Picked up a 16ga SxS hammer gun yesterday. Steel (not damascus) barrels. Nothing fancy, made by Crescent but it's in great mechanical shape.
Has the old 2 9/16" chamber length. I want to take it out to the standard 2 3/4" chamber. Brownell's wants $175 for the reamer, and I probably wouldn't use it twice in my lifetime.
Any good reason not to make a quick D reamer for the job?
I would check the working pressure of the 2-9/16" as the 2-3/4" will have a lot more grunt to push out the larger load. The barrel may not be designed to handle the CUP of 2-3/4".
Shotshell pressures are all in the 6000 to 10,000 psi range, and have been for about ever. Lengthening chambers has been a stock in trade for the smiths for about as long. The longer shells are mostly to deal with the newer styles of wads that replaced the felt washers the were used for eons. The payloads are not appreciably larger, typically on either side of an ounce.
If you think the barrels and action will take it, have at.
Good opportunity to build a nice long forcing cone onto the chamber, if it is not already.
FWIW, there were some write-ups done a while back in Double Gun Journal, on the pressure results from shooting 12G 2 3/4" shells, in old
2 1/2" chambers. The rise in pressure that came about was far less than had been predicted, and came as a bit of a shock to the hand-wringers that were predicting a disaster.
Its doable, but its cheaper to rent the proper reamer
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White Rock Tool & Die
6400 N. Brighton Avenue Kansas City, MO 64119 (816) 454-0478
Gunner, who has pondered doing this to his
1897 H. Piffer 12ga 2-1/12 x 40-64
Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
They were nickle steel and Should be ok for light loads. NO Field Magnums. AA trap loads and the like.
Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Hmmm---I'm not seeing any rental info on the clymer or manson site. I've used their reamers for years on pistols/rifles, good stuff.
I do see the 16 ga reamer for rent here:
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and at $28 it looks like I might go that way. Cheaper than $165 for a one-off job, and takes up very little of my time.
Agreed on the light loads. I've got 5 16's and that's all they get fed. I've got bigger shotguns if I want to go goose hunting, but there is just something about a slim light 16 that feels RIGHT for upland/quail/grouse.
I'd be interested in the thickness of the metal from where your chamber ends to where the new one ends. If it doesn't change, I'd go for it, if it gets thinner, well there was a reason it was that thick at the end of the chamber.
Reloading might be safer if the metal gets thinner. You can make longer cases shorter.
Wes
-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller
Actually..It IS possible to over load. Many handloaders increase the pressures considerably. But normal factory loads should be safe
Hardly.
If someone if foolhardy enough to pump up the handloads for a 80 yr old mass produced to be cheap shotgun, its on his own head.
Indeed. Hence my comment about Field Magnums, which are verbage used around here at the least, to describe pumped up handloads
Shrug
Gunner
Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Thats what I do with my H. Piffer. It came out of Africa..was a "forageing gun", shotgun on one side, rifle on the other, double hammers. The previous owner never did tell me what the rifled caliber was, but the barrel was sans any rifeling, so he sent it off to Oregon somewhere and had it rebored and rerifled to 40-64 Winchester, an evidently safe conversion considering Ive fired several thousands of rounds through that side.
I got about 10 boxes of ...humm...cant rember the manufacture...RWS?
2.5" shotshells, and Ive been shooting them up and reloading them on a MEC that I modified to load the short paper cases.
But its a pain in the ass anymore and I probably should ream it that extra 1/4" and forcing cone. Shrug...when I get a 'round tuit"
Gunner
Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Indeed. I carry it a lot when on walkabout in the high desert. Takes birds within range, coyotes and wild boar quite well with that 350gr bullet
Gunner
Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
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