doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 16 Ga question

There are several makers of 2 1/2" 16ga. shells.

IMO, you and the gun will both be happiest if you stick to light shot charge shells of known low pressure. Note that USA modern 2 3/4" shells are to SAAMI standards and will be of relatively high pressure. Opening the chambers to 2 3/4" does little to nothing useful for you. you want low pressure for the metal and low recoil for you and the wood parts.

A 250 unit bulk box of Polywad Vintagers will run in the $90 region on your doorstep. "Cheaper" can be had by handloading 2 3/4" cases to known/published data with low pressure and light shot charges.

Some gents say I am nuts or forgetful, but when I was a kid my Grandmother let me use my deceased Grandfather's 16 gauge, M-37 Ithaca pump gun. It had a solid rib and I remember it as yesterday (most all my buddies had single barrel shotguns). Anyway, the regular 2-3/4" shells would hang up in the ejection carrier and I had to pull them out with a finger. I searched the hardware stores, neighbors, etc. for the older 2-9/16" shells, which were very hard to find in the early 60's. Otherwise, I had a single shot pump gun. I authored a thread on this a while back and everyone told me the solid rib 37 was introduced well after the 2-3/4" shells were standard. No, the ejection carrier wasn't bent. Oh yeah, it said Ithaca on the barrel, not Remington. The port in the gun was just a hair too short for 2-3/4" shells. Silvers

Silvers: Your discussion of your Ithaca 37 is particularly interesting to me. I have the same problem with my Winchester M12 16 ga.(made in 1941)--the cases occasionally get stuck in the ejection port when I try to eject them. Although I'm not an expert, the ejector and extractor look fine. I assume the problem is that the port is just a little too small.

I should also note that my father's Ithaca 37, which was manufactured during the late 1940s-early 1950s, periodically suffers from fired cases getting stuck in the chamber. They can only be removed by letting the gun cool off a bit, and then exerting A LOT of force on the slide. I recently purchased some chamber gauges from Brownells, and I was surprised to find that the chamber comes up about 1/16"-1/8" SHORT of the 2 3/4" length that is marked on the barrel! I rigorously cleaned the chamber with a variety of methods--including bronze wool on the end of a rod powered by a drill. But even after all this the chamber still comes up short. I assume the short chamber is the cause of the stuck cases.

I wonder how often production guns went out of the factory like this!

The B&P 16 ga shells are 67 mm which is still a little more than 2 9/16", but close.

The B&P F2Classic 16g 1 1/16 oz 5 is my pheasant load. They now offer F2 Sub Sound and MB Light but ONLY in 12g. http://www.bandpusa.com/

Some Gunmakers intentionally chambered their guns about 1/8" short, feeling they got better performance, giving a better seal with the old card & filler wads.
Miller

Thanks guys!!!!

I ordered a case on revdocdrew's reccomendation and they where great to deal with. I talked with Lisa (x 109),and she emailed confirmation in minutes and had the order on its way.
Their cases are 8 boxes.
Dave K