Rebottling beer

[clowder]

Hey Army,
I've got a local comp coming up in a few weeks(not enough time to rebrew). I thought that I only needed to submit 2 bottles, turns out I need three (10-16oz). I only have 2-12 oz bottles and 1-22 oz left. Is there any way that I can rebottle the 22 into a 12? I've read mixed opinions on this and was wondering if anyone has any first hand experience on this actually working w/o any negative impact. Here are the steps that I'm thinking about taking.

Chill(32F) both the full-22 oz bottle and the empty 12 oz bottle.
Syphon, not pour, the chilled beer into the new bottle.
Give it a "shot" of CO2 with my beer gun to clear any oxygen from the head space.
Cap and keep at fridge temp until I submit the three entries.

Questions:
Any chance that this will work w/o too much carbonation loss and oxygen pick-up?
The beers are being judged three days after the submission deadline. Will waiting for the last minute to rebottle help reduce the detectibility of any oxydation?
When I purge the headspace: Should I do it in the empty headspace, or towards the bottom of the bottle?
Should I do a "normal" fill level or fill it to the cap?

Thanks in advance for any help that you all can give,
Clowder

[brewinhard]

If you have a beer gun, then I would purge the entire 12 oz empty bottle before transferring your cold beer into it. You definitely want them both as cold as possible. I don't think you need to siphon them. Carefully pouring the beer from the 22 oz into the 12 oz with as little splashing/foaming as possible. If you do happen to foam a bit no worries, just cap over it as quickly as you can. If you don't end up foaming much then use your beer gun to give a shot of CO2 on top of the beer before capping. I would do all of these steps as late as you can before sending your beer off to be judged. You should be just fine doing it in this matter with minimal carbonation losses. Good luck!

[clowder]

If you have a beer gun, then I would purge the entire 12 oz empty bottle before transferring your cold beer into it. You definitely want them both as cold as possible. I don't think you need to siphon them. Carefully pouring the beer from the 22 oz into the 12 oz with as little splashing/foaming as possible. If you do happen to foam a bit no worries, just cap over it as quickly as you can. If you don't end up foaming much then use your beer gun to give a shot of CO2 on top of the beer before capping. I would do all of these steps as late as you can before sending your beer off to be judged. You should be just fine doing it in this matter with minimal carbonation losses. Good luck!

Thanks for the help. Double thanks for reminding me to purge the bottle before I transfer.

~Clowder