My Skeeter .410 has 30" barrels. Should I cut 4 inches off the end to make it handier in the field?

I've got a beavertail FE on my Ithaca Lefever .410
Attachment 113176

Perish the thought!!! Nooooo!!!!!!

Ithaca Beaver tail forends
 

I like most beaver tail fore ends, the ones I can’t see as beautiful are ones with a schnabel tip or if they’re just very thick and look like a club.
On Ithaca SXS’s I prefer the earlier shorter version, although the later longer ones are fine also. With the shorter forend, I will often place my pointer finger at the front of the forend just as a way of repeating my hold.
I also think a longer forend makes the barrels appear to be shorter, which is not good.:)

First picture is a few Ithaca’s with earlier and later style forearms. From left to right.
2E 28” 410
2E 26” 20 gauge, my favorite grouse/woodcock gun
5E 30” 20 gauge
4E 32” 16 gauge
3E 30” 12 gauge
5E 32” 12 gauge Magnum
4E 32” 10 gauge Magnum

Pictures 2 & 3 are of 2 similarly stocked Ithaca’s, I don’t believe the stocks are original but why they wear the Sunburst with aluminum spacers has me wondering if they did maybe go back to Ithaca.
I purchased these two a few years apart, not close in serial #, but there’s so many similarities between the stocks of both, they had to have been done by the same person.
Anyone remember seeing similar stocked guns, cheek piece, grips through wrist are narrow but tall, big wide flat beaver tail forends??

Can someone explain why beavertails exist in the first place?

They are mighty handy when shooting 50 pairs of doubles trap or a round of singles/handicap. Also very nice on a “hot” dove field. Sometimes a glove just ain’t good enough.

So they can slap the water as a warning to the rest of the beavers when danger is detected. :corn:

Beavertails are not my thing

I like 'em... a lot!





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They can be useful in the situations John described which get barrels really hot but, the truth is, I cannot say I've ever missed a dove, or a clay, because of the barrels getting too hot for my fingers. As I said in my initial post, I'm not a fan of them, mostly because I just think a splinter f/e looks so much more elegant. They exist for those who are convinced that they shoot better using them. My 63 years on dove fields haven't convinced me they are worth the ugly.