Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Shotgun barrel lengths

Why does a manufacturer produce a particular model of shotgun in two barrel lengths eg. 26" and 28"?

Handling characteristics. Consumers prefer certain things when they shoulder and shoot a shot gun. Quality shotgunning is far more art than science (IMO) and there is little out there in the firearm world where "feel" matters so much as swinging a shotgun.

Myself - I can't and don't shoot anything shorter than 30. Prefer 32 on EVERYTHING and if I could try/afford something with 34's I would give it a whirl for grins.

Shorter is better for carrying, longer is better for shooting (usually).

Personally I think chokes play a bigger part in that aspect, but barrel length does help.

I've carried 32's in the UP grouse swamps, never felt disadvantaged or struggled. It's subjective tho.

Yep. Nothing is more subjective than a man's preference for one type/length of shotgun over another.

Sorta like our subjective preferences for blondes, brunettes, or redheads.

I tend to lean towards long tubes on shotguns..I like a 30 inch but 28 or even 26 suits me on some guns..I really think I can get on target faster with the 30 inch barrel, longer than that can get a bit awkard for me, but I could probably get used to a 32 without much trouble.

'Cept you can't put a wig on a shotgun. At least I haven't tried.

I suspect a Benelli with a 32 or 34 inch barrel would be quite a handful. I have a Benelli Ultralight which is well balanced and a delight in the grouse woods. However, it is about the same length as a couple of side-by-sides with 29 and 30 inch barrels, so action type has a lot to do with it.

Practically speaking, more barrel doesn't seem to help me much on birds, but that may be just that I'm not good enough of a shot to make use of a longer sighting plane and more weight to swing. On clays I think I probably can use a little more barrel to my advantage.

My rule of thumb is long for waterfowl, short for swinging on upland game. If I shot geese from a pit, I would consider a 30", but I don't, so I split the difference with a 26" Win X2 12ga 3 1/2" for heavy stuff, including turkeys, and a 24" Franchi in 20ga at under 5# for carrying and swinging on lighter stuff, including pheasants. Good luck.

No real right or wrong here. Handle everything you can,you will know the one when you find it. In a pump or auto for a field gun 26"or 28". If going the double gun route sxs or O/U 26" makes for a real short gun and It swings to fast for me. I like atleast 28" barrels on doubles. Most trap guns are 30-34" they swing smooth. That's a whole lot easier shooting than you get in the field though.Depends on how you are doing your shooting also a 10# 30" BPS 10 ga is a great pass shooting gun, but I'll take my 7# Benelli M-1 Super 90 and 26" barrel everytime in a layout blind for the same geese. Just like potatoe chips see, nobody gets by on just one. Magnum_Man

I might add that I think the old long barrel shotguns were made more for powder burn than from sight plane. Magnum doses of older powder took a longer barrels to burn. Newer smokeless powder only needs about 18-20" of barrel to burn.

Another point is that a break open double can have 2-4" more barrel than a receiver, pump/auto, with the same overall length of swing.

Different barrel lengths handle a lot differently.

My sporting clays shotgun has a 30" bbl, makes it swing thru birds and sustain lead more easily.

Upland guns are all 28"- balance between lighter weight, still swing well

Waterfowl gun is 28"- a little easier to handle in goose pits

26" bbl for quail over dogs

22" for turkeys- much easier to navigate in brush, blinds, etc., used for stationary targets, ability to lead not an issue.

I used to like short barrels on shotguns, but after a lot more years of experience than I had when I was younger, I have come to prefer longer barrels. My trap gun has a 34" barrel, my big water waterfowl gun a 32" barrel. Most of my SXS bird guns 28. I shoot skeet and swamp ducks with 26" and turkeys with a 24" rifle sighted barrel. As many have already stated, it's really all about how the gun handles, where the barrel length puts the balance point.

This is one of those "it just depends" questions. I have in my rack upland double guns (both O/U and SxS) from 26 1/2" to 29 1/2", all of which I shoot well and have hunted extensively with. The "it depends" piece depends upon each guns dynamics.

One of these guns is a 16 ga SxS whose 29" barrels are beautifully struck, and the gun has wonderful dynamics (the witch's brew combination of moment of inertia and balance) and is an ideal upland gun. Another is a lesser quality O/U w/ 26 1/2" barrels that I wouldn't want longer; I shoot it very well too.

I think the pendulum of fad popularity and style has swung a bit past center in the trend toward longer barrels. A few decades ago, it had swung too far the other way, IMO.

24-26" for me. Never longer. I have passed up some sweet deals on very fine shotguns due to their 28"+ barrels.

A 22" barrel will normally get all the velocity out of a shell, A couple inches to settle the shot, then the choke. There is science involved. A 25" fixed choke skeet barrel is 25" for a reason. A 26" remchoke skeet barrel is 1" longer for more than one reason. The 27 1/2"/28" remchoke barrel is that length, because of the science of the shotgun. Why pack a longer than 22" rifled slug barrel, if no velocity is gained. For practical use All 12ga shotshells preform at their peak in a barrel over 26". My preferance in 3 shot capable guns, 20ga 26", 12ga 28", 10ga 30". I must be fairly normal in my preferances, since these are the most common barrel lengths and they get all the potential a shell has.

Me shoots 26's. I hate long barrels on shotguns or rifles.

I also shoot ducks with 2 3/4 shells, so I am probably doing it wrong.

I shoot the length that feels best to me, which is 26".

As do I.