Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Shortening barrel on semi-auto

I am kicking around getting a 20 gauge semi auto for my wife as a home defense gun. Been looking at the Turkish guns being sold by Weatherby, Mossberg and TriStar. Anyways, the shortest barrel any of them come in is 24 inches. I'd like to have a gun with an 18 inch barrel - 20 inches max which means having the barrel cut down. I realize if I have the barrel cut down, it may affect the functioning of the ejecting and loading. Anyone have any experience doing this? None of these guns offer aftermarket barrels, so if I have the barrel cut and it isn't reliable, it won't be a good thing. Before someone suggest a pump action gun, that isn't an option with her. Thanks.

Beretta Viper is an 18.5inch.

Too expensive, plus aren't they only in 12 gauge?

The Weatherby SA-08 is a gas operated gun and should work fine. They kick less too.
You could have problems with a inertia gun.

I am thinking it would be easier to buy the Mossberg SA-20 Tactical and try to find a youth stock or modify the stock that comes with it.

Get a used 11-87 and chop away
It will run just fine

Escort.

https://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com...etail/Shotguns/prod99999048926/cat100004

Experience of one plus. My agency used to have a bunch of riot guns based on the Remington 11, (basically a browning A-5). I had a smith misread an order to cut an A-5 to 24" and install a Lyman choke. He cut it to give me a 24" overall. Both worked. Any gas operated gun should work cut to 18-20".

Jack

I have a barrel cut down to 21" for an 1100. It seems to work fine with target loads and buckshot though I haven't run thousands of rounds through it.

I had a 1100 with an 18 1/2” bbl.
it cycled everything I fed it

Stay away from the Turk stuff.. Go with the 11-87 or 1100 or similar. Cut down barrel will not affect function. Trust me...

I agree 100%
I would never stake my wife's life on a Turkish gun......

[/quote] Stay away from the Turk stuff.. Go with the 11-87 or 1100 or similar. Cut down barrel will not affect function. Trust me...
[/quote]

Hmm that surprises me. The most unreliable semi I ever owned was a 12 gauge 1100. In the past few weeks, I have read 15-20 reviews from actual users of the Turkish guns and all very positive. I am open minded and all ears so would love to hear your experience with them.

Don't be surprised, he is telling you the truth. There is a reason the Turk shotguns are not on the shooting game circuit and the reason is they are not made to last. Now your question would be, just when will they go down. Some do so quickly and some take a little more time. Your bet....

Beretta/Benelli for the win on reliability.

Both of my sons have Weatherbys.
One SA-08 Deluxe and one Element Waterfowler.
Both guns have had over 5000 rounds through them with zero problems. Lots of 1 & 1 1/8 oz target loads shooting sporting clays and plenty of 3" mag waterfowl loads.
I would take ether one of them over any jam o matic Remington 1100 or 11-87 any day. The V3 is a nice gun if you don't mind hot gasses blowing in your face when you shoot it.
Weatherby customer service was excellent the one time we had to call. The only reason we called is because when the SA-08 came new the heavy gas valve was missing from the box when new. They sent one out asap.

I read that the Weatherby SA8 buttstock fits on the SA-20. Apparently they are the same buttstock!

The 11-87 20 ga comes with 21" barrel and recoil is very mild. The receiver is slim compared to the SA-20 and SA8, which makes it nicer to carry imo.

My 11-87 is a great shooter and is not a jam o matic as you describe. How often to you clean yours?

And there is the old 1100 Mantra. How often do you clean it.

Last Beretta I used regularly went 3000 rounds before its first cleaning. In that time it had 2 hiccups. One of which was with the first box. I only cleaned it because I felt guilty. Then ran it up to around 4000 more. Couple hiccups again and they were with light shells. 3000 plus over and over and miss feeds were rare. The 1100 can't hang when it comes to reliability.

The reliability king, just may be the new Winchester SX3 and SX4.

That..

Yep, but many 1100s/11-87s run 20-30 years w/o needing much more than a cleaning and a new barrel seal (O-ring)..

Slammer, you most likely got an 1100 that was 'built on Friday'.. Seriously, every manufacturer can/will have a turd leave the bowl at some point. The main thing about the 1100 is that those are 'ammo-specific', while the 11-87 is not.

Turkish guns look nice on the outside, but remove the stock and check the inner parts for quality.. Then you'll see why I say 'stay away'... unless you want to get one for shooting an occasional varmint couple times/year...

I kept my 1110 clean - remember replacing O rings too if I remember right. I traded it and then bought two Beretta 390's and later a Benelli SBE II and never had another malfunction. Years ago, I wouldn't consider a Turkish gun but after reading about the new state of the art plant and how they cleaned up their processes, I started reading a lot of good info from actual users of the new guns. Just wondering if the anti-Turk sentiment here is based on guns made in the past few years or the older ones?

