Shooting steel, if the shot charge is 1 1/4 oz on both & you are shooting decoying Sandhill Cranes, what does it matter whether you're shooting 2 3/4" or 3"? I reckon the decoys were out around 20-25 yards.

Wanted to carry my Auto 5 Light 12 but the guide said to bring a 3" gun & shells. Once I was in the heat of the battle I felt like the (Auto 5) 2 3/4" would've likely done the job. Am I wrong?

Bob Brister talks a lot about this in Shotgunning: the Art and Science . His experiments were with lead but he believed a 3" shell was superfluous overkill on game due to the length of the shotstring in air.

I'm no Brister but I've killed a ton of wild pheasant with a 20 gauge gun shooting 2 3/4" 7/8 oz #5 and #6 shot. Before I read Brister I would buy the 3" shells. After I started shooting the 2 3/4" stuff I came to believe very strongly that he is right.

Just my dos pesos.

Thank you for the link & the response. I ordered the book. I recall now that back in the early 90's when I was hunting Ducks a lot I had come to the conclusion that 3" shells were unnecessary. It's all coming back to me now. I quit water fowling long ago so I forgot some of the things I learned.