Can You Shoot 3 Shells In A 2.75 Chamber

Make sure that the chamber of your shotgun is as long or longer than the shells you choose. Do not use 3″ or 3 1/2″ shells in a 2 3/4″ chamber or 3 1/2″ shells in a 3″ chamber. MANY folks shoot 2 3/4 inch 12 gauge shells in a 3 inch chambered O/U.

The only way to understand what you loads are doing in your gun is to shoot the loads from your gun on paper. They pattern everybit as well as my 3 inch loads using the same payload. Just because 2 ounces of shot will fit in the thing doesn’t mean 2 ounces will perform better than 1.5 and 1 5/8 ounce 3 inch loads. Now loading for performance has become more of a hobby than actually hunting with performance loads. The way many shooters develope super accurate rifle/handgun loads simply because they want to explore the potential of the firearm.

75-inch shells in 3.5-inch chamber?

The chamber on a 2.75″ is long enough to allow a 3″ shell to fit but when fired the folded front shell casing can get lodged in the barrel beyond the chamber. The wad can cut the shell casing or force it into the edge of the chamber, etc. It is unlikely that you can get a 3.5″ shell to chamber in a 2.75″ chamber.

I’ve hunted with both Mod and Full depending on what I’m hunting and where. A full choke isn’t going to get you more distance, but it will put more steel on target at greater distances. Ducks and Geese are tough to take down with steel. I’ve wacked em at 20 yards and found pellets barely below the skin. Love to hear how the Black Cloud choke patterns over a standard Full choke. If your shooting geese I’d go with the 3 1/2 inch shells.

Shooting 2 3/4 shells from a Mossberg 835

But most trap shooting I do is single shot anyway. It will boost pressure because the crimp cannot fully open, kind of like forcing a 12ga payload down a 20ga bore. That said I don’t think you are going to see many blow up guns, shotshells operate at such low pressure and have such a large expansion ratio that a blowup is unlikely. With any hinged breach gun you may stretch the bites and bend the hinge pin and you might over stress the gas system on an autoloader, but I don’t think anything.

Shows their Remington and Peters skeet and trap loads with the new folded crimp. Keep in mind that the only reason for the 2.75″ hull was to be able to use the new fold crimp machinery back in the day. Welcome to Field and Streams’s Answers section.

What is the difference between 2.75 and 3 shotgun shells?

I’ve looked all over the internet for some expert to say yes as I’ve always got quite a few of these around. I would like to hear Phil B’s opinion on this. BTW, RST will have as many of these as you want delivered right to your door in a few days.

Unless I wanted it to duck hunt with steel shot I would pass. The gun is heavier and the action longer and it might not work well with target shells. I do not know about the patterning except to guess the long chamber will not improve patterns and might hurt them some. Buy a copy of the famous study conducted by Oberfell and Thompson in the late 1950’s that dealt with shotgun patterns. It’s my understanding they found that pattering suffered when a 2 3/4 inch shell was fired in a 3 inch chamber.

Can you chamber 3 1/2, 3, and 2 3/4 shells interchangeably?

I can, do, have, gotten patterns as high as 96 % from the short and long hull from a gun equipped with a .665 or .660 choke. If you measure the outside diameter of a 12 gauge hull you’ll find it to be around .800 inch. Our chamber, which must be a “slip fit” for the hull, is necessarily larger than that. Starting out at over .800 in., we expect our wad to seal at that unsupported level, and all the way down to a 12 gauge bore diameter which varies from .729″ or .725″ diameter . Once I found a load that the barrel liked, I could discern little, if any difference in the patterns other than the obvious greater density of the 3.5″ shells .

If it’s truely SHTF then use 2 3/4 for everything. I go with the 2 3/4″ units. The 3″ shells cost more, kick more, and in a SD situation don’t make much difference. That will give you a concrete percentage to work with.

Effect of a 3.5″ chamber on 2.75 & 3″ patterns

That is, unless you like the idea of pre-shredded duck. Howie, if you are looking at this gun but have not bought it yet I would question why you want it. As a writer said, although about a different gun, “An enthusiastic man could keep the air full of lead without a pause.” Day to day use 2 3/4 for everything except waterfowl.

For example, the accoladed Browning Citori XS, XT, and Citori 525 clays guns all have 2-3/4 inch chambers. So do the Sporting Clays Browning Gold versions, and the cost of separate barrel inventories for these models strongly suggests that it is not by happenstance. No contradiction at all, I said I shoot 2-3/4 in my English shotguns, but have lengthened chambers in my drilling and combo guns which are German. There are always options, the downside to short chambers with longer shells is harder felt recoil and frequently, poorer patterns.

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No, by all means it is NOT a bad idea to shoot 2 1/2 inch shells in a 2 3/4 inch chamber. It has a 3″ chamber in it, and the gun is mostly identical to the Mossberg 500. Ive seen reviews and videos of people who use their 500 and even Remington 870 (also only a 3″ chamber) to hunt and fire 3.5″ shells through it without any troubles. Okay, so I just bought a Benelli nova and I’m curious if you can fire 3 1/2 to say a 2 3/4 interchangeably without doing any sort of adjustments to the gun? I only bring this up because my friend said that there 870 could only shoot 3 inch shells and nothing else cause it was “set” to that size chamber.

That’s roughly the equivilent of 9 or 12+ rounds of 38 special bullets. If the first shot gun round doesn’t work then you still have the next and so on. Interested in older US made SxS and upland hunting. New to reloading shot shells and looking for info and advice.

Shotshells in a 2 3/4″ chamber……………???????????

If I was going to set up a brand new shotgun exclusively for target work, a 2.75 inch chamber with a long forcing cone would definitely be on the list. Those things may help, and I’ve never heard anyone say they hurt anything. Overbore is another matter, and it may be the best patterns come from guns slightly underbored. With that said, In June at our large two-day match here in NC we had a charity side stage hosted by match co-sponsor Remington. In that stage, you would use Remington ammo in a then-new Versa Max Tactical shotgun. Somehow they would become damaged by each other under the heavier accelerations.

How big of a magazine do you need for a 3 inch shotgun?

If your shotgun is chambered for 3 1/2″ shells, you can use 3 1/2″ shells in it, assuming the gun is in good condition. Buy whatever gun you care for, then purchase a separate rifled barrel for it. It might be a greater expense but it is definitely worth it.