doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Gun co chambers

Was reading disassembly instruction for my Batavia Leader 12 ga and there was a warning about short chambers. It is serial number 142XXF, F for Field grade I suppose. This is a side lock that looks a lot like an LC Smith. I am trying to measure the chambers, but getting dizzy looking down the bore and trying to measure. Does anyone know whether these guns were made with chambers shorter than 2 3/4" ? Do you measure to where the forcing cone starts or ends? My measurements show the forcing cone to be 7/8" long. Does this sound right? This is my favorite turkey gun, it shoots where I look.
thanks for the help

Charlie

I'd guess the chambers are 2 3/4", but why not just measure them? Roll up a piece of copy paper to fit the chamber and push it down the breach until you feel the end. Mark the spot on the paper and measure it with a ruler. Then you know for sure...Geo

The F at the end of the serial number is for Folsom, H & D Folsom Arms Co. in NYC that acquired the Gun portion of Baker Gun & Forging Co. about 1919. Folsom continued to make/assemble Baker guns, most likely at their Crescent Fire Arms Co. factory in Norwich, Conn., to about 1929. Whether the chamber is 2 5/8 or 2 3/4 inch to the break from the end of the chamber to the forcing cone, it was intended for 2 3/4 inch shells.

thank you both very much.

I am guessing the forcing cone is considered to be part of the chamber when measuring.


Charlie

No sir, the forcing cone is considered forward of the chamber.

John

When shells used fiber wads a lot of guns had slightly shorter chambers with very short forcing cones. This was done to give them a better gas seal. With the change over to plastic wads, which would flex to seal better, it was found a longer forcing cone gave better patterns. Gas was still sealed because the wad skirt would expand to fill any gaps. Many doubles had the forcing cones relieved slightly, which I find a bit better than lengthening the chambers as a whole. But with so many ways to find proper ammo these days it is an unneeded alteration to me.

Here is a visual from Ithaca Gun Co. --

Note that for the 2 3/4" 12ga if both chamber End & bore are on "Nominal" dimensions with 0 tolerance then with the cone angle of 5�30' the cone length would be 0.358" long. With the SAAMI suggested cone of an even 5� the cone length for same chamber & barrel dimensions would be 0.394".

It is I believe also noteworthy that for dimension E (chamber length) Ithaca uses the nominal length, not the shorter one some companies used. Everyone can, of course, make up their own mind, but personally, I would be leery of using a shell which was longer than the chamber in a cone with a steeper taper (Shorter Cone) than the 5� suggested by SAAMI. Perhaps a max of 1/8" would be OK, but would not want to use a shell a full 1/4" or even 3/16" longer with that short a cone.

I also note this was dated 3-10-39 & that the 28 gauge was still listed as having 2 7/8" chambers at that point. There is also a revision listed which carried the chamber ends for 10 & 12 gauge magnums to a 4 place decimal rather than rounding tp three which was dated 11-6-45 & nothing else seems to have changed during that time.

Also interesting to note, from that chart: Choke constrictions were the same for the 16 and the 20.