doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2 3/4" Shells in 2 1/2 or 2 5/8" Chambers?

Afternoon Gentlemen,

After a few years hiatus I'm wanting to dive back into doubles (or at least dip a toe in). I've been looking at the Spanish and Jap double guns, some Superposeds and a few old classic doubles like a couple of old Remingtons, a Fox, a relatively young Miroku side by side and a beautiful old Hussy. My question is about shooting light 2 3/4" loads in some of these late 1800's - Early 1900's guns with the shorter chambers instead of buying the 2 1/2" new ammunition at $15.00 a box. Any harm?

And, any thoughts on decent starter doubles between 900 and 2000 dollars? Any sleepers or good values you reccomend?

I look forward to your collective wisdom.

Bill

(Kicking myself for divesting myself of a Sauer 20 ga. double, a Charles Daly Superior Grade Miroku 12 over and under and a beautiful Beretta Golden Snipe 12 ga. w/ Briley choke tubes, as well as a few others I can't recall right now. Never will do that again!)

Ahhh. I see my post count has reset. I've been around here for about nine years, posted little but learned a ton from you guys.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill, a lot of us regularly shoot reasonably pressured 2 3/4" shells in our short chambered guns. There has been a lot of research into this and the consensus is that pressures do not rise significantly. It is interesting that well after 2 3/4" ammunition became standard we had many manufacturers continue to cut 2 5/8" chambers for their guns. I believe they felt if the hull opened partially into the forcing cone a better gas seal would be made. A couple years ago Sherman Bell wrote an article in the Double Gun Journal reporting test results of shooting the longer hulls in short chambers. He arrived at the same conclusion. The article is in Volume 12, Issue 4 (Winter 2001). They can be reached at 800-447-1658.

Please see http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/chambers.html