Can I buy magnum 3'' or 3.5'' barrel for my wingmaster 2 3/4 receiver and single feed rounds into the chamber? Is that safe to do? I'm looking at possibly transforming this old goose gun into a turkey gun...I could load the rest of the magazine up with 2 3/4 turkey loads for the odd chance that a follow up shot was required, no?
using magnum barrel on 2 3/4 wingmaster receiver
- Thread starter vpsalin
- Start date
BrotherRockeye
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Rural Saskatchewan
you can buy whatever barrel you want but the longer shells won't likely eject once they have been fired...they get longer when the crimp opens up ; )
I put a 3" capable barrel on my old non-magnum wingmaster. It works fine. As previously posted, the problem starts when trying to eject spent 3" shell casings. They get caught up, mainly due to the ejector being too far forward. You can get a gunsmith to simply pop out the old ejector rail and install a 3" ejector rail. They are cheap, and just require riveting to put back on. The biggest operation would be to refinish the side of the shotgun since it will likely be marked up from grinding the rivets smooth and flush.
You can use those barrel on a 2 3/4" receiver but the fired hulls will not eject. The 3" shells will feed from the mag tube without any issues at all but the empty hull that is stuck in the ejection port still renders the gun a single shot. The 3.5" fired hulls will require that you remove the barrel to get the hull out as well. Now, depending on when your gun was built, there is a possibility it will cycle the 3" shells without a problem as Remington had 3" ejectors and ejector springs in receivers that where not stamped with the typical "Magnum" receiver markings. If you do indeed have a 2 3/4" receiver it typically costs between $40 and $60 to have a gunsmith change out the 2 3/4" ejector spring, use a dremel to modify the ejector and re-install a 3" ejector spring. You can also get you existing barrel chamber lengthened to 3" for a whole lot less than the cost of a new barrel. Best option is to leave it as is and use 1 1/2oz magnum loads of 5 shot...if you can't kill a turkey with those, I'm afraid the longer rounds aren't gonna help much! 100 years ago the turkeys died with 1 1/8oz "heavy loads" just as dead as they do today with 2oz and 2 1/4" "Turkey" loads!
The new Express barrels are marked 2 3/4, 3, and 3.5"
I have two new remington 3 1/2" blued wingmaster replacement barrels that I bought to get the choke tube option and both are on 2 3/4 vintage receivers with zero issues other than all I can fire is 2 3/4" shells one is ok for 3" since by fluke it has a 3" ejector
