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What length barrel do you prefer?

I have a Benelli M2 with 24" barrel and pistol grip. I am thinking about cutting it down to 21-22". What is the downside to this? Thinking about sending my barrel to Briley this week to have it cut down and have a better fiber optic bead intalled.

On a turkey gun I find about 22" ideal. But 24" is close enough that I wouldn't spend the money to have it cut down. If all I had were a 28-30" barrel and wanted to convert it to a dedicated turkey gun then it might be worth it.

Good advice!

Benelli M1 24" is perfection for me...

My 2 are 20" and 21" barrels. I had a 24" and it didn't bother me. A friend uses a 28" barrel, it looks like he is toting a telephone pole through the woods.

I have had 20" all the way to 28" barrels on turkey guns.
I find 24" to 26" works fine but if all I did was hunt in the woods (no fields) I might want a 22" to 24" gun.
Never liked the 20" for some reason, may have been the noise (it sure seems louder) or ?

I lean toward shorter barrels on just about every long gun. That being said, I recently bought a new Beretta Outlander with a 28" barrel, and I am gonna give it a go for turkey this year...We will see how it works..

My 2 benelli's are 24". I wouldn't want it any longer than that and would prefer 21-22" but I don't think it would be worth the expense to have one cut down.

Lee

I have used my 870's one with a 28" barrel and one with a 21" barrel... I don't add any special sights, and prefer the long sight radius..

22 or 24 is about perfect

I have used 23" on up to 32" and can't say one is any "better" than the other. I don't worry much about barrel length as I tend to set up where I have a good range of motion available. Hunting from a blind might be different but that is not a method I employ.

My current main turkey gun is a 24" Browning Gold Hunter with 3.5" chamber. The overall length of this gun is not a problem in the woods where I typically hunt and it has enough weight up front for the gun to easily double for waterfowl. The 32" gun was an Ithaca Mag-10 and it worked well for me.

I use a 30" on my 870. I have not had a problem. Same gun I bought in 1971 from money I made on a newspaper route. Only shoots 2 3/4" shells. Kills gobblers as well as my buddy's 3 1/2" Ultra Mag.

I run and gun more than I do sticking it out from a blind/stationary position with about 50:50 of my birds shot under 20 yards in swamps and the other half shot at 30-45 yards on open fields.


I have always used a 26-30 inch barrels and did not like how they snag on everything in the swamp so I got the M2 with 24 inch. I will probably just hunt with it as is this year but am debating how much another few inches off would be.


The short fiber optic on the barrel does not impress me so I am looking for options (no scopes). A better True Glo or red dot might be the ticket but I have always used good fiber optics and never felt like a scope would make my experience any better.

The main thing you get with going to a shorter barrel is a louder ringing in your ears. You also get good odds of extra work finding a load and choke that will perform as well as it used to. Needing some sights is another bonus if you don't already use them.

If I were interested in trying a shorter gun, I'd get one and try it. Modifying a longer one you were satisfied with otherwise, might leave you with a gun you used to like.

Personally, I've done from 20" on a pump to 36" on a single barrel. I like 26" on a semi and 28" on an O/U. I shoot beads and leave the carrying strap off unless I'm toting a bird out.

The difference between a 21 and a 24 isn't much but before I cut it down I would just buy a 21 inch barrel or trade from one. Benelli makes a 21 inch barrel for the M2. Shotgunworld .com has a classified section with lots of traffic.

I have a M1 with a 24" barrel and also have a 28" M2 barrel for it. I couldn't stand the 28 in the turkey woods also couldn't stand the short turkey barrel in the duck blind, it will deafen you. I like my combo but a 21 would be nice for turkeys.

I've got 2 20", 1 21" and 2 24" guns. I don't like a barrel that is longer than 24" for a turkey gun.

I went to a 21" Youth 870 20ga 3 years ago and have never looked back!

I had a 24" SBE with pistol grip. Gun shot lights out. I wouldn't spend the money to cut it down to a 21" barrel. I don't think you will notice the difference.

My 835 is 20 inches. The main benefit of a shorter BBL is handling qualities, it's much easier to make short barrels move without a long BBL hanging out there

26" makes thangs flop but anywhere from 20-26 is fine with me.

x2 on the youth 870--- I'm still killing turkeys with one my dad gave me 20 years ago!! 21" barrel

I wouldn't bother cutting it down... everyone always tells me 3" doesn't make a difference....