Older shotguns with 2 5/8" chambers - Remington model 1894

Most of the quality U.S. manufacturers made their chambers 2 5/8" when the 2 3/4" shells were in use. It was to help seal the gases with the fiber wads in early use. The shotguns weren't modified or thrown out when plastic wads were brought out. I'd lay money that easily more than a million 2 3/4" shells are fired through these chambers in the U.S. each year with no problems related to length. If you're really concerned use a low recoil, low noise shell like the Winchester AA's or similar from other makers. Easy on the wood and the metal. Look at the vintage shotgun collector sites like the Parker Gun Collector Association, A.H Fox Collector, or L.C. Smith Gun Collectors sites. This question comes up often and it is dismissed as no problem by people that are the top experts on their brands.
 
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North of 58 said:
Most of the quality U.S. manufacturers made their chambers 2 5/8" when the 2 3/4" shells were in use. It was to help seal the gases with the fiber wads in early use. The shotguns weren't modified or thrown out when plastic wads were brought out. I'd lay money that easily more than a million 2 3/4" shells are fired through these chambers in the U.S. each year with no problems related to length. If you're really concerned use a low recoil, low noise shell like the Winchester AA's or similar from other makers. Easy on the wood and the metal. Look at the vintage shotgun collector sites like the Parker Gun Collector Association, A.H Fox Collector, or L.C. Smith Gun Collectors sites. This question comes up often and it is dismissed as no problem by people that are the top experts on their brands.
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Well, yes this is true to a degree and likely his 1894 will handle 2 3/4" shells. But that does not mean any 2 3/4" high pressure shells off the shelf. Shooting 2 3/4" in the gun might be fine if one is shooting loads that compare to the same pressures the gun was designed for with 2 5/8" shells. The smokeless loads of yesteryear were not of the same pressures as today. The gun may handle high pressure shells for awhile but eventually something will give. As already mentioned, shells are available for this gun or one can reload.
Speaking in general, most vintage double barrels before the mid twenties were short chambered, not all but the vast majority. Vintage guns are basically for speciality shooting. By that I mean they were built for shells and loads of the time and that is what should be used in them. One needs to do their homework before buying these vintage guns. It kind of defeats the purpose to buy a vintage gun that has short chambers and was designed for lower pressure loads of the day only to want to grab modern shells off the shelf. One needs to be prepared to either look for shells such as Kent Pure Gold or else reload lower pressure shells. It is a joy to own and shoot these old guns but one has to understand them and be willing to acquire the proper ammo.
 
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this shotgun being described sounds similar to the one I got from my grandfather a 12 gauge sxs remington hammerless, it is a Damascus barrell. The little bit of research i have done with the markings on it say it is a KD grade (not kraft dinner) I am not sure what the K signifies the D is for Damascus. I have not shot it and do not intend to without having a smith look at it and verifying whether it is for 2 5/8 or 2 3/4 and also having lighter loads.

I believe the model on the one I have is a 1900?

I am going to get some pics up soon.

Glad I saw this thread
 
Gunsaholic, by all means he should use shells that are on the lower side of normal modern pressures. There are plenty of 2 3/4" shells that fit the bill for that and it isn't difficult to find a brand and type that is suitable. The Winchester AA's I mentioned above are only a touch over 6000 psi.
 
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fester said:
this shotgun being described sounds similar to the one I got from my grandfather a 12 gauge sxs remington hammerless, it is a Damascus barrell. The little bit of research i have done with the markings on it say it is a KD grade (not kraft dinner) I am not sure what the K signifies the D is for Damascus. I have not shot it and do not intend to without having a smith look at it and verifying whether it is for 2 5/8 or 2 3/4 and also having lighter loads.

I believe the model on the one I have is a 1900?

I am going to get some pics up soon.

Glad I saw this thread
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You are correct, the Remington you have is a Model 1900. Very similar but only made in one quality level....K grade. I have one as well.

Forgot to mention. For anyone with a Remington shotgun or anything Remington for that matter, you might try reading/joining the Remington Society forum. Every question you have has already been answered and if you join and post one, it will be answered thoroughly.
 
