Convert 1100 12Ga 3" Magnum to 2 3/4"?

[ohyay77]

I was given an 1100 12ga. 3" Magnum by a friend. Serial number on receiver is 5183v (no prefix letter). Remington dates it at 1963. I would like to convert it to shoot 2 3/4" shells for clay pidgeons. I figure I'll need to obtain a 2 3/4" barrel. Is there anything else I would need to consider? One person locally told me all I would have to do is replace the action spring with a lighter one. Not so sure about that.

[Wulfman]

You might want to read this:

http://www.remingtonsociety.com/images/ ... sembly.pdf


Den

[Virginian]

Nice gun. 1963 is right; mine is about 1100 numbers older than yours. According to that serial number that is a 2-3/4" receiver. Magnum receiver serial numbers all ended in 'M', and 2-3/4" in 'V'. The only parts that are different between a 2-3/4" and a 3" gun are the barrels (3" has one gas port, 2-3/4" has two), and the 3" action sleeve is heavier, and the 3" had a recoil pad on the stock. Springs and everything else are the same. It is likely all you need is a barrel but, I would check the action sleeve in case someone did change it, back when you could get a magnum sleeve from Remington, and I would check the recoil buffer in case all they did was drill out the gas port on the 3" barrel. They may not have even done that. The 2-3/4" action sleeve is lighter than the 3" sleeve, because it has more material machined away. The picture of the action sleeve shown in the exploded drawing of the Model 1100 in the online Model 1100/11-87 Owner's Manual is the standard sleeve. If yours looks like that you are okay.
That's a good gun to kill clay pigeons. Took me from standing joke to league champion in 14 months.

[ohyay77]

Thanks to wolfman & virginian for your replies.
I'll compare my action sleeve to the picture. Receiver says "Magnum" on the side, barrel says 3" Magnum. Shoots 3" shells pretty well. Misses cycle occasionally. Just expensive to shoot 3" magnum for clay pigeons and varmints.
Hopefully, all I need is a 2 3/4" barrel. Local gunsmith is trying to find one for me. I looked at some gunsmiths in a larger nearby city. No luck.

[tudurgs]

You might want to check out some of the websites that sell barrels. Here's one I found when I Googled "Shotgun Barrels for sale"
http://www.barrelexchange.com/

[Virginian]

If your receiver is indeed rollmarked MAGNUM with that 'V' serial number, you have another relative rarity. The longer I live, the more I learn to never say never where Remington is concerned. I had a duck hunting buddy who got a 3" Magnum 1100 about the same time I did, and I remember his said Magnum on it, but I never thought to check the serial number way back then. You can probably find a used fixed choke 2-3/4" barrel pretty easily, or if you want to spend the coins, a 2-3/4" RemChoke barrel. As long as you shoot relatively light loads you should be fine with the Magnum action sleeve. My 3" gun, will shoot 1-1/4 ounce 2-3/4" heavy field/duck loads all day without a hitch, but I had one that would only work with 3" and 2-3/4" 1-1/2 ounce Magnum shells, and I had another one that would work about 98% of the time with light 1-1/8 ounce field/trap loads. You never know for sure until you try.
www.corsonsbarrels.com,
www.gunbroker.com,
and www.gunsamerica.com are all also good sources for barrels. I picked up a like new Light Contour 3" with RemChokes for an 870 for $160 on GunBroker.
Good luck.

[ohyay77]

Acquired a 2 3/4" VR barrel from Gunbroker.com (Thanks to Virginian for that tip). Great site. Gave barrel and the action a thorough cleaning, then test fired several times. Cycled perfectly every time!