doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 2 1/2" vs 2 3/4 " chambers

Thanks to all for your expertise and guidance !

I hate to be disagreeable, but...I think that 2-1/2 inch shells are pretty tough to find. Nobody uses them shooting at any type of clays (probably the only place of growth in shooting sports). If holding value (forget increasing value) is important, these obsolete and hard to get guns have to be losers, just as rifles shooting weird, hard to get continental bullets are losers. It is similar to guns with 26 inch or shorter barrels; they used to be the norm; they aren't any longer and they pay for it in the market. They work fine and if you like them, fine; just don't expect that they will be a decent investment or will be easy to unload, as I believe the 2-1/2 shells will be a (big) negative.

The only issue WAS factory loads of proper shot chrge and pressure, reload data for proper loads, and the reasonably available/widespread knowledge as to what was proper for 2 1/2" chambers. These things are now solved. If a potential buyer balks at the 2 1/2" chambers, he/she is ignorant and you need to educate or is trying to gouge you. There are plenty of buyers out there now who have been educated.

DDA

Hos,

I shoot nothing but 2.5 inch shells and I like them so much that I shoot them in the two odd ball 2.75 inch chambered guns that share safe space with the 2.5s.

I have been buying them for more than a decade from B&P and for about 5 years from RST. The B&Ps are less expensive and I think a better product.

It is true that while on the road 2.5 may be hard to find, but I take ammo with me just as I do dog food, water and meds that I use and don't want to switch from when hunting away from home.

To answer the original poster, it has been my experience that there are far more really nice 2.5 chambered SxSs to buy than equally nice 2.75 inch guns and thus I look for the 2.5 inch chamber guns.

I agree, 2.5" are all I load, all three of my shotshell presses are set with short kits......I much prefer the original short chambered guns and will not buy any gun where some fool ground out the chambers or forcing cones.....

In my modern 2.75" guns, like the Dickinson's , Beretta's etc., I shoot factory ammo sometimes, but even with them the 2.5" pet handloads work just fine and are preferred.......

I think you will find most of the original 2.5" chambered guns for sale have had far less abuse than the 2.75" chambered counterparts out there, especially the altered ones.......reasons are obvious.........

JohnfromUK and others on this BBS have said they use fibre wads. Is that because the UK requires them to avoid litter on the shooting grounds (since they decay), or is there some safety or superior function motivation? I assume 90%+ of the shells available in the US have plastic wads/shot cups.

Agree with Rocketman that there is no longer any prejudice against 2 1/2" guns in the States, at least not among knowledgeable doublegun fans. If you attend any of the big side by side shoots, you'll likely see more old, short-chambered guns than modern ones. And all kinds of people shooting 2 1/2" shells. In fact, a fine British or European double that has had its chambers lengthened from 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" without proper reproof is the gun that will suffer in value upon resale.

Re what the Brits shoot . . . it's not quite as clear as "only 2 1/2" shells in 2 1/2" guns". 67/67.5MM shells approved for use in 2 1/2" guns, and so marked on the cartridge boxes, are quite common in the UK and Europe. Some of these shells have a fired length as long as some of our nominal 2 3/4" shells (depends on which of theirs compared to which of ours). It's not the case length that's the major factor, but rather the load: pressure, shot charge, velocity.

While some early British 12 ga guns proably did have 2� chambers W W Greener stated at least as early as his 9th addition that the normal "Actual" length of a British nominal 2�" 12 ga chamber varied from 2 9/16" (65mm) to 2 5/8" (67mmm). I do not have actuals for smaller gauges. 65mm was the basic standard for European guns of the normal gauges. In the early US guns 2 5/8 was a common 12ga size, 2 9/16" for 16ga & 2�" for 20ga.
2 3/4" 12ga was also quite common in the US as well. All early 12ga guns with 2 3/4" chambers have not been subjected to a chamber lengthening. I own a 16ga Lefever having 3" chambers, most likely original.

I hate to be stubborn, but the original question was "what effect do 2-1/2 inch chambers have on the resale value of a gun?" It may be true that one can reload 2-1/2 inch shells. It may be true that 2-1/2 inch shells can be purchased, though not easily and not cheaply. It may be true that most of the people who post on this board think that 2-1/2 inch shells are great. That group encompasses maybe a few hundred shooters; add in all subscribers to upscale shooting magazines and the group is maybe a couple of thousand people (assuming that they all share this belief--unlikely). That would constitute a microscopic proportion of the shotgunning public and even a tiny proportion of potential customers for fine shotguns. So the potential market for a 2-1/2 inch chambered gun consists of those persons who reload or who don't mind paying an exorbitant price for shells when they find them and who post on these and similar boards. Unless the law of supply and demand has been repealed in this instance, I really think this must affect the value and marketability of 2-1/2 inch guns. By the way, I wonder if Purdey, H&H, etc. even make 2-1/2 inch guns any more; if they do, I bet it is a very small percentage of their total production.

On most of the driven shoots I attend it is usual for guns to use fibre wadded game cartridges. Many shoot owners make it a requirement for environmental reasons. In the same way, the majority of driven shoots now ask us to collect our 'empties' (fired shells) at the end of each drive or to leave them piled at the peg for someone to gather up. As I am sure most of us are aware, plastic wads (shot cups) take a good long while to degrade in the open. In fields used for grazing plastic wads are especially unwelcome.

On the other hand, most of us also realise that plastic wads give superior ballistic performance these days. On clay shooting grounds plastic dominates.

These are one of the most popular game cartridges in the UK for best guns: http://www.lyalvaleexpress.com/supreme-game-fibre-28-grams.

Tim