS powder so it is pre-1900 and it does not have the 1900 prize marked on DD barrels but rather 1855, the date of his original gold medal at the Paris Universelle. Barrel is Damascus. It is post 1889 since chamber is marked in cm. (The barrel oddly is not dated or I cant read it.