doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2 1/2" chambers and 1" cones

Good for you. Its a good thing to keep doing what you do and how you like to do it isn't it? Thats how I like to do things too. Looks like we're both just loaded down with "proof" arent we? I guess its a draw then. My experiences along with Bells and Armbrust and many others "science" and testing, to just your personal experience. I guess that qualifies as a draw, albeit an uneven one, but hey, we'll call it a draw regardless. By the way...I shoot alot, not everyday, but alot, I have these two little things called a job and family that kinda get in the way of me shooting everyday, sadly, I'm a long ways off from retirement age, someday I'll be able to make that claim :-) Enjoy your Smiths in good health Doug.

Cheers,
Dustin

Hard to believe anybody living in Utah could have so much good sense.

All y'all have a good time doing whatever

Dr.WtS

Interesting, the original question was, can you extend the forcing cones to shoot 2.75 shells in a gun chambered for 2.5 shells. The answer is yes you can, then everyone pontificates over pressures and such. Heck the writer even said that he understood the pressure issues in older guns. Not everyone reloads, I don't reload and it's much easier for me to get low pressure Winchester AA's then to have to mail out of state for my ammo. The 410 I extended the cones in was a Nitro Special with super thick barrels, no worry there.
As far as having barrel thickness checked, even the British proof house will let you extend forcing cones without making you get the gun reproofed.
As far as reloading, every blown gun I've ever seen came from an incorrectly reloaded shell. I did lie earlier though, I do reload black powder shells, I like the resulting shock & awe you get with black powder KABOOM .
Steve

You can also shoot 2 3/4" shells, loaded to appropriate pressures for the gun in question, in a 2 1/2" chambered gun without lengthening the cones. The Brits didn't lengthen cones when they started using longer hulls in the short chambers. All they did was stick with the same recipes they used in short shells.

When you grab off the shelf ammo at the local WalMart (or probably even sporting goods store), you can be OK if you go with the Winchester Low Noise-Low Recoil stuff. But about the time you grab a box of "light" target loads . . . woops, you're probably exceeding the pressure for which the gun was designed. So if you're going to go with factory ammo and not order from someone like RST or Polywad (or Brit or European shells), your off the shelf choices are very limited. It was not that way back before WWII, but back then a very high percentage of the shotguns being used had short chambers. Not true today, unless you're taking your percentage count at the Vintagers or somewhere like that.

I think the safety experts would tell you that most blown shotguns come as a result of some sort of bore obstruction.

Larry, I find your suggestions as most harmful.
There are hundred of thousands guns around of hundred disigns and different bores constructions and you just push some people to shorten their guns life and maybe in several times even.
Every other gun has to be well inspected before using 2 3/4" shells in 2 1/2" chambers and this is the first aand last rule before final decision to use or not to use.

From old American Rifleman articles to Bells and Armbrust........?....

REAL Science and testing would require that every possible combination of every possible wad, hull, cone and powder be tested in every 2.5" gun ever made --since it -HAS NOT-, it is therefore just somebody's opinion.........

Geno again is correct..........

I always shoot 2 3/4" shells in my 2 1/2" and 2 5/8" guns and have never had a problem. I do keep my pressures down, but more out of respect for the age of my vintage guns than anything else. Seems I had some pretty good company with Parker Brothers back in 1901. Read the hang tag. Oh, look at the load the gun was targeted with--not for sissies. And here I am shooting mostly 24 gram stuff.....humm.

I'm glad this subject comes up from time to time. Reminds me of discussions between conservatives and liberals--no one ever comes to agreement and each walks away thinking the other to be flat wrong or narrow minded, just to start it all over again the next time they meet. Fun.

So do you shoot 3" shells in your 2.75" guns as well, loaded to what you call conservative......just because you can...?-?-?-?...........Quarter inch here and a quarter inch there, what's the difference.....?....

Doug, there's no real reason why you could not shoot 3" shells in 2 3/4" chambered modern guns, from a pressure standpoint. SAAMI pressure limits are the same for the two. But there's no real reason to do it, since the 2 3/4" shell is the most common one out there. 2 1/2" shells, on the other hand, are both uncommon and expensive. As for every possible combination of hull and wad . . . Doug, are you unfamiliar with reloading manuals? The powder companies do that for us. If I work up a load that's rated at 7,000 psi, using the exact recipe in the manual in question, how is that worse--in a 2 1/2" gun--than if I fire a factory 2 1/2" shell that generates 9,000 psi? Your typical British 2 1/2" shells, for example, will tell you that they're just fine in guns with 2 1/2" or 65MM chambers, proofed at 3 tons or 850 bars. So marked, right on the shell box. Well, guess what? Service pressure for an 850 bar gun, per the British Proof House, is about 10,700 psi. Which means there can be some pretty darned hot 2 1/2" shells out there--far hotter than my 7,000 psi (or less) reloads.

Geno, you're pointing your finger at the wrong culprit. ANY vintage gun should be inspected before you fire ANY shell in it, regardless of whether it's a 2 1/2" shell in a 2 1/2" chamber, or a 2 3/4" low pressure shell in a 2 1/2" chamber.

Well done Larry. Again, you're hitting the nail on the head.

Joe Wood,
Nice hang tag, very curious indeed :-)