Chamber lengthening

[Curt1954]

Looking for gunsmith who can length 2.5 to 2.75 chambers in the Midwest. Thanks

[Jeff S]

Jay Schachter at Vintage Firearms, Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mi does it frequently. I don’t know if he’s accepting work. I have not had this procedure done, nor do I know if it’s a good idea, I’m just sharing the “contact”. Personally, I’ve been shooting 2 3/4” shells in one of my 20 ga. Sterlingworths.

[Maggiemollie]

What is the actual measured chamber length? As noted in other threads on this forum, Philly Fox guns have chambers that measure 1/8" shorter than the stated shell length.

[Stan Hillis]

Dean Harris at Skeet's Gunshop in Tahlequah, OK. Excellent barrel man and the nicest guy to talk with on the phone I have ever dealt with. He lengthened the chambers on my 20 ga. Sterlingworth Ejector and opened the chokes per my requested dimensions. I'm very happy with it.

I sent the gun to him to also try to regulate the barrels because I thought it was not properly regulated. It crossfired badly, to the tune of 8" with each barrel. I had only tried 7/8 oz. loads in it because that's what I had hoped to use in it for quail and woodcock. He called me and said it was regulated perfectly like it was, as long as you used 1 oz. of shot at about 1155 fps (or close to that velocity). I was thrilled that he went to the trouble to try 1 oz. loads in it, so that is all I have ever used hunting it. Lesson learned. These old guns were built to use a particular load and some of them are not necessarily regulated with a lighter, or faster, load.

[eightbore]

This information may have saved a gun for me. Thanks, Stan. Back to the pattern board.

[Stan Hillis]

Bill, I've had two S X Ss that required "load matching" to regulate them, the SW mentioned above and a .410. In both cases the guns wanted the velocity to be in the 1150 to 1175 fps range, and heavy payloads. In the case of the .410 it wanted 3/4 oz. loads at 1155 fps. JFYI, my friend.

[Silvers]

I spent mucho time with the late Kenny Eyster - the famed competition barrel man - in his shop and also shooting guns he did for me while barrel and choke tuning at his range. That was with competition over/unders and gas guns. It was typical to see various factory loads have much different different efficiencies (pattern %) and points of impact from the same barrel. That's why Kenny would choke for one and only one factory load, example: Winchester AA's at X speed and with size Y shot. I never had a SxS gun Eysterized but I can imagine the horizontal POI divergence could be wide with different loads.

Sticker that graced the gun stocks of some noted clays shooters though most wouldn’t use it to "advertise" what they were shooting against competing shooters .....
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