The most common problem I saw with the 1100 was not keeping the recoil spring tube clean. In some guns that part collected a lot of gunk quickly, something I now believe to be a result of loose tolerances rather than a design flaw. I bought a left handed 1100 for my stepson from a guy who had nothing but problems with it. Replacing the recoil spring and cleaning the tube every 5,000 rounds (a standard procedure with any semi-auto for me) lead to zero problems.

Our first 11-87s were a pain, I had problems with keeping them running for a full 100 bird clay course and if in dusty field conditions when hunting. I learned later that my lubricating arctics and type of lubricant were the leading culprit for these problems. Being these were standard field models likely added to the issue as Remington came out with a non-compensated target model a couple years later which was soon followed by the "re-introduction" of the 1100 for target guns.

I, too, am distrustful of Turkish shotguns at the moment. The semi-autos seem more reliable than the O/Us and SxSs but they are still suspect in my book. As has been mentioned, the internals are not finished as well as with more proven models and many do not seem as "solid" as similar parts on other guns. Beretta and Browning had problems with the 391 and Gold respectively when they tried a lighter material in a couple of their parts and paid the price for it before beefing up the parts. I don't see that happening with the Turkish guns and that causes me to wonder about parts availability and support which is a common failing with low cost imports. Been down that road a couple of times and it gets frustrating when a simple part such as a firing pin has to be machined at relatively considerable cost rather than ordered and sent to one's home.

I forgot to add, I saw one 2 3/4" marked barrel with just a single hole for gas exhaust. It was a mismarked 3" barrel as the chamber length and the gas port was correct for a Magnum gun. I wonder how many barrels escaped the factory like that as well as how many had a magnum model or barrel and were using lighter target loads in it. That would lead to problems when the gun dirtied a bit.

That applies to both 1100 & 11-87.. IIRC, Rem suggests replacing the recoil spring every year or two.. They're cheap - about $5-6 and takes about 5 mns to do the job..

I can usually tell whether a spring needs replacing and/or tube cleaning just by seeing/listening to the bolt close. If it snaps closed with authority, leave it alone.. If it seems the LEAST bit sluggish/slow - time for a cleaning/spring replacement..

I shoot 1100/11-87’s a LOT. Last winter league I cleaned my 11-87 exactly zero times. Shot it all winter with zero issues. In fact I have never had one not run well dirty or clean. Redneck is right on longevity too. The Beretta is a great gun as well but the Remington’s fit me WAY better and I could rebuild one with my eyes closed

Why would you think shortening the barrel would affect the functioning, ejecting, and/or loading of an auto shotgun?

As long as you don't snip the gas port you're good to go.

Actually, a certain amount of "dwell" at a given pressure is needed for a gas operated action to work properly. The amount of time this occurs is somewhat dependent on how much barrel is past the gas ports. The type of powder and the gas volume it produces at the ports is another factor. The majority of the time there will be no problems with a barrel of legal length but in rare cases when tolerances are being barely met with a more common length barrel a problem can crop up. Often a change in ammo "fixes" the problem but a real fix may require a different gas exhaust spring or enlarge ing the gas ports.

I have an acquaintance who likes to dabble in short barreled shotguns (legally) and we have bounced ideas back and forth when he has a problem gun. Those are the long term fixes he has found and he'll usually do the spring first as it is not permanent.

Because shortening the barrel can have an effect on how a gas operated semi auto functions. I asked Weatherby about that and just received the response below.

We did offer the SA-459 with an 18.5" barrel in 20ga for a time, it is discontinued at this time, it was the same action. The shorter barrel did mean that a heavier and/or faster load was required to cycle the shotgun, the reduced distance between the gas ports and the muzzle meant that gas pressure wasn't able to build up as much as with the field barrels, so a load that generates more pressure is needed. You can see the minimum load specs for each model at the link below.

IMHO, that's not due to the short barrel, but due to the fact that they changed the distance to the gas ports... Well, duh ...

Taking an existing (say) 28-30" barrel and chopping it off a bit does NOT change the breech/gas port distance and will do nothing to affect function...

The location of the gas ports were NOT changed. Look back and read where Weatherby states it is the decreased distance from the gas ports to the muzzle that caused the problem. It is as I pointed out, there was less time (dwell) for the gas volume to fill and operate the action before pressures fell off as the shot charge exited the barrel.

I'll agree that merely removing a couple inches from a barrel will have much affect on the operation but going to 18"-19" is more than a couple. And I forgot about this being a 20 ga and not a 12 ga which appears to be a bit more sensitive in regards to gas volume. It makes sense as the stock gas exhaust spring in my 20 ga Berettas are heavier than in their 12 ga brethren.

Bah... IMHO Wby is full of chit.. Well, maybe it's true in their shotguns, but I've shortened many semi-auto barrels over my nearly 20 years as a 'smith and not once had anybody come back and say they don't cycle ammo... Full disclosure - all have been Rem variations, a few A-5s and probably some Winchesters.. No Wbys that I can recall.