doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel length and activity...

All,

My O/U is a 26" 12g and works great for upland game and skeet.
(plus, I don't like carrying heavy guns when walking for 4 hours)

For trap, I prefer longer barrels... 30" on my Beretta auto or when I used to take my SxS. (Haven't taken it out to the range in a while...)

For ducks, and I hope nobody sees this as sacrilege, I use a Rem 870 Super magnum with 28" barrel. As I shoot steel for duck/goose, I could care less if it ruins the barrel in a $300 gun. Barrels are $125 for it. (and, I don't care if it gets wet, either)

Do folks see alot of difference in how a longer gun points, or, is it more of how the gun is balanced? I kinda of picked up that a longer barrel is better for longer shots, but, shorter barrels are your friend for walking and skeet.

I generally like longer barrels for everything. On small bore quail guns, 28-30 inch barrels are ideal. My main trap gun used to be a Beretta 391 Teknys with a 32" barrel. I've also got a Rizzini for sporting clays also has 32" barrels. My favorite dove gun was a Victor Sarasqueta SLE with 30" bbls.

My short barreled guns are usually a little too whippy. But it really depends on the gun and how it feels and balances. But as a general rule of thumb, I like the longer barrels and more weight forward.

Adam

26 inch for woodcock,quail and grouse,28 inch and longer for dove,duck,etc. Bobby

I prefer 28" for everything; open chokes close in and M/F for ducks, and last season doves. Most of my shooting is at game and I only shoot clays for practice...Geo

Waaaay back when I was young, body flexible , eyes that could pick up a target like a hawk and reflexes quick as a cat I could pick up any gun without regard to weight, barrel length, length of pull or amount of drop and hit targets well. Now that I am stiff as a board, wear bifocals and struggle to pick up a bag of dog food I have pretty much settled on my 26 inch open choke 6 lb Fox when the birds are holding to the point or one of my 28 inch tight choked 6 1/4 lb Foxes when the birds are flushing at 30 - 35 yards. I can still shoot the 30 and 32 inch guns but not as well as the short barrel quick swinging short barrels at live birds. Clay targets are a different story give the extra time to pick up track and swing through the target I shoot the long barrel guns perhaps a bit better.

I like em all. I have a good use for 26" barreled guns, my close cover quail hunting. But a light, quick pointing, 28g or .410 with 28" barrels isn't a problem either. Anything longer or heavy gets resigned to range work for the most part.

I do like light guns for carrying, my go to field gun is French made 16 gauge sxs guild gun with 27" barrels that weighs all of 5lbs. That said, I suppose barrel length doesn't really matter to me, if the shot's over 30 yards I'm going to be pretty craptastic no matter what I shoot.
Steve

I think the issue of barrel length is in part dictated by how you shoot at a target, whether clay or feather. If you tend to track a target and manipulate a sight picture before firing, a longer and heavier gun usually suits. If you tend to shoot as Churchill subscribed where you fire when the butt touches your shoulder, then a shorter dynamic gun is usually preferred. Either gun can be effective at either clays or game but the shooter needs to understand the inherit dynamics of the gun to have very much success.
I have only 12 g (or bore) but have barrel lengths from 25� (AYA XXV) to 32� (Blaser F3) with a number of 26, 28 and 30� guns in between. I have shot many at game and most at clays, typically low gun skeet or sporting clays with reasonable success. However, the method to shoot my XXV at skeet to break 22-23 is much different than to shoot the F3. Both work, but I prefer the F3 for clays and the XXV for most game shooting, including high pheasants.
My thoughts
Z

You can define the handling characteristics of any gun by its weight, balance point (most conveniently related to the trigger), the unmounted swing effort (moment of inertia at the balance point), and the mounted swing effort (MOI at the butt). Longer barrels, all else held equal (for example, a two barrel set where the longer barrels have a barrel wall profile identical to the shorter), will increase gun weight, move balance forward, and increase both swing efforts. There are no good or bad handling characteristices. Like stock dimensions, you want handling characteristics that you shoot well or that please you.