Miller, I don't want to proof them for such. But anyone who wants to shoot 3" shells in those guns certainly should do so. Personally, I'd rather educate everyone off this BB, but that obviously is not going to happen. Thus the problem remains . . . someone without the collective knowledge assembled here picks up a 3" Parker 20ga, and what's he going to think? That it must be good to go with 3" shells, of course! But then those guns haven't been materially altered, which IMO is the real problem. And establishing the original chamber length etc isn't necessarily any easier with a Brit or European gun than it is with an American gun. Prior to the mid-20's, chamber length was not marked on either British or Belgian guns as a matter of course. In both cases--British/European and American--on those early guns, we'd have to resort to whatever factory records are available to determine the original configuration of the gun.
The previous issue with the destruction tests conducted by Bell and Hamlin also should be addressed. At least in the case of the guns Bell used, there were visible changes in those guns--so reported in his articles--before they blew up. Which means they would have failed proof before that final, hottest load that caused a catastrophic failure. Rather, they would have failed proof as soon as visible changes took place. And likely earlier than the visible changes reported by Bell, had they been subjected to the more vigorous "view" standards of a proofhouse.
