Posted: 2/4/2007 4:12:21 PM EDT
I picked this up yesterday. I've been making do with a hand me down bolt action 12ga for turkey hunting, but wanted something a little better. Uncle Sam came through with a little kick back on taxes so I went shopping. Found this one on the used gun rack at Cabeles. The price was right and it came with the box, three extra choke tubes and a wrench. It's is great shape with very little wear. Here's some of Traditions propaganda. It's actually made in Italy by Fausti. When a gobbler comes in really close, you can quickly switch over to the more open choke, and when he is way out there you can use your tight patterning choke. That's the advantage in using an over and under instead of the same old semi or pump gun. The Turkey gun comes with screw-in, flush fitting modified, full & extra full chokes. The magnum receiver is matte finished with an engraved scene of hunting and is built for tough hunting conditions. The barrels, stock and forend are completely camouflaged for blending into the natural areas of the game you're hunting. Also includes: Walnut stock and forend (fully camouflaged) 3 1/2" chamber Engraved receiver 5 year Warranty Brass front sight bead Top tang safety |
I have a Mossberg 835 with a 3.5" chamber. I bought two boxes of ten 3.5" "Magnum" shells for it, "Max Load, blah blah blah, duplex shot, yadda yadda". I fired exactly two shells to pattern it and called that bloody well good enough! I then fired exactly two shells to bag the last gobbler I got. The other 16 shells from those boxes went unused and will remain so for the rest of my life.  Yeah, it's kinda like that. 
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eric10mm, I remember shooting a few 3.5 inch shells through a stock mossberg 500 awhile back when I was first getting into firearms. Some boob at the gunstore had put the box of shells in my hand and said "these here are good, that's a real man shell right thar..." and probably laughed his ass off as soon as I left the store with them. I remember wondering if it was possible to break your collarbone from recoil.
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You can do it, it's just not recommended. Especially for non manly-men.  The only difference between a 3" gun and a 3 1/2" gun is the ejection port is a little longer to eject the longer fired 3 1/2" hulls and the forcing cone inside the barrel is about 1/2" more forward for the longer shells. Oh, and most companies try to make their 3 1/2" guns a bit heavier to help with the stouter recoil. Other than that though, the guns are for all intents & purposes identical. |
Interesting. I did not know that. I have a 835 that I use for turkey, sometimes I still put a 3.5 incher in there for fun, but it's not a regular occurence for turkey. Now I have buddies who duck hunt using Benelli SBE's and they swear that the 3.5 inchers make a difference on ducks. |
With age comes wisdom, often at the cost of experience. Once at a gunshow, I was at the ammo table and spied a pile of Remington 12ga slugs for $1.79/box. I eyed every box to make sure they were all 12ga, 2 3/4", 1oz slugs, and they all were. I bought every box he had, somewhere around 50 boxes in all. I got home and proceeded to dump them into an ampty ammo can and label it accordingly. At the next shooting match I loaded up some of those slugs into my very early Benelli M1S90 (rifle sights and straight stock) and touched off the first round. YOWCH! That really, really, really hurt. I manned-up, bit down a bit harder and continued firing those slugs until that course of fire was done. Afterward I immediately went to my ammo can and looked at the rest of the slugs. On the side of each shell were the letters "S MAG". Hmmmm. I went home and found one of the empty boxes and read that these were Magnum slugs. Ouch indeed. The next time I went to the range I took my chronograph with me and reluctantly fired a few more of the shells over the skyscreens. 1800fps! Magnum indeed! I never shot those rounds again. However, I did take them with me to every match I attended and when some poor sap wanted to borrow my Benelli for the shotgun match, I let them with the stipulation that they had to use my slugs in my gun.  Man oh man, was that fun to watch, especially when the skinny kids borrowed the gun. I even introduced a few Benelli-noobs to the infamous "Benelli lip" syndrome. (Rifle stock with trigger-hand thumb over stock = fat lip on a Benelli.)I know, I'm bent. 
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3.5s arent that bad through my 835. You "need" the extra power when trying to knock down geese.
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Not to be condescending or anything I have never shot a winged bird larger than a pheasant... But do you really need a 3.5 to cleanly take down a goose, or is this your average Elmer Fudd "I need a 7mm rem mag to shoot a 150lb deer at anything over 100yards" ballistics exaggeration? |
The 3 1/2" shells offset the disadvantage of the steel shot required for waterfowl. As long as we're allowed lead for turkeys, I don't see any need for 3 1/2" shells. I'm going on a snow goose hunt this spring, but I will probably woose out and shoot 3" even though I'll be shooting the Bennelli and not the over-under. |
I'd touch a few of those off at the Febuary match Polytech |
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I dont think the 3.5's are really that bad through my 870. I started goose hunting with mine right after I got it for my 16th birthday, and I was about 5'4" and 130 lbs. I can remember shooting a whole box in a day sometimes. Maybe its the gun? And like Gary said about the H&R....them are bad. My pop's H&R 3" is worse then my 870 3.5. I guess its the straight stock, and the light weight. |
Nice O/U. Been whackin' and stackin' turkeys for about 8 years now. I shot the first couple with 3" and it does fine, but watching them fold in half when hit with 3 1/2" Winchester Supremes makes me all tingly inside. Dad and I shot a nice pair of toms last spring. They were within 7 yards and he could have relieved Mr. Tom of his head, but opted to wait and we got the Deuce! Lots of high fiving and hooping when you carry TWO big toms out of the woods. I use a Mossberg 835 with a 28" bbl. My g/f's step dad just traded his 835 for a Benelli Nova. Noticeably lighter recoil with the Benelli pump over the Mossberg. I've considered a trade in as well, but that shotgun has been pretty good to me. |