mobowhunter I think I know what you are trying to say but you aren't fully correct. YES a #whatever sized shot of whatever material traveling at 1200fps will ALWAYS produce the same energy and penetration regardless of what size shell it is fired from for what gauge gun was used. Whena bird gets hitin the head/neck with a#6 pellet doing 1200fps it doesn'tmatter (and the bird would'ntknow thedifference) ifthat pellet came from a 10ga or a 20ga or anyother size shotgun.BUT where you are wrong is in saying that the 2 3/4", 3" and 3 1/2" guns produce equal knockdown. That is simply wrong, a 1.5oz load doing 1200fps isn't going to have nearly the knockdown of a 2 1/4oz load doing the same velocity. Sure you aren't going to get all the shot onto your target, but the entire theory/reasoning behind heavy loads and mags is to start out with more shot (at equal velocities) which will put MORE shot onto a target downrange. The 3.5" gun shines because it has the powder capacity to drive that load too desireable velocities. I have some old 2 1/4oz 3" loads but they were so slow they weren't that good at longer ranges because of velocity loss so that extra 1/4-1/2 oz of shot (over normal 3" turkey loads) was really just wasted and not able to perform too its potential like it would from a faster 3.5" gun.

If having larger guns is of no value then we would all still be shooting 2 3/4" guns!
RA