Dr. Drew Hause posted some articles about the Parker Bros. "Knight of the Trigger", Arthur DuBray, making a swing through the southeast and doing quite a bit of hunting with a 2 7/8 inch 16-gauge. The long shells in all gauges were a special order item up until the introduction of Western Cartridge Co.'s 12-gauge 3-inch Super-X load in their Record shell, with 1 3/8 ounces of shot, in 1922.
R.W. Harris searched the A.H. Fox 16-gauge graded gun records and only came up with a handful (less than ten) Fox 16-gauge guns ordered chambered for 3-inch shells. I've found one 16-gauge Fox ordered chambered for 2 7/8 inch shells. I've searched the first 1200 Fox 20-gauge production cards and come up with 32 guns ordered for 3-inch shells and six for 2 7/8 inch shells. None of these early Fox 20-gauge guns ordered for 3-inch shells were particularly heavy, and ranged from a 28-inch CE-grade at 5 pounds 11 ounces to a 32-inch DE-Grade 7 pounds 1 ounce.
In my pre WW-I UMC catalogues the heaviest "standard" 20-gauge loads in the 2 1/2 inch shell were 2 1/4 drams of bulk smokeless powder and 7/8 ounce of shot, or dense smokeless powder like Ballistite of 18 grains and 7/8 ounces of shot. You could get a load of 2 1/2 drams of bulk smokelss powder and 7/8 ounces of shot or 20-grains of Ballistite and 7/8 ounces of shot in a 2 3/4 inch or longer case. Both of these boxes of long 20-gauge shells carry a load that could have been had in a 2 3/4 inch case --
As the 1927 Peters Cartridge Co. catalogue page, that I posted earleier, for their High Velocity shells shows, you could get the 16-gauge High velocity load of 3 drams equiv. and 1 1/8 ounces of shot in the standard 2 9/16 inch shell for $53.50 per thousand. You could get the same load in 2 3/4, 2 7/8, or 3-inch shells with more wadding for $63.50 per thousand.
