Stevens 311 Coach Gun

[ak-kev]

This is a continuation from another thread where I was advised not to chop a Stevens 311 double barrel shotgun from several knowledgeable people. So I feel like a wayward child going against the advice of gentlemen of vastly more knowledge than myself, but, never the less, I bought my buddies coach gun. Thank you to everyone who gave me your opinion on this purchase. I did a detail strip and cleaned it thoroughly. Its just a mean beast to hold in your hand I feel like Doc Holiday Anyway, now Im being schooled on loading my own black powder shells for it. When I get the supplies ordered and delivered I hope to get some pictures of the fire breathing behemoth in action In the mean time, I took some pictures of her with another big bore brethren just for grins

 

[J-Bar]

Looks like you scared that possum out of its skin!!

Have fun.

 

[ak-kev]

Thats my 12 year old sons handy work

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Looks fine. You can fill the space between the barrels with J B Weld if you like. The space between barrels at the front of a shotgun is usually filled with solder, but I suggest you do not heat the barrels to put solder in there.

 

[mic214]

Nice looking pair of firearms you got there......I am sure you would have fit right in at the O.K. Corral with those.....!

 

[hang fire]

I could not believe it few years ago when my wife wandered off at a gun show, then came up and handed me this well made used Chinese two row 12 with hammers. She paid $100.00 for it after I had passed it by thinking maybe cost would be an arm and leg. Walnut wood, fine metal work, it shoots very good with 2 3/4-3 inch shells and locks up tight as can be. Is stamped on side of receiver "1887 Coach Gun"

 

[tom e gun]

those are mighty fine lookin' SXS's there fellers! i have been wanting one of these for a while but never really knew what to look for as far as brands go. perhaps i shall look for one of these

 

[Hellgate]

Like Driftwood says, you can fill in the space between the barrels. I stuffed either Kleenex or aluminum foil just inside a little to keep the JB from oozing out and set the barrel upright to cure. After a little scraping I took a Magic Marker to it and painted it black. Looks like it came from the factory that way.

 

[mustanger]

May I suggest that before closing the end you clean down between the barrels, and swab it with oil. That is a good place for hidden rust to form. I cut my 311 at 20", but haven't filled in the end yet, because I am wondering if it is a good idea, or a dumb one. To fill the space between the barrels with a nonpetrolium type oil. Then close it off. My uneducated thought is that the oil would prevent corrosion, and possibly provide a recoil dampening effect. Any coments??? They would be greatly appretiated by me and I hope the OP.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

May I suggest that before closing the end you clean down between the barrels, and swab it with oil. That is a good place for hidden rust to form. I cut my 311 at 20", but haven't filled in the end yet, because I am wondering if it is a good idea, or a dumb one. To fill the space between the barrels with a nonpetrolium type oil. Then close it off. My uneducated thought is that the oil would prevent corrosion, and possibly provide a recoil dampening effect. Any coments??? They would be greatly appretiated by me and I hope the OP.

Before you put any oil down there pop off the forend and see if there are any vent holes drilled through the lower fillet between the barrels. Like this:



Both of my 311s have these holes, and so does another older Stevens shotgun of mine. I'm not exactly sure why the holes are there, I suspect it was either to vent gasses when the barrels were soldered together, or to prevent air pressure from building up as the barrels heated up as they were soldered. I have also heard holes like these described as weep holes, to allow water and water vapor trapped inside to escape. If you have holes like these hiding under your forend and you fill the space up with oil, you will have a real mess on your hands for a long time until all the oil escapes.

If you want to add a recoil reducer, buy one of the kits that installs in the stock. I have never heard of anybody putting oil between the barrels for recoil control. Sounds like a really bad idea to me, even if your barrels don't have weep holes.

If you are concerned about rust between the barrels, shoot a good squirt of WD-40 down there. WD-40 is a Water Displacement fluid. It has a very low surface tension and can get underneath any water, protecting the metal from rusting. That's was WD-40 was designed to do. Just try not to get any WD-40 on the spot where you are going to put the JB Weld, you will not get a good bond to the steel if there is oil or WD-40 there.

 

[Seth Hawkins]

AK-KEV - just wonderin' why you were advised not to chop the barrels of a Stevens 311?

 

[ak-kev]

Seth, Mr. Driftwood has extensive knowledge and experience with the 311 and advised me that without the extra weight on the front, the action would have a tendency to close part-way, partially obstructing the shell casings and impeding the manual extraction process. I find this to be true, however its not a huge deal to me as I dont shoot CAS and a speedy reload isnt as important to me. In fact, I shot several rounds of regular Remington buckshot loads yesterday and I had to think twice before I even reloaded the 311 at all. It was brutal to say the least. Maybe Im a wimp, or maybe its because it doesnt have a recoil pad, but it wasnt fun at all. I sure pray that the black powder loads Im working on have much less recoil or I may have made a mistake with this thing.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Well part of the reason it hurt is because the gun weighs less than when it had full length barrels.

Take a look at those buckshot loads. The size of the pellets is not important for recoil, the weight is. How much lead and how many drams equivalent of powder?

