Have a new 3" mag full choke and am wondering if I can shoot steel shot in it without damaging the barrel....one ounce, one and one fourth, etc...also using it for trap and drilled out the gas hole, have done many of them, so it will shoot ounce lead...i see remington has steel shot barrels for sale and am wondering if I will need one of these..thanks..Bob

The original barrel should be able to handle steel loads without a problem. However, depending on how the drilling out of the gas port was accomplished it may result in damage to the gun when using full power loads according to my gunsmith. All the best...
Gil

shuck out light loads until its drilled out the next size drill, 5/64 i believe...Ime not going t shoot any 3" loads but will probably use up to ounce and a quarter loads of steel...I am aware that most gunsmiths say it might mess up the big loads functioning but I have also seen them stop jamming even on the coldest days and thats what ll00's are known for..Back in the 70's I guided in the chesapeake bay and the guides had pools on how many 1100's would jam that particular day....thats been my experience...

I remember well the late '70s and early '80s when the Chesapeake goose guides used to talk down their noses about those "Southern guys and their 1100s". I believe we educated a few of them. A properly maintained 1100 is as reliable as anything else, and I ought to know, because I have been shooting them at everything from Skeet to Swans since 1963. I don't ever remember a misfire unless it was from one of my less than stellar reloads or a limb in the action hunting in extremely tight cover. Well yes, I did break and extractor in 1981, almost forgot.
My main waterfowl gun is a 1966 1100 magnum fitted with a Steel Shot barrel for the choke tubes, since I don't shoot steel since the blessed arrival of tungsten alloys. The choke tubes are the only difference between a steel shot barrel and a standard old Magnum 1100 barrel. I wouldn't shoot anything larger than #2 steel thru a fixed full choke barrel, and I would be real careful and watch the buffer shooting anything but light loads thru a barrel that has has the port(s) opened up. Gander Mountain used to drill a second port in a Magnum barrel and tap it for an Allen head set screw so you could go back to heavy loads.

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"What could have happened.... did."

I really enjoyed and learned from your post...I have seen those double holed 3" mag bbls but probably won't need to do that.. Ill be shooting ducks over decoys at 40 yds max..Ill stick to using #2's or maybe the tungsten stuff...I have 1100's in 28 and .410 also and used to use the 3" 20 for ducks..I started shooting trap in 1970 and Leo Harrison, yes, the number one guy in trapshooting, had his grandfather get me my first 1100...it did break a firing pin and I have witnessed young Leo Harrison wear out the parts in half a dozen ll00's but he set many records in trapshooting. I know He ran 3100 , one hundred straights...mostly with a 1100...I broke 21 with mine last sunday. Ime 67 with a spinal cord injury...lucky to be going back to it....

I got my first 1100 in 1963, and it turned the local joke into the league high average skeet shooter. It was my only shotgun for a few years, and shot everything. I got a 3" Model 1100 LT20 gauge to shoot ducks with when you could still use lead in the smaller gauges. It was way more effective than i had hoped, and worlds better than the early steel 12 gauge loads. I have two 12s, a 20, and a 28 now. I put a magnum action sleeve and a magnum barrel on my '63 around 1970, and later a 3" Steel Shot barrel, and it was my main waterfowl gun for ages. I tried a 3-1/2" Super Black Eagle and decided I wasn't that bad of a masochist. I went thru about 5 10 gauges, and then when tungsten arrived I went back to the 1100. About 3 or 4 years ago i got a cherry 1100 Magnum and retired the '63 to clay targets.
Oh, I never did get that "100 Straight" beautiful embroidered patch in skeet. A 97 was my best. Missed low house 7. The ultimate choke.

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"What could have happened.... did."

can make anything work as i always said its the guy pullin the trigger,not the gun....i never shot much skeet and did break 50 straight but broke a dozen hundreds in the trap game. I now shoot skeet with an 870 .410 but i don't get many of the doubles...lol...I think its the grip and the long trigger that draws me to the 1100. This 3" gun is new and I gave $350 for it recently...My shoulder is also bone on bone and i was scared to death the 12ga would beat me but i put an additional limbsaver soft recoil pad on and its real soft on recoil...the extra length I welcome on a trap gun..I sponsor a kid in 4H trap and he will use it this season....You have had a lot of fun with your remingtons and I feel for that low 7 miss.. I was with a guy last week that missed it twice...I watch the skeet shooters in SanAntonio during the winter but can't make myself sign up for a match...I got tooo much goin on with airguns, glock matches and fishin....Peace my friends...

To shoot light loads you are a lot better off to buy a 2 3/4" barrel which is designed to shoot lighter loads. By drilling out the gas port when using 3"mag loads you are hitting the piston with more gas pressure than the system is designed for and it will eventually result in damage or broken parts. I live in an area where I have to repair a lot of bubba'ized guns. Goatwhiskers the Elder