Color me a long barrel man. The only double I use hunting, that is under 30", is a 28" Sterlingworth Ejector 20 gauge quail and woodcock gun. I have not a clue what prairie hunting is like but i have used 30" barrels, in 20 and in 28 gauge, for quail and shot them very well.
I recently shot a round of sporting clays with a Valmet O/U that has 36" barrels. I shot well enough with it to win my class, AA, and Sr. Veteran concurrent. Most of the birds I missed was because I was ahead of them ......... too much lead. It was surreal. How could you get too far out in front of clays with a 36" barreled double? The barrels are so finely struck that it moved faster than my 31 1/2" barreled Perazzi MX-8.
Strange, but true.
It's not always the length of the barrels that matters in how the gun moves. How the barrels are struck is supremely important.
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