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catnthehatt said:
They sell Fassteel and the Sporting clays ammo, etc, but I don't think they handle the low pressure stuff.
I'll ask Clay tomorrow.
cat
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Cat, I've talked to Kent several times, asking for the name of ANY dealer who stocks the low pressure Gamebore stuff. They can't give me a name. That means no one does stock it. But it's easily available as a special order whenever I need some. It just means I'm buying 10 boxes at a time.
 
catnthehatt said:
If you check into the black powder forum, there is a thread about 10 gauge shotgun shells, and I posted some pics on how to load them without a press.
any gauge will work the same the same.
This is with the plastic cases.
You do not have to roll crimp if you use brass cases.
Cat
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In the thread you post pictures of geese you've shot.I'm guessing you were using steel shot..What's the word on using steel in older shotguns?
 
Power Pill said:
In the thread you post pictures of geese you've shot.I'm guessing you were using steel shot..What's the word on using steel in older shotguns?
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Nope, I NEVER use steel in my Damascus guns!
Whenever i load for them for waterfowl, my shot is either Bismuth, Nice shot, or ITX.:>)
Steel is simply way too hard on the barrels, and the pressures needed to push steel as fast as it needs to go cannot safely be attained IMO.
Cat
 
catnthehatt said:
Nope, I NEVER use steel in my Damascus guns!
Whenever i load for them for waterfowl, my shot is either Bismuth, Nice shot, or ITX.:>)
Steel is simply way too hard on the barrels, and the pressures needed to push steel as fast as it needs to go cannot safely be attained IMO.
Cat
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VERY TRUE!! No steel in vintage guns, especially damascus!!
 
catnthehatt said:
Nope, I NEVER use steel in my Damascus guns!
Whenever i load for them for waterfowl, my shot is either Bismuth, Nice shot, or ITX.:>)
Steel is simply way too hard on the barrels, and the pressures needed to push steel as fast as it needs to go cannot safely be attained IMO.
Cat
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can these types of shot be fire through a full choke?
 
The AA ammo I looked at is about 7,000PSI
i talked with the Kent rep today and he told me their 24 gram INTL skeet load is at 1,200FPS and 6,700 PSI
it only comes on 8 1/2 shot however, so I will look at Mexican matching some larger shot.
Cat
 
Cat, was that the Low Recoil, Low Noise AA Featherlites or the AA Xtra-Lites? The LR LN should be about 6200 psi. With the liability laws now manufactures don't give out pressure information often, or give higher than actual numbers. Here is a link to a section of the "frequently asked questions" on the L.C. Smith collectors website. No guarantees, but the pressures they give are based on actual third party testing.
http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/loadsuse.html
In the end we all have to do our research and decide on our own pressure limits for each of our vintage shotguns.
 
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It was the extra lights Ii think.
The problem with the low noise low recoil stiff is that is is below 1,100 FPS , and a bit slow for me as far as hunting birds goes.
Cat
 
Power Pill said:
I picked up an old Remington Model 1894 sxs shotgun and I took it out for some shooting today.
Put about 30 shells through it and had 2 light primer strikes... Also, after firing the left barrel the action was sometimes really hard to open. No issues with the right barrel.

At first I thought there might be a problem mechanically with gun ,but during some research online I found out the that chambers in the gun were cut for 2 5/8" shells....and I was shooting modern 2 3/4" shells....(Federal and Winchester) Might this have been the culprit for the problems I was having?
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I have an old remington double barrel SXS that I haven't shot yet. It has no model number or date anywhere on it. It just says remington arms co. And I had no idea there were chambers shorter than 2 3/4 . Is there any way to measure the chamber so I can tell if it's chambered for 2 3/4 before I shoot it??
 
JD22-250 said:
I have an old remington double barrel SXS that I haven't shot yet. It has no model number or date anywhere on it. It just says remington arms co. And I had no idea there were chambers shorter than 2 3/4 . Is there any way to measure the chamber so I can tell if it's chambered for 2 3/4 before I shoot it??
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I used to measured the chambers with a proper sized socket and extension to find out where the chamber ended, but I bought s special gauge a few years back that that does that as well as measuring the barrel thickness because my pal and I shoot s pile of vintage guns and have found some with barrels that looked good but were too thin from polishing .
Cat
 
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