Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns 30 or 32 inch barrel?

The barrel length is determined to a great extent by the barrel weight. Not all barrels weigh the same so one could easily end up with 30" barrels in one gun weighing as much or more than a set of 34" barrels in a different brand or line.

I made my first run through the ranks of sporting clays with a 30" Browning Citori 3.5" chamber Hunter model with Invector+ chokes. After adding a mercury recoil reducer and a thick Kick-Eez recoil pad, the gun was pretty lively, even though it weighed 10+ pounds. I stepped out of competition for a bit but when I returned I tried out a 34" B. Rizzini that I loved. I was offered any gun by Browning so started shooting a 32" Browning 525 Sporting model. That was a mistake as the gun was very muzzle heavy, even with the recoil reducer, as much lead shot as would fit in the remainder of the stock bolt hole, titanium choke tubes and a Kick-Eez pad was added. The weight was an ounce or two shy of my old gun but the weight was just too far forward. The longer Browning barrels were too heavy to easily counter balance to my liking and probably would still have still been so with the heavier receiver of my old gun.

The significant difference was the Rizzini barrel were of standard 12 ga inside diameter and had thinner barrel walls than the Browning making the Rizzini's lighter. No added weight was needed to balance out the gun which made the works very responsive. The Browning is over bored and uses rather thick walls so they are pretty heavy. When the Invector+ barrels came out! many opted for the older Invector or fixed choke guns as the barrels were lighter due to being of standard internal diameter. I shoot the gun well but I have to put a bit more effort and concentration into it ad it is not as effortless as my old gun or that Rizzini so it would behoove a person to handle, if not try, a gun before buying.

I hear the 725 seems to have lighter barrels but have not shot one to know for sure. My 525 felt pretty good in the showroom but not so much after a bit of use. As the OP has already bought his gun my experiences won't help him but it is something to consider for others.

Correct I should have explained it and not just said comparing apples to apples. I like the the weight between my hands for the most part.

Picked up the new one today, very nice.

I went with the 32 inch, All I do know is my 24 inch Benelli was usually my worst average,

I believe the short light barrel was too fast,

Or,

I just suck.

Got out finally last night for 100 rounds, Gun was un-fired by me up to that point,

Broke the first 5 straight and closed with a 20, really happy with that to be honest,

shot another round of trap and hit just slightly less,

then over to sporting clays on a course I never shot before,

26 of 50. I was happy with that......

Like this Gun a lot.