[Grizzley1]

Sooner if you can find a source of paper hulls they will last more than one loading. They won't last as long as a brass hull but they are better than nothing. It's strange that they won't chamber in that gun.

 

[Grizzley1]

Can you take it to a good smith in your area and have the chamber reamed to 2 3/4? You'd still be able to shoot black powder loads and smokeless 2 3/4 shells if you want to.

 

[Grizzley1]

If the 18.2 I see on the barrels is bore size in millimeters, then the bore is .716. About .012 smaller than 12 gauge. Trap posted one time that crushed up aluminum foil can be used for an easy "chamber cast" you might try to get the chamber and a little of the bore with it. Might not be accurate to within .001 but it should get you close enough.

 

[Grizzley1]

I've seen a lot of old Brit shotguns proof marked as 13 gauge, but they use 12 gauge shells. 18.2 mm is approximately 13 gauge but I haven't been looking up proof marks on French stuff to know if that is for a choke or the bore or means something completely different.

 

[Grizzley1]

Sooner I've never done it but I would assume it would need to be packed fairly tight. If I were to try to do it , and I might be all wet, I'd feed it in from the muzzle and pack it in with the action closed kind of like it was a front stuffer. Then open the action and push it out.