One of the guys hunting with me today had a NEF Ultra Slug Hunter Deluxe and it was chambered for 20 gauge 3 1/2 inch shells. I hadn't heard of this before. His Dad won it in a raffle. Hastings makes the shells. Joe went to Dicks and Gander looking for ammo and both told him there was no such thing as a 20ga 3 1/2. I got one sitting on my desk as proof there is.

http://www.hastingsammunition.com/id2.html

You should have asked for ammo for the "TWENTY GAUGE FROM HELL"!

Yes,it's new. Hastings developed it for a single shot, NEF/H&R slug gun, as you said. It's too new to be stocked in the gun shops yet. It's not likely they will stock them until they stock the guns that shoot them.

Or, in other words Jagermeister, "If you miss, don't waste your time with more practice we'll just add another 1/2 inch to the shell"

A 3" 16ga. makes more sense than a 3 1/2" 20. I assume this is for a dedicated slug gun, to try to get it up to mach 2? Otherwise, that makes absolutely zero sense, and would be useless on birds.

Mark a 3" 16ga has been tried before. It wasn't popular.

The 16ga makes little sense in the first place, but Browning does mike a cute pump gun on unusual frame size in this gauge. I compared 20ga, 16ga, 12ga at Gander Mountain and the 16ga reciver has 12ga 3" mag length but is visibly more svelte in profile.

I'm pretty sure the 3 1/2" twenty was only developed to overcome a ballistic challenge in a slug that size, and birdshot has never been loaded in the hulls of that length. It is a wonderful deer gun, according to some things I have read.
Not everyone likes fat women, but, some do. God gave us both, and, we get to choose between 12 and 16, also. My 16s make sense, to me. The receiver on my 1957 Ithaca 16 is about the same as the one on my 1933 model 17 20 gauge.
Browning hasn't built anything I would spend my after tax dollars on in about fifty years.
Best,
Ted

It is all part of "marketing"...make something new and people will buy it..excite the marketplace...the .17 is a big hit, but useless if even a slight breeze is blowing....short mags are a big hit, but barrel life is 1/3 of the standard mag.....people just like trendy, new stuff.....who would have thought 30 years ago, that folks would be running around with stainless-plastic stocked guns...better known as "ugly sticks"..??

"there is a sucker born every minute"...Barnum & Bailey

Hey people, read a book. More room in a hull is always good.

The very best 20 gauge loads are built in a 3" hull, not necessarily going for 1 1/4oz payload, but to provide cushioning and lower acceleration so the pellets are launched as undeformed as possible.

The 3 1/2" 20 promises more of the same. More room for wads and buffers. It might even be possible to make some adequate steel shot loads.

It does present some possible benefits for clever handloaders.

If you don't like it, you don't have to buy it.

I'm buying PA24's view lock, stock and barrel. This drefful-big-this-or-that consumerism gives us a bad name. Around here generations of rural people have lived with and welcomed goose and duck hunting as a time of the year. Now, land is being closed to access because of the noise from the 3 1/2 inchers. Put plainly, these guys can't shoot. They don't conceal themselves properly, put out a decent spread and feel a need to skybust with cannons. There's not a bird in Eastern Canada that can't be taken cleanly with a 2 3/4-inch shell and 1 1/4 oz load.

I'll bet the 3-1/2" 20ga shell is as bad as the 1oz. 28ga Max load. Just don't tell all the dead birds about it.

You hit the nail on the head perfectly...!! The same type of person who buys a "camo" shotgun, will buy the 3.5" 20...probably buys his hunting garbs at LL Bean...needs the "catalog" look you know....can't shoot, but needs the look...
Folks hunted turkey's for years without camo covered guns, just put an old coat or sleeve over it, the critters don't know the diff...AS LONG AS "YOU" KNOW HOW TO HUNT.........same with all the rest, just something to sell....
Sky-scraping will always be sky-scraping no matter what cannon you are using or where you bought your duds.....the duds and the engraving belong on the trap/skeet range....with the golfers.

A little more about these guns. This barrel has the O.D. of a 10 gauge with a 20gauge hole through it. I don't know the pressures these cartridges are loaded to, but it seems to me the only way that longer is an advantage is if they are higher pressure.

I started with the attitude that the gun seemed to be a gimmic but if the website is accurate, they actually developed a decent round.
If the slug is actually staying supersonic beyond 200 yds then it can do what a 3" Brenneke does at 100 and do it accurately.

As far as skybusting and the like, there have always been those who have had limitations in the ethics department and that was regardless of skill or what gun you put in their hands. (The Ithaca mag 10 has been around for a long time)

I forsee a double in 3 1/2. Could be interesting.

Tom

Bob Brister's bill board testing showed the 3" 20 to be dreadful. Awful stringing. Brister's wife might have to tow 2 bill boards to measure the 3 1/2" shell pattern

Really? He had trouble with 3" slugs "stringing"?

I love a fat girl but I think I'll stick with my 10 gauge when it comes to 3 1/2 inch shells.

DLH

If one was inclined to tinker....one could waste a bit of time (and money in reamers etc.) making this work with steel shot and "steel" powder for waterfowl, both of which take up lots of hull space in a 20. No idea why one would do that...but you might duplicate the fast 12ga 2.75" steel load ballistics...and hard shot might mitigate the assumed pattern issues?

Don't think I would want to shoot a 6# 20 with that kind of recoil though?!

Probably pointless, but?

Best,
Mark