3.5" vs 3"

Whats the advantage other than if your skyblasting or its a dedicated goose gun? I know the 3.5" shells are significantly more expensive in most cases.

"Whats the advantage"

Your shoulder gets a good workout. Lord know most of us needs the exercise and workouts.

Never found the advantage of using 3.5’s, though my guns are chambered for them.

Nice to know that I can shoot them if that’s all I can find on the shelf at Walmart or Academy.

I use 2 3/4 all day
Shoot em in the head

No advantage

You get more pellets towards your target but on the downside more more recoil with 3.5. The added recoil can also prevent some people from making a good follow up shot.

I use 3.5 BB for cranes(they can take a beating)and my shoulder never hurts but my 68 year old dads does.

Shoot 3 rounds off of each at a couple group of birds. If there is a difference in your follow up then the 3" would be the way to go as you would probably not be making the best use out of those more expensive two 3.5 shells.

- He-Man

Larger pellets means you can't fit as many in the shell. Going to a longer shell gets some of that capacity back.

I only use them on turkeys and cranes. I don't think I need them with smaller shot sizes.

No advantage learn to shoot better quite spending money on expensive shells

We downed just over 200 snow geese on a conservation hunt, we had extensions longer than our barrels and we were shooting 6-8 3 1/2" shells at every volley, man that was nuts. At the end of the day we would have a small group of geese come through and not one hunter would shoot, hoping the other guys would. We were some hurting hunters. Man I couldn't bare the thought of pulling the trigger again, I just laid there and watched.

Sounds like you need some padding...

Unless you are shooting Snows at extreme ranges there is no need to shoot 3 1/2" shells.

I agree with this, unless you’re primary use is skyblasting cranes and geese.

Shooting kent 3 inch tungsten matrix nr 5 this morning.
Best load ever

I shoot high flying crane with 3" 4 shot and a modified choke, while my buddy misses crane with 3 1/2 bb loads and a kicks high flyer choke. He kills his shoulder and I kill crane, can't see a reason to go bigger even if I went goose hunting.

Been hunting waterfowl for a lot of years and have only shot a handful of 3.5" shells, usually when I grabbed them out of my buddy's bag. Several of my blind mates have run the gamut of ammo over the last 25 years, including 12 gauge 3.5", 10 gauge 3.5", Hevi-Shot, and several others I don't remember. All eventually came back to 12 gauge 3" rounds. Never saw an increase in kills with any of the bigger shells, and often a decrease (that 10 gauge recoil was BRUTAL).

I thought you use 2 3/4 all day?

Nothing is better than heavy shot. You can shoot 6’s at Ducks- stone them dead at 60+ yards

Study after study shows they do pattern worse than 3 inch

I used to shoot 3.5 inch #4, back when I did not have confidence in my shooting. Another disadvantage is the extra weight, not worth it.

I freaking love 3.5 inches. I kill birds I'd never kill with 3 inch or 2.75. I switch after teal season and won't look back. Your experiences may vary.

Me too

I like 3.5" shells for the extra speed I can get out of them. Shooting 1 1/4 ounce of shot in a 3" shell gives you a speed of around 1400 fps. When you shoot a 1 1/4 ounce load in a 3.5" shell you get a speed of 1650 fps. If the shot loads are identical in both 3" and 3.5" shells, the 3.5" shell can hold more powder. When shooting steel shot speed can make the difference between killing a duck and wounding it. 250 fps is significant in steel shot ballistics, so there is a big advantage of shooting 3.5" shells over 3" shells. The advantage is proven through ballistic science, and not just my opinion.

I use the 3.5 to break in the gun as manufacturer recommends to enable cycling of low brass dove loads. Manufacturer recommends 200 rounds. Don't use 3.5 for hunting.

This^^. The bore x length results in an elongated shot string that doesn't perform well on flying birds. On turkeys they probably work ok. Pretty similar to the .410 shotgun. Stick with 3", or if you want the extra capacity, shoot a 10 ga. I have an SP-10 that weighs ~11lbs and is not bad to shoot all day. I've run multiple boxes through it in a day on geese and never had a problem.

Bluesea112...250 ft per sec is no advantage

Is this legit?

My brand new A5 jammed during dove season with low brass and hass jammed bout 70% of the time when using 3" Kent duck load although I've only been on three hunts so far this year.

I'm so sick of shotguns jamming. I'm so unlucky when it comes to shotguns. Shotguns just hate me. But I'm going to buy some 3.5's and hope blasting a box will help my cycling issues.

I only use 3.5" for geese and cranes. To me it just puts more shot in the head and neck of a larger bird resulting in less cripples. I use 3" for ducks.

X2

What did the owners manual say?

Bentman, 250 fps can put shot on the body if you tend to shoot tail feathers. Likewise, 250 fps can move body shots to neck and head shots. 250 fps can also be the deciding factor on whether a bone breaks or does not break.

Hey Gacman, my new Browning A5 all of sudden decided it would not eject 3.5" shells. I am stuck shooting 3" now.