doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Springfield-Stevens SXS Hammer Gun Camber Length?

I just got back my dad's old 16 ga. Springfield-Stevens SxS Model 215 hammer gun last week from my dad's hunting buddy (now in his 80's, Dad is 92). He bought it from my dad 60 years ago, and when I expressed interest in the gun, he gave it to me! I think the gun was made around 1930-32.

While shooting clays with 1 oz. RGL's, there were no problems closing the gun or extracting the just-fired hulls. When I put two empty hulls back in the gun as snap caps, the gun was hard to close and even harder to open. Is it possible that this gun has 2-9/16" chambers? If so, would that explain why it is so hard to close and open with empty hulls? Would shorter chambers result in tighter patterns with 2-3/4" shells than one might expect? The barrels had been cut off to 20". I patterned it, and the pattern was about 18" in diameter at 15 yards.

Most likely due to the date of manufacture, the chambers are 2 9/16" The likely reason for the mishap with the used shells:
1. Were these hulls fired in this gun? If not they would probably work if resized
2. If they were fired in the gun, they were "warm" when you removed them, once they cooled down and the brass had a chance to stretch it was probably large enough to fit very tight.
3. Remember to shoot lower pressure shells in this gun, and enjoy!!
4. Most likely the patterns would not be much tighter with shells only 3/16" too long, however the pressure would most certainly spike. Remember shells that are made now with modern wads pattern much tighter than shells with the old style wad columns. This gun if patterned at 30-40 would likely have some large holes.

PS fired hulls are not the best choice for snap caps, the dead primer does not provide much cushion. An inexpensive pair can be purchased for well under 20 bucks, and are a good investment.

It's a great story, shoot the gun and enjoy it, take care of it, and pass 'er on down. Just feed it some light (pressure) loads and she will be your good friend for another 80+ years.

Using fired hulls as snap caps is a very bad idea. The fired primers do not provide much cushion to the firing pins and it's a dangerous safety practice. The habit could result in unintentionally leaving two live shells in the gun. Either way, It will scare the hell out of your shooting partners and should be against the rules at any range run by some thinking people.
Be safe, real snap caps are very cheap.
There's no reason for snap caps in a hammer gun, anyway. Simply let the hammers down on empty chambers.

Consider using some lower pressure loads in the old girl, rather than the RGLs, the gun will stay "Tight" much longer.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Dad's hunting buddy cut the barrels off to shoot rats at the local grain elevator where he worked for many years. Dad said he bought it new at a small town hardware store. It had been on the shelf "for a long time" and he got it for $15.00. Still a lot of money during the Depression. I think the retail price then was about $22.00. Dad said it was his first "brand new" shotgun and the only gun with which he got his daily limit on quail.

As for the used hulls, they were shot in the gun. I have commercial snap caps in all of my other guns. I used the empty hulls as a stop-gap until I can purchase a set for it. Actually, my dad replaces spent primers with pencil erasers to use as snap caps. He sas done that for as long as I can remember and has never had a problem. Are snap caps a necessity when dry-firing hammer guns?

I just completed a little experiment. I took two of the empty hulls that were fired in the gun and trimmed them back about an inch. When I put either shortened hull in the right barrel the gun closed OK. When I put them in the left barrel it was very hard to close. When I rotated the hulls about 180 degrees in the left barrel it closed OK. I put the hull back in the right barrel, rotated the hulls 180 degrees and the gun would not close. Apparently the hulls are being distorted during firing. I did notice that there is a very small burr on the top and bottom of the lower left extractor tang. The burrs appear to line up with the exposed firing pin.