From small-bore to big-bore - I happened across a Browning Gold Hunter, chambered for 3.5 inch shells. The supplied ammo was Winchester Winlite Reduced Recoil 2 3/4 inch shells with one-ounce hollow point rifled slugs. The box calls for 1200 fps velocity.
I presume that this semi-automatic shotgun was not the ideal platform for testing reduced loads, as the action was designed to handle up to 3.5" shells -- but then again, most good autos will handle whatever you feed them, up to their highest rated shell of course. But I fired eight shots with this gun, and it had a feed or action malfunction every time.
Each time I fired it with shells in the magazine, the empty shell failed to eject and ended up "stovepiped", with its base hemmed between the new shell below and the inside of the receiver above. Firing a shell without one in the magazine ejected the empty just fine, but the bolt failed to stay open two out of three times. The ammo seemed fine, but this gun sure didn't like it.
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