mathematically they are "unnecessary". they're not necessary for velocity nor patters. and one can't blanket assume they're necessary for handling. if a buyer looks at 2 otherwise identical guns and picks the longer barreled one just because it has longer barrels they may be making a big mistake. the easiest to hit with shotgun I ever had was an Ithaca skb 550 12ga with 26" barrels. conversely, a Winchester 101 skeet gun with 26" barrels I don't think I could have hit quail running on the ground. I don't believe either would have benefitted from longer barrels. an army & navy SLE 12 with 30" barrels was also very easy to shoot well and if it had shorter barrels I think it'd have been useless as it only weighed 7# as it was and was a very fast handling gun.
30" barreled 21's and superposed's always felt very slow to me and savage/fox doubles were bad with short barrels and long ones felt like swinging a truck axle.
I've not quail hunted in a very long time and the only place I ever did hunt them was northeast MS where there were 2 kinds of shots: open bean fields or thickets you could barely see 20 yards and a longish gun caught on every vine and hit every tree trunk. after a week into the season only the remaining really stupid birds headed out in the open, the rest of the covey going into the thickest stuff they could find. one of the most useful guns I ever had for that was a pump with the barrel cut down to 18" and no choke at all.
roger
