Rem. 870 2 3/4" to 3"

[NoAlibi]

I have a Rem. 870 magnum receiver and a 20", 2 3/4" chamber, smooth bore barrel with rifle sights.

I want to shoot 3" shells in it and I want to know if the chamber can be safely lengthened to 3" and if it is necessary for the ejector to be altered?

Thanks for any suggestions.....NoAlibi

 

[chevyforlife21]

just put a 3 inch barrel on it.

 

[rbernie]

The ejector is in the receiver (riveted to the left receiver wall) so if you have a magnum receiver (serial number ends in 'M') you are good to go on that. You can have the barrel reamed to 3", but the machine work needed to cut the chamber deeper and recut the forcing cones will likely cost as much as a new barrel. I'd buy a used 3" barrel and sell the old one to defray the cost.

<thread veer>

By the way, 3" shells are not much fun to shoot. I'm also going to presume, given the length of the barrel, that you're working on a HD gun and not a duck-n-goose getter. For HD, I vastly prefer the 2 3/4" LE reduced recoil buck loads - they actually pattern better and have plenty of penetration. I made the mistake of spending a lot of money to upgrade my HD shotguns to 3" chambers a few years back, only to find that the 3" shells were less effective in a HD role and that all I needed all along was an appropriate 2 3/4" load. More does not equal better, at least in this case.

If you wanna pursue a review of HD loads, a trip to the Shotgun forum would probably be in order...

</thread veer>

 

[natman]

For HD there is no point in 3" shells. If you want to shoot slugs or hunt turkeys, a 3" does give an advantage.

 

[NoAlibi]

rbernie: I appreciate that you took the time not only to answer my question, but to offer an opinion as well.

Some years back I did test the effectiveness of 2 3/4" against 3" shot loads for inside the home defense and I am in agreement with you. My inside gun is a Rem. 1100 Special with a 2 3/4" chamber, imp. cyl. bore, 21" barrel.

I wanted the 3" chamber for this reason: This setup was for outside the home defense using #4 buck. The #4 buck loading in a 2 3/4" hull is 27 pellets, whereas the 3" hull holds 41 pellets - that's over 50% more pellets on each pull of the trigger.

I'm going to price the work and then see what I can get a used 3" chambered tube for it - thanks.....NoAlibi

 

[red_metallic]

Never mind, reread the OP.