wats the problem with 3 1/2" shells?

[Muskie03]

I love the bark of 3 1/2's out of my Nova. And as for the recoil, jeez, some of you girls need to grow up. I shoot 3 1/2 Winchester ext range #6's with a Tightwad choke tube. If I need it I know it's deadly at 50yd. And so you don't think I'm unethical the two strutters I shot last spring were close, one at 12 steps and the other not much farther.

Anyway my Benelli throws a hell of a pattern with 3 1/2's. I've shot 3's and they worked good, no complaints. But, the 3 1/2's pattern BETTER, PERIOD.

[Turkeybuster]

Works good for me to![;)]
TB

[pabeard buster]

hey everyone, incase you forgot im the one that started this feed... I finaly got around to patterning my remington 11-87supermag. i used a tight wad .665 ported choke. decided to go with remington nitro turkeys. i patterned 2 3/4", 3" and 3 1/2" shells, all with size 4 shot. i shot each one at 30, 35, and twice at 40 yards. i shot a life size picture target of a turkey. everyone looked to me like a dead bird.
 
all 3 lenths patterned great at 30 yards. definetly 3 dead birds. countless hits to the bird, plenty on the spine, and the head. the 3" was much much more dense then the 2 3/4", and the 3 1/2" tore some gashes through the paper about the size of quarters.
 
at 35 yards the 2 3/4" began to drop from the pack a little bit. it still definetly killed the bird though. the 3" shell patterned like a picture. dense enough that there was no way the bird would have made it through a half way acurat shot. the 3 1/2" was much more brutal. again, leaving gashes insted of pritty little holes. the drawback i began to see was that it seemed to pattern a little less evenly. however i could not find room for the turkeys neck to dodge all pellets within the pattern. so again, all patterns would kill.
 
at 40 yards(i took 2 shots with each load) the diferances became more vissible. the 2 3/4" was rathers pathedic at this range. i counted 5, and then 7 pellets in the neck and head of the bird. both shots would have killed, but a mean street of luck might have changed that. the 3" patterned just fine again. the spred was eaven. more spred out of coarse, but still more then effective. it would take a lot of hard luck to miss the bird. at this range i got to see the benifits and dissadvantages of the big 3 1/2" loads. the pattern was again speratic. it was not evenly spred the way the 3" was. but it was much more leathal looking to me. in both casess the 3 1/2" did much more damage to the target picture than either of the 3" shots.
 
seems to me that the 3 1/2"(out of my gun, with my choke, with these remington nitro turkey #4s) allow a better chance of the turkeys neck slipping through a bad luck hole in a pattern. but at the same time, at long ranges, the 3 1/2" lowers the chance of just injuring a bird. at these ranges, witch are the ones i would shoot, i like the 3 1/2" sorry to all those who disagree but its my hunt. lol
 
recoil- 3 1/2 from a semi, nominaly more then the 3. the 2 3/4 was nothing. in fact one time, the heavy action on my 11-87 did not completely eject the shell

[Magnumdood]

ORIGINAL: Muskie03

But, the 3 1/2's pattern BETTER, PERIOD.

...in YOUR GUN, PERIOD.

[Turkeybuster]

[:-]
TB