Converting a Remington 1100 Sporting 12ga to 3" shells?

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Question for the Remington 1100 experts.

So, I have a Remington 1100 Sporting in 12ga and a 2/34 chamber..
I bought a 20 inch 11-87 barrel with rifle sights and a 3" chamber .... and that fits on the gun.

I shot the gun with that barrel and 2 3/4 loads and all looks good .... shoots a variety of 2 3/4 shells reliably.
I even shot a handful of 3" shells and the gun cycled those fine as well.

Now here is my question?
What internals of the gun would I still need to change and to reliably shoot 3 inch shells long term .... and so that nothing breaks.

It is my understanding that the 3 inch Remington 1100 guns had some reinforced internals and to handle the increased mass and recoil of the payload of a 3 inch shell. But after an extensive search I can't seem to find a definite answer ..... :(

p.s.: The barrel is a 20 inch 11-87 barrel with two gas ports and no gas compensation system ..... and 3 inch chamber ... and rifle sights ...

Rem_1100_Barrels_lowres.jpg


Remington%20_1100_12GA_Sporting_lowres.jpg
 
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I did one of those for myself about thirty years ago. You need to change out the barrel unless you can plug and re drill the gas ports, or you will beat your action to death. Maybe changing out the recoil spring would work as well?

The only other issue I had was that the chamber had to be recut with a forcing cone so it was safe to shoot heavy 3in mag.

I had to take the round edges off the front of the ejection port so the hulls would reliably extract and get fully flung away on mine.

I could probably have gotten the same result with heavy, high base loads, but wouldn't be fling as much shot, which is another reason for going to 3" mag.

My rifle worked well for many years, and it's still going strong in my grandson's hands.
 
The action sleeve on your gun is for 2 3/4" target type loads. 1100 magnums had heavier action sleeves to slow down the action and dwell action speed to prevent early parts breakage. 1100 magnum barrels have one smallish gas port the 1187 barrel you have has two. I think with 3" magnums you will eventually, somewhat prematurely, wear out your gun.
Darryl
 
I worked on a lot of 1100's in my time. Ordered lots of parts for them. Never saw any special reinforced internals on any of them.
 
Ditto checking out the Action Bar Sleeve. Since your 11-87 barrel does not have the 'normal' gas system I would cross-reference the part numbers of the Action Bar Sleeves of both guns.
 
Thanks everyone for chiming in.

I did a bit more research .....

1.) Heavier Magnum Action Bar Sleeve

So i seems that Remington did produce a heavier action bar sleeve for the 1100 3" Magnum guns. Numrich has one for sale .... and yes it differs from the normal/standard action bar sleeve.

REMINGTON 1100 Action Bar Sleeve, 12 Ga., Mag
https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/814590

REMINGTON 1187, 1100, 1100 SPECIAL FIELD Action Bar Sleeve, 12 Ga., Right, Used Factory Original
https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/1598600a


2.) 11-87 and the 2 3/4 1100 Action Bar Sleeves are identical

However, from all my reading it seems that the 11-87 and the 2 3/4 1100 guns share the same action bar sleeve. Meaning both use the non magnum action bar sleeve.

If my 11-87 barrel was designed to work with a normal/standard non magnum action bar sleeve in an 11-87, then why would this barrel not work with my 1100? As far as I understand it all the internals of an 11-87 and a non magnum 1100 are identical. Can somebody confirm my understanding?

Also, it is my understanding (and maybe I am wrong here) that the shorter 11-87 barrels (20 inch and under) did not have the gas compensating system, and because they did not need it. My understanding is that these barrels are too short ... so the pressure/push cycle is shorter than for the longer barrels and Remington decided that the gas compensating system was not needed on those shorter barrels.

Thoughts anyone?
 
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1100 and 1187 are the same gun other than the gas compensator on the 1187. most barrels generally interchange , The 1187 extracter is wider by 11 thousands than the 1100 some barrels but not all need to be fitted. We have been interchanging them for years. The magnum sleeve is no big deal if you only shoot a few boxes a year IMHO. It's a 1100 it is going to break eventually with a high round count.
 
SuperCub said:
YouTube video on this very subject.

Click the "Watch on YouTube" button.


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Click to expand...

Thanks SuperCub for the video.

This is one of the first videos I came across when I started researching this topic last year ....

You see that is the problem with the Internet …. there are a lot of half truths and also outright wrong information out there. And this video would fit into the category of “how to break your gun”.

I researched this topic now for over a year …. and I believe I have a fair understanding now …. also thanks to all the folks who posted in this thread. 🙏

He basically used a 2 ¾ inch 1100 barrel with two gas ports and he got the chamber reamed out for 3 inch shells. And yes, it is my understanding that this will shoot a 3” shell and cycle it. However, it is also my understanding that this will break the internals over time and because the gun now cycles with way too much force …. :(

The 3 inch 1100 guns that came from the Remington factory had a 3” barrel with only one gas port and they had the heavier action bar sleeve installed.

His solution will probably work if you are only shooting 5 rounds a year while turkey hunting …. and it will probably work for 10 years at that volume (50 rounds) … might even work 20 years at that volume (100 rounds) but the gun will break eventually at higher volumes.
 
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