these things are a BLAST to shoot. (pun intended) mine also took 3 inch shot shells. It took me a while but i eventually managed to get what is called a "left and right" in the side by side fraternity. Two clay pigeons launched at the same time WITH a reload in between. You have to hold the second shell in your mouth and spit it out and catch it with the hand that works the bolt so you're catching it at the level of the boltway, makes it fast enough to get the second shell loaded and fired before the clay is out of range. Turning up with it in the first place caused a huge amount of consternation at the clay range in San Francisco. I was at the far end and when people in the office saw me lifting the gun with clays loaded up they started running towards me thinking they were stopping me firing a rifle at a clay pigeon inside the city limits.