12 gauge 3" vs 3.5"

[tactikel]

I'm going to buy a 12ga pump shotgun to hunt: geese, ducks, turkey, and coyotes (at night). I plan on using steel shot for the waterfowl and lead/hevi-shot for the rest. Would I benefit from a 3.5" gun or will a 3" chamber serve my needs? The back when I was really into waterfowl hunting lead was legal!

 

[schlockinz]

For geese, the 3.5" will make a lot of difference.

For turkey, I prefer to use a 3.5" mag with mixed shot (usually 2,4), and its slain every turkey that I've shot at, and extends my range a little bit.

Ducks, I don't like to use 3.5" because I find that on pass shooting its harder to make a good 2nd or 3rd shot due to the recoil

Yotes, I think a good lead 3 would be fine, 3.5 maybe better.

 

[chas08]

Would I benefit from a 3.5" gun or will a 3" chamber serve my needs?

If you are going to shoot large steel shot such as BBB or T then go with the 3.5, if not then 3 inch is plenty. I shoot ducks mostly with 2 3/4 inch loads.

 

[Arkel23]

I'd go ahead and get the 3" 1/2 chamber just in case.

 

[MCgunner]

3.5" will carry enough steel T shot to get the job done on geese. 3" is lacking capacity for big steel shot. Steel Ts are the affordable option. Hevi shot has gotten outrageous in price. My son-in-law put a used Mossberg 835 on lay away, about ready to get it out soon as his last guard check (weekend drill) comes. I can't wait to play with it, myself, LOL! I have a 500, picked up a 10 gauge for geese last year and I'm quite happy with that even though it's just a single shot. Beats the heck out of tossing 3" steel BB or spending 3 dollars a shot on hevi shot BBs. I'm also working with a MEC reloader, should be able to knock out 25 rounds for about half the store price. I haven't ordered the shot, yet, but loaded up some 1 7/8 ounces of 6 to try. At 40 yards with a extra full turkey choke, it's rather impressive. A turkey wouldn't have a chance. LOL. I drew an approximation of a turkey head on the pattern board and it had 15 pellets in it from head down the neck. Impressed ME anyway. I'm loading 'em for a friend who wants 'em. I don't hunt turkey, don't have a place to hunt turkey.

 

[FITASC666]

Another question you may have is if you are thinking of shooting clays with this gun. If so I would suggest 3''. 2 3/4'' shells in a 3 1/2'' are not at their best since the shot and wad traverse a large chamber before being constricted into the forcing cones. The usual result is poor patterning. As for the 3'' or 3 1/2'' steel shot, one may compare it to shooting more sand but, sand still. At a certain yardage, steel shot having loss significant velocity, just wont kill regardless of the amount of pellets. Bigger pellets have more mass and will (should) be more lethal farther out but at the expense of pattern density. Within the kill power range of the selected pellet more will always prevail on less.
Remember to shoot them where they toot and not where they poop and they will fall.
Good hunting!

 

[chas08]

Another question you may have is if you are thinking of shooting clays with this gun. If so I would suggest 3''. 2 3/4'' shells in a 3 1/2'' are not at their best since the shot and wad traverse a large chamber before being constricted into the forcing cones.

I own several 3.5 inch chamberings and have never found the above statement to be true in any of them.

At a certain yardage, steel shot having loss significant velocity, just wont kill regardless of the amount of pellets.

This true of any shot and shot material. Steel T shot will pass though a Snow goose at a 100 yds. (probably further than one should be shooting at them)

Remember to shoot them where they toot and not where they poop and they will fall.

Also true at any given range. We dont get many feet down at 20 yds here in the Texas rice prairies, as is probably common in Montreal. It's not uncommon to have geese landing in your spread of a thousand Rag/Shell decoys at 60 yds. You have to tailor your gun, shot size and tactics to where you are hunting

 

[JWF III]

2 3/4'' shells in a 3 1/2'' are not at their best since the shot and wad traverse a large chamber before being constricted into the forcing cones.

I own two 3 1/2" inch guns, and also haven't seen this. Also if this statement were true, no one would be lengthening forcing cones or overboring barrels to improve the patterns. Remember, the original 3 1/2" gun (Mossberg 835) has a 10 ga. bore (.775"), not the standard 12ga. bore.

Wyman

 

[ArmedBear]

if this statement were true, no one would be lengthening forcing cones or overboring barrels to improve the patterns

There's really no evidence that the overbore gimmick really improves anything, unless you are using a 3.5" shell -- which is arguably a 10 Gauge load crammed into 12 Gauge, so it makes a lot of sense that a larger bore would work better.

Lengthening forcing cones does help reduce felt recoil with a light gun. I've reamed out a gun and compared the way it felt.

But lengthened forcing cones are COMPLETELY different from having the wad travel an extra 1/2" before it hits the forcing cone. The idea of lengthened forcing cones is to make the transition from chamber size to bore size less abrupt, not to allow more acceleration of the load before it slams into the forcing cone, which is what a 3.5" chamber does to a 2 3/4" shell. Of course, this may actually not hurt anything, but it doesn't help, either.

You lose the ability to shoot anything but plastic wads with a longer forcing cone, but most people don't care since that's all they shoot. That's why "standard" cones are relatively short: compatibility with vegetable wads.

Back to the OP...

For what you want, I'd get 3.5". That gives you flexibility to use whatever loads you want to use, or may be required to use. The gun should still pattern PLENTY well enough with 2 3/4" shells for clay practice. I doubt you're planning to use this particular gun to shoot skeet in the Olympics or anything.

 

[tactikel]

Thanks for all the input! The gun will be for hunting only, but I plan to shoot 2-300 rounds at clay before taking it to the field to: pattern it, to loosen it up, to learn to load (and unload) it, to find out how it mounts with a hunting coat on, and to find the point of impact (center of pattern vs point of aim). I really appreciate all the time taken to posts your experiences. The cost of bismuth and hevi-shot is crazy compared to steel.

 

[sourdough44]

I use a shotgun for everything up to coyotes & am quite content with the 3". When required I get the Rem "HD" or Hevi-Shot ammo.

 

[chas08]

The cost of bismuth and hevi-shot is crazy compared to steel.

Yeah, it would put the steel shot manufacturers out of business if everyone could afford to shoot it. But the steel of today is far better than it was in the beginning. If the tree huggers and whalesavers have their way, it will be all we can shoot at anything with. Nothing beats "good old lead" for perfomance and price. Have you decided on a particular gun yet?

 

[MCgunner]

I bought the 10 because I figured I could pay for the cost of it in a season or two of goose hunting in ammo savings even at 10 gauge ammo prices and I don't even hunt geese that much. I hunted with it twice last season for geese, shot an average of near 20 rounds a trip. So, figure 40 rounds fired, 40 dollars at a buck a round for the steel Ts. 3" 12 gauge hevi shot BB was running, at one point, $3.50 a round. It went down to something below 3 bucks. Bismuth and Tungsten matrix is about 5 bucks a round, checked the other day. Anyway, figure $3.00 a round, I'd have spent $120 for goose hunting ammo last season. So, in ammo, I saved 80 bucks. That 10 cost me 200 (H&R). So, another season or two and it's paid for and, frankly, T from a 10 works just as well as hevi shot from a 12 gauge 3".