Have a
2 3/4 inch mod 1100 Remington with an Improved cyl barrel. Can I shoot steel shot safely in this shotgun?

Not unless the barrel was made for it. If it's an early gun then you will ruin your barrel. The good news is that you can find 1100 barrels everywhere.

Remington says:

"We do not recommend the use of steel shot through any barrel manufactured before 1963 or through any barrel having a fixed Full choke. Anything larger would not perform well out of a fixed full choke and could open up your muzzle over time.

If you have barrels manufactured after 1963, with fixed Modified or Improved Cylinder chokes, you may shoot up to size #2 steel shot. The use of steel shot larger than size #2 is only recommended in modern barrels with the Rem Choke system.

If you have the Rem Choke system, you may shoot any size steel through the Improved Cylinder and Modified choke tubes. The Full choke tube must state "For Steel or Lead" to be capable of handling steel shot."

Thank you so much my friend. Not a waterfowl guy but good information. Thanks again. Luke

#2 or #3 shot at 14-1450 fps would be my choice.
shotgun ain't much good if you can't hunt with it.

From my experience, kind of along what Grenadier said, it would be safe, but if it's an older barrel, it will damage it by scoring the inside of the barrel. Tighter constrictions will sometimes bulge out at the choke...

A new barrel is relatively cheap, but if you are doing a once a decade duck hunt and you don't care about the gun much, it won't hurt you given factory 2.75 loads.

You might consider shooting the new "Flite Control" wad ammo like "Black Cloud". The wad is actually a poly tube .656 inside diameter. Slightly larger than a 16 ga shotgun bore.It has air brake tabs on it's rear. Doesn't really require much of a choke and shoots tight patterns. Kinda like a disposable plastic choke tube. The tube prevents the shot from contacting the barrel steel.

quote:

Originally posted by bigluke:
Have a
2 3/4 inch mod 1100 Remington with an Improved cyl barrel. Can I shoot steel shot safely in this shotgun?

In the early 70s I gave a friend a 1100 12 ga. !C barrel. He has shot ducks with it every year since, including nontoxic shot from the time it was first required. No problems and still consistently killing ducks over decoys. Open choke barrels should be no problem.

Remington told me my fixed Mod in my 2 3/4 only 870 was fine with steel so long as it wasn't bigger than 3-4. I've shot a lot of ducks with Kent steel 5s. Might want to contact them.

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
Not unless the barrel was made for it. If it's an early gun then you will ruin your barrel. The good news is that you can find 1100 barrels everywhere.

Remington says:

"We do not recommend the use of steel shot through any barrel manufactured before 1963 or through any barrel having a fixed Full choke. Anything larger would not perform well out of a fixed full choke and could open up your muzzle over time.

If you have barrels manufactured after 1963, with fixed Modified or Improved Cylinder chokes, you may shoot up to size #2 steel shot. The use of steel shot larger than size #2 is only recommended in modern barrels with the Rem Choke system.

If you have the Rem Choke system, you may shoot any size steel through the Improved Cylinder and Modified choke tubes. The Full choke tube must state "For Steel or Lead" to be capable of handling steel shot."

The Remington 1100 was introduced in 1963.

A couple of problems with steel shot. Steel shot will not deform going through chokes as will lead. That stresses the barrel and might scratch the barrel. Steel shot now normally has a thicker plastic shot cup.
Another problem is rusting of the shot and therefore 'glues' the shot together !! More of a problem of with larger shot sizes. Federal copper plated their larger shot sizes for that.
Another thing is that patterns may be very different. My MOD choke with steel gives an extra, extra tight pattern.

All steel shot loads today use heavy walled wads with the petals joined i.e. no gaps. The wads also have a long wad cup for the shot and usually none if any cushion between the shot cup and over powder wad hence they can fit the full weight of shot in as it takes up much more room than the equivalent lead load.

The steel shot DOES not CAN not touch the bore and therefore cannot score the bore. If you recover a fired steel wad you will see how well it has held together and protected the bore. The problem on older shotguns is tight fixed chokes or even screw in tubes where many are used to using the tighter chokes. Steel fired through these tight chokes can bulge the muzzle or lock the screw in chokes into the threads making them impossible to remove.

Field tests have shown that a modified or half choke (or less) is as good as it gets for steel. The heavier wad acts as a choke and chokes tighter than modified can often degrade the pattern.

I did some research when wanting to know if my 70's Miroku O/U shotgun could handle steel shot. It is not proofed for it as such, but it seems perfectly safe for steel shot use. The following is what I found on the web:

Miroku Shotguns, Chokes and Steel Shot
All hunting or sporting shotguns, over-and-under or semi-auto guns, by Browning, Winchester and Miroku fitted with original chokes, Invector, Steel Invector Plus, Stainless Steel Invector Plus, Teague, Briley, Midas, Diamond or Signature chokes, can fire high performance steel shot cartridges.

Tested at the Liège test bench, high performance 1370 bars, in accordance with European law on the use of steel shot.