Interesting event w/ 11-87 3" and a 3.5" shell

amr40509 · 01-30-2007, 04:52 PM

I had an interesting thing happen a few months ago that I thought I'd tell you guys about.

I have an 11-87 that is in great looking and functioning shape, but literally, THOUSANDS of shell though it. It's about 15 years old and I've shot it a LOT. It is the old 11-87 SP model designed for use w/ 2 .75" and 3" shells.

This summer I was out shooting some trap at a farm with it and some buddies. I had a collection of odd shells, mostly 1oz game loads, in a plastic bin from cleaning out a closet. This was a mixture of Fed/Rem/Win shells so it was a combination of black/green/maroon/red shells. Well we shot a few, then when it was my father-in-law's turn, I manned the thrower and he grabbed a shell from the bin.

BOOOOMM broken bird. I thought it sounded WAY too loud in comparison to what we had been shooting.

I turned and looked and the shell was jammed in the action. Turns out a 3.5" lead turkey load (Federal #6) had ended up in the bin. The gun chambered the shell, fired it, and couldn't eject it. From looking at it, it MIGHT not have fully chambered it as the shell was a little deformed right infront of the brass. I took the gun apart, everything looked good, and we kept on shooting. Seems to be perfect.

I send a letter off to Remington (and a copy to Federal) just to make them aware. Remington wrote back saying that their guns were rated for 3.5", and basically, it shouldn't have happened, but was totally safe.

I just thought it was interesting that:

A) I had a friggin 3.5 in a bin of 1oz game loads
B) The gun chambered and fired it
C) My father in law picked it for his first shell, so he hadn't had the other shells in his hand for comparison to notice it looked like a roman candel in comparison.
D) It KILLED the clay target

E) Remington replied that it wasn't a problem at all.

metaldonnieg · 01-30-2007, 04:57 PM

Weird...very weird...

But I'd recommend inspecting your ammo before shoving it up there, no matter what.

700bdl870exp · 01-30-2007, 09:47 PM

i agree metaldonnieg i under stand shooting for fun and not paying overly close attention to ammo, but a little inspection is necessary. what would happen if say there had been a 20ga in there or a 12ga slug. those are things i wouldnt want to grab and not notice till too late

statjunk · 01-31-2007, 06:00 AM

My opinion is that while looking at your ammo is important you can avoid stuff like that by keeping your ammo organized. Randomly thrown shells in a bin isn't organanized and you just proved it potentially dangerous.

I'm glad neither of you was hurt.

Tom

amr40509 · 01-31-2007, 08:45 AM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: statjunk

My opinion is that while looking at your ammo is important you can avoid stuff like that by keeping your ammo organized. Randomly thrown shells in a bin isn't organanized and you just proved it potentially dangerous.

I'm glad neither of you was hurt.

Tom

I coudln't agree more. This just happened to be a bunch of partial boxes I had laying around. I guess this shell had been around for awhile, I think the last time I used any #6 lead 3.5" was 10-12 years ago. I really didn't think I had any 3.5" in the house at all.

Oh well, live and learn.

Pawildman · 01-31-2007, 11:38 AM

I'll give you a similar but different scenario.... Several years ago, an old friend of the family was selling his guns because he couldn't hunt anymore. He had a Tikka O/U 12ga. over .222 gun I wanted to buy for turkey hunting. On the side of the action it was stamped 12-70 222Rem.
I had taken my wife with me so she could visit awhile with his wife while he and I did some dickering. As I was holding the Tikka after I bought it, he said "Don't let your wife shoot it. It'll break her arm". A little puzzled, I asked why, and found out the had been shooting 3" shells in a 2 3/4" chambered gun. The "70" on the side of the action was the metric equivalent of 2 3/4". He never knew that. He had been told when he bought the gun it was for 3" shells, which will slide into a shorter chamber, but tend to get their ends shot off due to the fact the forcing cone they're opening up into won't let the casing open up the whole way, which in turn causes very heavy recoil. Ya gotta be careful with things like that.............

Paul L Mohr · 01-31-2007, 02:50 PM

A 3.5 inch shell will chamber in a 3 inch gun becuase the measured size is after the shell is shot. An unfired 3.5 inch shell is only around 3 inches long, so it will fit in the chamber of a three inch gun.

The problem is when it is fired the the hull will open up into the barrel not the chamber. This will make the shell harder to extract and raise the pressure from what I understand.

When guns are tested and produced they are made to handle much more than they are rated for just for reasons like this, or a mistake in ammo manufacture or reloading. While it will handle it, I would not suggest doing it on a regular basis.

The other problem with shooting a longer shell (usually you see 3 inch shells in a gun made for 2 3/4) is that the hull is too long to eject from the slot on the receiver so they get stuck. Some guns it is very hard to get them out, you got lucky.

I own a winchester 9410 and it is made for 2.5 inch 410 shells. It says right in the manual that it will shoot 3 inch shells without damaging the gun, but they don't eject. It has special instructions on how to get one out if you accidently put one in there. After reading them I don't care to make that mistake, it didn't look fun.

I almost did it to my 2 3/4 inch A-5 but caught it first. Same deal, I had a 3 inch turkey load that some how ended up in a box of field loads. The bad thing is they were all winchesters so they were the same color. I noticed because of the difference in brass (high/low).

Paul

AmateurHunter44857 · 01-31-2007, 08:40 PM

I almost had something like this happen to me. My neighbor let me borrow his gun that i was looking at buying to go trap shooting. Well he had just bought a new Benelli goose gun and all he ever used anymore was the 3.5 shell and he had about 200 2 3/4 trap loads in a bag along witht he soft case for his gun. So we are shooting and i'm just reaching in and i load this 3.5 goose shell. Luckily both my friend and i noticed the difference before i fired it. I told him that i almost fired a 3.5 inch goose shell and he was like there must have been one of my goose rounds, no big deal. I was like what!?!?!?!? And then he told me what you guys said. I was so releived.

SwampCollie · 02-01-2007, 06:05 AM

You can't ever be too careful with misc ammo.

Heck I sleuced a crippled wood duck with 00 buckshot on the opening day of SC duck season this past fall. Glad I got rid of the evidence! I could have gotten in trouble, even though it was an innocent mistake, I should have been 100% sure I didn't have lead, or shot of illegal sizes in my possession.

Glad you are ok. I'm suprised it didn't lock the gun up tighter than a dophins backside.

Mr. Longbeard · 02-01-2007, 07:42 AM

I have a drawer with loose shells in it... And I know for a fact that I would of noticed a 3.5" mag turkey load in the mix

But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that I've been handling guns and ammo all my life

Some people should just not tell anybody when they do something that stupid