School me please on matters shotgun ammo

[bandit]

In all my years of shooting I never got "into" the shotgun scene. Now I am "gunning" for 3 gun shoot and getting myself up to speed. I am searching for the shotgun that "speaks" to me, bt this is not what this thread is about.

On some shotties it states 2 3/4" or 3" Ok why the differenece in lentgh? Magnum perhaps? What is the standard in SA?

[corriedewilde]

Traditionally shotguns are for hunting birds in flight. With a longer cartridge you can have more shot and a better chance of getting your bird. The trade off is recoil.

In a shotgun cartridge with more shot, there will be more powder as well, as speed of the shot must be the same, as with lighter loaded cartridges. This is different to rifle cartridges, where the powder become less when the bullet weight goes up, to keep the chamber pressure down.