Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Upland barrel length

Has anyone used 30” barrels in their upland grouse guns? Looking at a Webley and Scott in 2.75” 12 gauge.

'
26"
Although you can get by with longer barrels in a SxS or O/U.
Shooting grouse is about speed to target and a quick opening pattern.

Have you guys read Burton Spiller? The Dean of American partridge shooting and, we are happy to claim him as a Maine native. An excellent writer considering he had little formal education. I believe he wrote his right barrel was typically skeet and his left was full.

A 2 3/4” chambered Webley needs no one’s endorsement, just get it.
I use a 30” mod/full Philly Fox in 16 ga for everything, it just works. That said, if I am only going out for ruffies or blues, a 26” LC Smith 16ga sk1/sk2 is the choice.
What is the Webley choked?

Mod/Imp

Just get it. If you need a different gun next year, just get that one too.

Spiller wanted one pellet in every square inch of the pattern.

Nothing wrong with a 30 inch upland shotgun….but it best be a lightweight….

A good many 30 inch Brit guns are Pigeon guns….and are not lightweights.

After shooting quail and clays with both a 26” and 30” sxs, I much prefer the 30.

Can’t say much for grouse, but I like 28-30” barrels. I simply seem to hit better with them no matter the target. 🤷‍♂️

I personally think barrel length is a pretty minor thing. My favorite bird gun is a Bernardelli copy of a Greener XXV, 12ga 25" barrels choked IC/IM it's just nice chasing grouse her n WI and Pheasants in MT. I'm just as comfortable with my 30" Win 101 that I use for live birds at hunt tests. The most important thing to me is gun fit, if a shotgun fits you you should be able to shoot just about anything well.

The other one I’m looking at is an AyA. No 4/53

This pretty much sums up what is important - gun fit plus weight distribution. My two most favorite grouse and woodcock guns are/were a 20 ga Browning 525 Sporting Clays and a 28 ga Browning Citori both with 30" barrels. I don't recall ever finding the longer barrels to be a problem in the woods and I much prefer them over the 24" barrels of my 16 ga Browning Upland Special.

For many years I carried the typical "all around" shotgun - a 28" barreled pump or semi-auto - and killed more than my share of grouse ven though it was as long or longer than my 30" barreled O/Us.

If you want the gun, it is priced right, it fits or you are willing to make it fit, and it handles as you like I see no reason to not purchase it and use it as your grouse gun. It is far more enjoyable to use something you like than what someone else says is best for you.

Just excellent advice here. Choke matters but little in hunting. The birds are never presenting at uniform distances.

If it's a good gun and you can afford it, grab it. 30" in a double is like a 26" auto.
For a hunting gun, everyone has different likes. But in competition, short barrels are dead. You can't hardly give away anything with less than a 30" barrel to a competition shooter these days.

I recall that George Bird Evans had a 28", 7-3/4 pound Fox Sterlingworth before he got his Purdey. He wrote that when he got in a slump with the Purdey, the Fox (custom stocked) got him back on track.

26" or 28" in an auto or pump . In a double 28" or 30" is fine for me . Prefer a IC / IM but my favorite 12 is a Watts 2.5 chambered thats mod and full .

I’m happy these days in the brush or open with a Fausti DEA 28 gauge with 30” barrels. Weighs 5# 12 oz.

I went to the guy’s place today. What an education. He spent a lot of time living and shooting in both England and Spain. He preferred the simplicity of a boxlock mechanism. He also loads his own with paper hulls and still shot using 3/4 of an ounce of powder and number 7 shot with what he called a half choke.

His opinion was that a consistent gun mount was the first priority followed closely by gun fit. He then said next time I come back to shoulder a lot of guns and look for the one that simply feels right. Mainly English and Spanish guns. He had a beautiful London made hammer gun which was so fast and trim I couldn’t believe it. Finally he was of the opinion that one gun is the way to go.

I have a 16-gauge Fox that has two sets of barrels, each with their own forend, one is 28 inches, the other 30. I have used them both for upland hunting and the length does not make that much of a difference. The real differences for me are that the 28's are more open choked and the straight grip stock was custom fitted for me at 15 1/8 inches with cast on because I'm left-handed.

I used the longer, tighter barrels with RST spreaders a few times and did not feel handicapped at all. At least not by the barrel length.

I do hunt one area though for woodcock where the going is so thick that I use my 25-inch barreled Ithaca/SKB 280E SXS, mostly because I don't want to ding up my barrels.

Was just sitting on the porch reading this a few days ago - As far as the barrel length my go to is a Parker reproduction 20 gauge with the 28" choked skeet/skeet.

I've used from 22" to 30", no doubt shorter is easier in heavy cover. Spiller is a classic.