Dear Sir,

I have a S&W 1000m 12 gauge mag. Semi auto. 30 barrel. What do i have to do to this gun to shoot trap loads out of it? Please help

Keith

Dear Keith,

It has been a loooong time since I have looked at a S&W 1000. I am not positively certain that I remember all the details of their gas action. Of course, sometimes I have trouble remembering where I live, so that’s nothing new.

Normally, older magnum gas guns won’t cycle light target loads. That’s really not necessarily so bad for trap shooting where you only shoot one shot at a time. In that situation, the magnum gun action will act like a shell catcher. Just load and fire the gun, then haul back on the charging handle to extract and save your hull. I know guys who have pulled the rings from their 1100s to make them do just that when they didn’t have a shell catcher. A little inconvenient, but not much more so than an O/U. Also, your magnum S&S won’t spit the shell out onto the next guy. In that vein, I’m not aware of a shell catcher for the S&W, so if you get it cranking those shells out, the fellow next to you isn’t going to love you.

If you absolutely want to make the gun eject target shells, you will have to enlarge the gas ports. Magnum guns have smaller gas ports because the magnum shells generate more gas and pressure than target loads. If you wish to experiment, try enlarging the gas port(s) a tiny bit at a time until the gun functions with the loads you wish to use. Go slow, it may not take much. And no, I can’t tell you how, because I have never altered a S&W 1000.

Most of my experience in gas port alteration has been with the 3″ Browning B-80 barrels. They responded very nicely to slightly opened up gas ports and, once modified, became an extraordinarily reliable target gun. They would also continue to shoot 3″ shells and slugs, though you obviously wouldn’t want to feed them a steady diet. That gun, really a Beretta 302, was VERY strong.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC
(Often in error, never in doubt.)