Very generally speaking, Black Powder recoil is more of a shove than a sharp whack. So if you have followed my advice and keep your BP loads relatively light, no more than 1 1/8 ounces of shot and no more than 2 3/4 drams of powder it should not hurt too much. My standard BP loads are 1 1/8 ounces of shot with only about 2 1/2 drams or so of powder. My normal CAS shotgun is an old Stevens hammered double that somebody else had already shortened the barrels on to 24". I can shoot that load all day long out of that shotgun and it does not hurt at all.

None of my old SXS guns have a recoil pad. Just mount the gun firmly against your shoulder, if you leave any space, the butt will whack you. If you don't leave any space, it will just shove you.

 

[MCgunner]

XLint. I have a 20 gauge Spartan coach gun I love for dove hunting and hiking as i can carry it in a scabbard on my back and draw it like a pistol if I'm hiking. I have to hike in to hunt hogs on a local WMA that is buckshot only and my 28" Spanish 12 gauge double has 28" tubes and doesn't draw quite so easily. I've thought of cutting it down, but I can't bring myself to do it, just can't. I think I might get that mod/full choking opened up, though, so I can use it for doves more effectively if I want, though I love my 20 for that. I love SxSs, though, STILL don't own an O/U. That might be the fact that I'm a relic of a previous time and place, probably why I love my revolvers and my black powder, though black powder really wasn't the way when I was a kid. I'm SURE it's why I ain't tacticool and don't own even one AR15.

I came across a 16 gauge Stevens branded a Sears brand IIRC at a gun show pristine for 350 bucks. I'm still kicking myself for not getting it, though I don't know what earthly used I could have used it for. I just LIKE SxSs.

 

[MCgunner]

Of course, just to open up the pattern with an old tight choked gun, this is the cheaper alternative. Not sure how well it works, but I might put my old 12 gauge Lee shotshell loader back to work with those spreader inserts. Be kinda cool to put some pyrodex RS behind the wad, too.

http://www.polywad.com/index.html

 

[tom e gun]

hey kev, i love the way that stevens turned out! it looks pretty awesome after seeing a few posts lately about black powder shotshell reloading, it makes me want to find a break action single or dbl barrel to try them out with

 

[ak-kev]

Mr. Tom, thats the sole reason I wanted this Stevens was to load black powder shells for it. It also fits into my 'cowboy themed' guns very nicely. Its beat up a little, but still looks good (for a shooter) in my opinion. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to try it out. Kevin.

 

[hang fire]

BP is a hoot in scatter guns.

One can also get all kinds of pistol cartridge inserts for break open guns. See them from .22 rf up to .44 mag etc. with some rifled. Also inserts for sub gauges like .410, 28 ga etc.

 

[Gordon]

I always pour molten lead into the cavity exposed from chopping SxS barrels. The hot lead drys out any moisture ! Yes a few ounces of barrel weight doesn't hurt either!

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Of course, just to open up the pattern with an old tight choked gun, this is the cheaper alternative. Not sure how well it works, but I might put my old 12 gauge Lee shotshell loader back to work with those spreader inserts. Be kinda cool to put some pyrodex RS behind the wad, too.

Howdy Again

I have used spreader wads in my Black Powder loads.

Back few years ago I was shooting still another old Stevens SXS in CAS. I have four of them. This one was an old boxlock with twin 30" full choke barrels. It was an earlier model than the 311, cannot quite remember exactly which model now. It was probably somebody's duck gun at some point. The 30" full choked barrels worked fine for normal CAS shotgun targets, and they clobbered the knockdowns too. At normal CAS shotgun distances, about 10 to 15 yards, the pattern was only about as big as a dinner plate. But I knew where that shotgun would hit, and as long as I took a moment to actually aim, it would clobber everything I pointed it at.

But we sometimes have poppers in CAS. The first shot knocks down a steel plate which falls onto the end of a kind of see-saw, which then bops a clay pigeon straight up about 20 feet or so. Those dinner plate sized patterns were not the best thing to hit a flying popper with. I refuse to cut down the barrels on any old shotguns, they ain't making any more. So I experimented with spreader wads. At first, I experimented making my own spreader wads. Just a simple 'X' of two crossed pieces of cardboard. The shot was evenly distributed around the X. Worked pretty good. Then somebody gave me a bag full of spreader wads pretty much like the ones in that link. A simple plastic disk with a leg extending down. The spot where the leg contacts the disk has a bit of a cone to it, so in theory the shot strikes the cone and gets spread a bit more than usual. In theory they say using a spreader wad like that will spread the pattern out about one choke step more than is in the barrel. So in theory, I was throwing Improved Modified, or maybe even Modified patterns out of my full chokes. I never did pattern the loads, but it seemed to help my scores a bit. I was usually able to blast those poppers pretty well.

Those disks with the leg pointing down are very simple to use. You just load as usual but before you crimp you press the leg of the wad down into the shot. Then you crimp over the disk. Pretty simple and it seemed to help a bit for me with those poppers.