Virtually all of my reloading is for 2 3/4 hulls, even for short chambered guns. But not having anything else to do over the holidays I decided to load a few 2 1/2 shells just for the heck of it. My standard load uses a Federal fiber based game hulls, a Federal 209 primer, 20.5 grains PB, a Federal SO wad and 1 oz #7 and a 6 point crimp. These are my quail loads. So, cutting the hull to 2 1/2 and using the same data I have to put about 100# pressure on the wad to collapse it enough to make room for a roll crimp. Works super! But if I cut the petals off there is plenty of room to roll crimp without having to put any pressure on it. Just piddling around.....at the distance most of our wild quail are shot at30 yards or lessa bigger pattern isnt a detriment even in my cylinder bored hammer guns.
My current favorite quail gun is a very early Charles Daly hammer gun made in the early 70s. Has original 28 length cylinder barrels and weighs 6/10. Lots of drop in stock which is perfect for real wild bird flushes.
