doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why so much interest in 32 inch guns?

Or a 20-g Zoli Sport with 32-inchers.

I like them.

Silvers, nice collection of 32's. I especially like the "elsie" with the straight stock.

Sorry about the double.

My theory:

At one time there was a big concrete benifit in longer bbls due to the slow burn of black powder so everyone had them. When smokless powder came along it took several years for people to catch on that to burn all of the powder you only needed about 18". I still know people that think that longer bbls will shoot farther. So bbls got shorter because people really love short handy compact guns. I remember shooting skeet years ago when everyone was using 26" or 28 bbls. I think that 28 became the standard but there were plenty of 26"s. Sporting clays came along and since it was new, people were not persuaded by tradition to use the short bbls and since most people are much more likely to stop the swing rather than not being able to catch the bird the longer bbls became popular. I myself use a 32" for skeet.

This is a big benifit for those of you that like the shorter bbls ie. K-80 28"bbls are about 1/4 the price of a 32"

Stan, I have more Perazzis than I know what do do with. I have 12 gauge barrels as short as 27" and several with 32" barrels. Danial Perazzi himself once told me that he did not understand why American shooters wanted to "handicap themselves" with 32" barrels. Virtually all international bunker shooters (a very fast game indeed) shoot 29.5" barrels on thier Perazzis.
(Having said that, when my gamer was recently in the shop, I shot a 32" gun as well as I have ever shot my 29.5. But when the old one came back, it sure felt good.)

Best, Jake

Indeed. There are some bargains to be had. Also, all those old Superposed 26" (and even 28") skeet guns.
I think Dig wrote an article in DGJ about trends and prices. As I recall he talked about the great bargains in 16s a few years ago and also discussed barrel lengths and how the market has changed around them.
We humans are a trendy lot. Lots of herd mentality. I have always felt that 32" barrels were a bit cumbersome. But, they undoubtedly shoot well for lots of folks. It is the standard now days in sporting clays. I think it is the momentum of the barrels helping those inclined to stop or slow their swing.
I am glad certain guns are out of fashion. I love to buy nice guns at a bargain. I can't shoot em all at the same time but, for example, I shot a 26" .20 Sterly in S. Dakota this year. It shot great for me. And, it was a dream to carry.
Regards, Jake

There's nothing heavy and slow about a 32" barrel Parker. And if you've ever had the pleasure of swinging a smaller bore 32" Parker in 16ga or 20ga, you will soon notice it's anything but heavy and slow, the first words that come to mind are it's Pure Magic!

I have a feeling Mr. Murphy might be along soon to further extol the virtues and fluid nature of 32" pipes on a well balanced double. eightbore where are you?

O-D

All American guns with 32" barrels are much heavier than your P-gun. Yes you can get a lighter weight 32" gun if you look, but all the 21's, 3200's and with few exceptions all the American made 32" doubles are barrel heavy. Not a bad thing if you like a heavy barrel.

Skeet guns get even more barrel heavy when you put tubes in them to shoot small gauges. Makes it much easier to have a smooth swing if it takes a lot of effort to stop the gun. Light weight guns are easy to get moving but hard to swing smoothly, heavy ones are harder to start moving but easier to keep swinging once you get them going. Most clay target games are improved by follow through and heavy barrels give you tons of follow through.

"Game" guns are not 32" heavy barreled guns as a rule unless you count water fowl guns and pigeons guns. You will not see many 32" guns quail hunting, maybe a few dove hunting. Target guns, clay target guns, are almost always heavy by shooters choice. They like the smooth swing and the reduction in felt recoil because of the heavy gun. Most would do just as well if you made the same gun with a set of 30" heavy barrels. Clay target games, which were invented to mimic wild bird shots have evolved into very static games with little game shot relavence. Gone are the low gun, multiple styles of shooting. Todays clay target shooter groove their swing and heavy barrels help.

The longer sighting plane is just a myth. Stack the middle bead and front bead into a figure eight and tell me if it matters if they are 13", 14", 15", 16" or 18" apart. The sight pitcure is the same. NO rib between them, they are stacked. No difference due to the longer sighting plane.

Myths sell guns just like facts. Todays myth is longer is better. The 25" barrel myth sold thousands og guns for a certain British gun maker. The 28 gauge is the perfect or square load has sold thousands of 28's. Just like tighter bores shooting harder or longer barrels killing birds better at long range. Good sellers PR, which sells gun today is longer is better. Message to shooter buy another longer gun and you will do better just because it is longer.

I have started buying some of those 25 and 26" barreled guns that no one likes. They are dirt cheap. 20-30 years ago I bought 16 gauges because they were dead. Bought them for almost nothing. I still have several 16 Foxes that I paid less than $350.00 because they were dead. I bet in 30 years more than a few people will be shooting short barrels. Remember how many 30" and 32" double were bobbed because they were too long. What goes around comes around.

In a word, Digweed.

KY Jon, nothing wrong with short barrels if you think you shoot just as well with them. They certainly are cheaper, now. However:

Pigeons, flyers, which you mentioned, are as far from clay games as it gets. I submit that if the shooters who take the big money regularly could get on the bird more effectively, i.e. faster, with a shorter gun they would be using them. This is dead serious stuff, for big money. I shot in a flyer match with Cooley, Scotten and several of the other top flyer shooters recently and they all shoot long barreled guns. At least, all of them that I saw. And it can't be said that they just use the same guns they use for clays. Scotten doesn't even shoot clays, says he's afraid it would mess up his flyer shooting. Getting the first shot into the pigeon as fast as possible is always the name of the game, and if it could be done more effectively with a shorter gun somebody would have discovered that by now, especially when that kind of money is riding on every shot.

Stan