The 27” barrels were a standard off-the-rack length, particularly on small-gauge guns, back around the turn of this century. When some of the importers and dealers started ordering all of their guns with longer barrel lengths, the manufacturers started producing more guns with longer tubes to meet the popularity of longer barrels. It took us a little time and ordering some serious quantity of AyA guns for Cabela’s to convince them to make ours with 29” barrels.
This makes a lot of sense. I have a 20ga Beretta Golden Piegeon QU that has 26.5" barrels and it was built in 2002 so of that era. It's the one double gun I have that has shorter barrels and for some reason I don't mind it with that gun in particular and I shoot it quite well. The funny thing is that it's actually 2oz. lighter than my smaller baby frame 28ga 686 with 28" barrels. I guess that extra 1.5" of steel adds up. It appears to have denser wood as well.
