doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 26" Doubleguns--Are they making a comeback?

You've got me wondering now, HD. Coming in and out of vogue, desire, is attached to market value for sure. But do unreasonable prices cause guns to go in and out of fashion? Consumerism, advertising, may weigh more heavily than practicality among the more easily influenced. Our bigger-is-better culture doesn't seem to have penetrated to the same extent overseas. My guess is most members here acquire what is most practical for the mission. The big market cycles on me-too emotion like skirt lengths.

Just to add to that, AyA considers the sidelock AyA XXVs to have a higher level of finish than the No. 2 RAs, and they are sold new for $1-1.5k more - closer to $8k. But on resale the No. 2s definitely hold their value better. I recently saw several used sidelock XXVs selling in the UK for $2k (cased and in good condition). If you like short barrels, I think that has to be one of the best deals going.

All my barrels are 28" or 30". I miss cleanly with both lengths. Think I'd miss as cleanly with shorter barrels?

Kingsley, "all hunters are the same people", and the idea that the linger the barrels the harder the gun will shoot is universal. The more I live, the more I'm sure that in most cases every issue that apparently is about politics, beliefs, religion, vogue, etc., etc, have a solid economic foundation. You might say that the popularity of the Beetle with the Hips is due to the fact that the Bug looked so different from their dads' Caddies and Lincolns, but reality is, that the Beetle would never have gotten so popular if it wasn't so cheap to run, didn't need to be serviced every 5000 miles, etc. The long/short skirt issue in female fashion, as in less vs. more exually provocative behavior, is linked direclty to the male to female proportion in the society. Even the 34"-barrer "vogue" is grounded in technology. Sergei Popikov, Blazer's Head of Shotgun Design, says the only reason these barrels weren't offered before is because there wasn't the new steels and barrel making methods to make the long barrels lively enough. Call me a Marxist, but in most cases dollars dictate the behaviour, ideas follow to rationalize it.

You're way ahead of me! Could be. I'm still wondering. Do dollars dictate behavior of members who prefer doubles to click-clacks?

I don't believe the longer the harder is anywhere near universal. It was when I was young, a long time ago. Does it enter younger heads today? I haven't heard it.

Clearly, we are not all the same people, hunters or not. Some countries are less comfortable with inequality, distribute money differently.

Maybe there's less Marx than materialism---"consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency" (OED)---which we try to refute.

Confess all this is over my head!

Back when the choices in doubles were pretty much limited to short barrels (usually 26") with open chokes or long barrels (usually 28") with tight chokes, economics played a role as well. That era, for the most part, was prior to the popularity of screw-in chokes. So, in terms of economy of scale, if you're making a whole bunch of short barrels, you save some in the manufacturing process by boring the chokes all the same; ditto the long-barreled guns. Now that most OU's (and even quite a few sxs) come with screw-in chokes, all you have to do is thread all the barrels, regardless of length.

You must be talking about barrel lengths in new guns, Larry. There has never been a shortage of vintage doubles with 30-32" barrels, at least since the early 1900s. All these vintage 30" doubles that you see for sale now with tight/tighter chokes were around 50 years ago too, just cheaper.

SRH

I am a gun hog, and have way more shotguns than I need, with barrels ranging from 25" to 32". I tell myself that I like the 30" barrels, but when game is scarce and every shot counts, I grab one with 28" barrels because that is what works best for me (except for my .410 with 30"). Sometimes in the field I find myself wishing I were carrying a 26" gun, but they are usually home in the safe. The only time I intentionally and always take a 26" is for chukar, because of weight, but that one is a full choke 870.