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.
