manhattan arms sxs

What chamber lengths are they? It should say. IF they are 2-3/4, standard loads should be OK, but if they are marked for 2-1/2 or 2-9/16, then no, you cannot use any of that without risking damage to the gun or yourself.

Being made between 1920 and 1940 is when many guns were chambered for the shorter ammo. Any pitting inside? Any cracks in the wood? Give a REAL good going over

A 2 3/4 round will probably fit a short chamber, the question is is there room for the crimp of the longer shell to open.

There are shorter shells, 2" buckshot loads, currently out there if it's a shorter chamber.

Show us what it looks like.

Pull the forearm off and look underneath the barrels or on the water table for chamber dimensions. A 2-3/4" shell WILL easily fit in a short chamber as the length is the fired length, so an unfired shell is short enough; however, then you have no room for the crimp to open up without greatly increasing the chamber pressure to potentially unsafe, even dangerous levels. GET TI DETERMINED OR TAKE TO A GOOD GUNSMITH WHO KNOWS HOW TO DETERMINE before you cause great damage to the gun or harm to yourself.

You don't have a camera to upload some pics? We might be better able to help you

I collect Manhattan Arms shotguns. They were a hardware store branded version of the Hunter Arms Fulton boxlock shotguns which were made by LC Smith before acquisition by Marlin. These were made to compete with the discount priced Belgian shotguns that were flooding the market in the pre-WWI era. An LC Smith sidelock would cost around $35 whereas a Hunter Arms boxlock would be under $20. They were distributed by SD&G or M&H among others, and rebranded extensively to many retailers. I am always looking for these because I find them to be strong and well made guns, inexpensive, simple, and just hard enough to find to be a worth a treasure hunt.

There are two styles of receiver- the early style which has three screws in the action on each side and the later model with two screws.

Early 3-screw receiver- side view:


Later 2-screw receiver- side view:




The barrels are steel and not damascus.
Unfortunately most of the early records are lost due to fires and a plant floor collapse in 1949.

Good info here-
http://www.lcsmith.org/shotguns/1913grades.html

With regards to high-brass shells-
Due to the boxlock design of the reciever, a lot of wood has to be milled out of the inside of the stock to fit it. They also used the very common slim and narrow wrist of many shotguns of this era so there is not a lot of wood behind the tang. If it is an early three-screw receiver they had the sear springs in holes bored into the stock under the tang and not in the receiver. This makes the stock even weaker in this area.
If you have an early gun I would be cautious about firing any quantity of high brass or heavy recoiling loads. The action and receiver will take it. The stock will not! I personally have seen several early 3-screw stocks with cracks in the wrist and tang area, some severe enough to condemn the stock. Replacement stocks are available but there is a good bit of fitting required especially on early 3-screw guns.

I would use low power target loads, even less than field loads and will decimate squirrels and the like - if my .177 air rifle can kill a squirrel, a nice target load of 7/8-1oz will do the job