40 inches......
 

This past evening, on my way to a rendezvous, I stopped over a friends house who had just come into possession of a Hopkins and Allen 12 gauge single shot. That in itself wouldn't garner much attention but the damn thing has a 40 inch factory barrel! It was the longest I'd personally ever seen on a hardware store single and I was powerful impressed. Gun was tight and in good shape, what appeared to be laminated steel for the tube, showed quite a bit of case color, bore bright and pit free. Very heavy, massive wall thickness, really a painfully cool old fowler. The one draw back was it had a home made butt stock which was a trifle crude. My friend is pretty handy with the rasp and thinks he can shape it up a bit to where it doesn't look too bad. Of course the standard 4 inches of drop at heel and 13 inch LOP was present. He loves a project and once it's done my guess is the old girl might come into my possession.

Anybody ever seen one longer?



DLH

Destry, my brother has a 42 inch Marlin pump....hand's down the longest shotgun barrel I've come across and on a pump it's a handful .

only in flintlocks - around 52/54 was the longest Rifle and about 60 in a fowler

i have heard of "long toms" in the 38 40 inch range but not longer

Chris,

Wow! Is it a factory length barrel? I've seen a few over the years that had an extension added on them to make a turkey / spot shoot gun. Sometimes it's very well done and hard to spot, you just see a light ring of slightly different colored blue were the weld is.


Destry

Pretty sure its factory,I was telling another friend about the gun years ago and he could remember himself and another guy from town heading to the city on the bus to pick up new guns for Turr hunting (Common Murre) ,he picked up a 36 inch Cooey single shot and his buddy picked up one of those Marlins with the 42 inch barrel ,I re blued the barrel for my brother years ago the was no sign of a join of any type ...if the opportunity arises I'll get a photo for you .

On a side note ,I know the experts say the barrel has no effect on killing distance in a shotgun,but I have personally witnessed that gun kill a sitting rabbit stone dead between 70-80 yards(paced off )...you would swear there was a second shooter on a grassy knoll that made the kill shot !

destrey theres a long tom hanging on the wall in corinth miss. thats got a 48 inch barrel on it..ive looked at this gun several times over the years.its a 12 ga breach loader ive tried to buy it several times the owner says he will sale it to me when he finds one with longer barrel.. and ive seen 2 long tom 16 ga with 40 inch barrels....hope you wind up with that long barrel gun... charlie

On page 1027 of The Parker Story is a picture (lower left) of a young man holding a DH 10 ga. with 40 inch barrels.
James

I've handled one of the famous 8 gauge 40 inch guns, quite the fowling piece.

DLH

i may have dreamed this but was not there a parker built with 50 plus inches built for somebody..im pretty sure i read this on this site a few years back... charlie

Destry ,I have a Model 37 Winchester with a 44 " Barrel 12 Extra Full ! Since the Purchase ,I have had the scope removed ,the Barrel reblued , a correct plastic Butt Plate and the wood refinished ,quite a unique looking piece !