Interesting how what was old is new again
1878 available in 28", 30" & 32"
1898 Sears 28", 30" & 32"
"We can made shorter or longer barrels..."
1906 now 26" listed
Edwin Hedderly,
Forest & Stream, December 26, 1908, “Twenty Bores for Duck Shooting” began promoting long barrel small bores for waterfowl
https://books.google.com/books?id=ej...C&pg=PA1018&vq
Response February 27, 1909, “Small-bore Guns and Loads”
https://books.google.com/books?id=nE...AJ&pg=PA337&dq
Hedderly was the editor of
Western Field starting in July 1910, and beginning in September 1910 he ran a series of articles on the smallbore shotgun. He received several guns from Parker Brothers in exchange for ads. April 4, 1911 he ordered a 32-inch 28-gauge pistol grip DHE engraved “Wildfowl Mfg Expressly for E.L. Hedderly.” April 26, 1912 he ordered a 20-gauge 32-inch A1-Special, and May 14, 1912 a 32-inch 16-gauge A1-Special.
1912
26" only listed for the small gauges
Parker Brothers’ “Advent Of The Small Bore Gun”
Breeder & Sportsman October 3, 1914
https://archive.org/details/breeders...p?view=theater
IMHO part of the move to 26" barrel doubles corresponded to the introduction of Skeet in 1926
The Ithaca "Skeet Special"
Hunter Arms' offering was initially named the "Skeet Upland Special" with barrel lengths of 25" to 32"; 26" was the most popular
The cover of the August 1926
National Sportsman by William Harnden Foster was “the first painting ever published of a scene in the new sport of Skeet” and possibly depicted his son using Foster Sr’s 27" barrel 20 gauge Parker DHE.
