I suppose being made as a light gun has something to do with it. My Dickson, circa 1943 has the original 28" barrels and does have one spot under 20k on one barrel. The gun weighs in at six pounds even.
That is light.
Also it was the thing for other Maker's to do as well. I think Boss struck their barrels down to make them light and balanced.
Also remember that lot's of these guns were made in the hey day of driven shooting when people would spend a week shooting driven birds and the bag was tremendous in those days thus firing hundreds of rounds a week.
