I agree with all the above, I think.
Extending the chambers is a very bad idea.
Doing anything to the forcing cones is also not a sound idea.
When we start rethinking the engineers and designers of old guns, we are perhaps arrogant and flirting with what we know not the end result.
To do these things to guns that are older than most men's fathers and grandfathers reading about it is much like trying to use modern gasoline in a 1919 automobile. I think, as an antique car buff and a devotee of wonderful old SxSs, it is a gift that we are given by those great men that designed and built the guns that we treasure today.
Use then well and attempting to remake them is not to be countenanced.
Best,
John
John, while I certainly haven't lengthened cones on all my old guns--for instance, I won't touch my Army & Navy pair from 1933--we need to remember that most of us are going to be shooting 2008 shells in 1908 guns, and the original engineers did their work based on the ammo then available. Things like lengthening chambers and opening chokes (I did do that on the tight barrel of one of my A&N's, seeing no use at all for something that patterned 90%+ at 35 yards) may result in a gun that works better with more modern shells. And the good thing about lengthening cones and/or tinkering with chokes is that those modifications don't take the gun out of proof.
