Remington small bores shorter barrels??
 

There are a bunch of really nice Remington era small bores in the upcoming Morphy auction, most are 26 or 28 inch guns. I have read, with the popularity of skeet, short barreled guns were all the rage in the 30's. Do Remington era guns follow the trend to shorter barrels versus earlier guns???

Yup, Craig, sad but true. Buy 'em and like 'em.

im my youth all i wanted was a 12 ga with 26 inch barrels...open chokes for quail....now i lean to long barrels and 10 - to 8 ga guns....but really like the small bores but most of the time out of my reach....charlie....

Looking through the guns, can Lot # 2236, serial number 241110, a DHE-Grade .410-bore really have shipped January 1937 like the letter says? It has the plain top rib with no panel.

241110 looks more like about a 1938 or 39 serial number.

If no .410 sets were remaining from Meriden and Remington had to make this set up it stands to reason there would be no rib legend.





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From my observations many of the Remington era guns are wearing 26" barrels & I've always thought they did that because that's what the market wanted in that era. One of the things to possible support this is the Parker reproductions. The repro's were based & copied off of Remington era Parkers & by a significant margin most them are 26" barreled guns. There are some 28" repro's and only one that I know of with factory 30" tubes.

Just curious: When did 28" barrels become considered short barreled guns? Personally I've never placed 28" in the short barreled category.

When 32" barrels became all the rage I think 28" barrels got re-classified into the short barrel category. Many attribute sporting clays as the factor that created the demand for 30 and 32" guns.

When did that happen? From my experience it happened within the last 20 or so years with the Sporting Clays fraternity.




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Yeah what Dean said! :rotf:

All shooters, both shotgun and rifle-pistol are always looking for the magic bullet. Caliber barrel length, load ,stock configuration , it goes on and on. The 25 inch length of Churchill is one, palm swell, thumb hole too many to list. We only have to look to one source for improvement----- ourselves.

Like what ya like and shoot what you want ! I broke targets on the skeet field over forty years ago with 26” barrels . If they’d do it then they’ll darn sure still do it . I can remmember some trap shooters about forty years ago saying 32” barrels were to hard to get around on the second bird in trap doubles (I never thought that) , I no longer think you hear that . I still think 28” is about the perfect length for a tubed skeet gun but I don’t see a problem shooting a 26” or 30” tube gun . I’d love to have the J Cliff Green set at my disposal for awhile and try those 24” barrels . On another topic I’ve always been fond of 26” barrels on “bird” hunting guns for dove quail grouse that type thing , but again to each his own .

Just finished perusing the auction and imagine that , one or two things got my attention !

My mother’s skeet gun is/was a wonderful Remington 32 with 12, 20, 28 and .410 barrels, all 26” long. Great gun. I still shoot it. It’s worn out. But it crushes targets when I do my part.

It seemed to me that the move to longer barrels, I.e. 28”, occurred in the later 1960’s with the rise of the Rem 1100 skeet gun. And skeet never looked back.

In the early days of USSCA and NSCA sporting clays, the 32" barrel was unheard of. In about 1986, Beretta made a set of 32" low step rib barrels for my special order 30" low step rib 20 gauge gun, which was the first and only one of those I have seen or heard of. I started using the 32" Beretta because it was the only gun I had with screw chokes. Apparently, I was a pioneer in competitive sporting clays without realizing it. It wasn't long before the odd competitor showed up with a long gun and now it is everyone. In the early days, before USSCA and NSCA, non sanctioned sporting events took place. Most were heads up, no classes, big entry fees. My favorite was Dallas Berry's shoot in the Wardensville, West Virginia area. The rules were "no changing guns", "no changing chokes", "no touching the muzzle of your gun", "no alabis", among other rules. One shooter borrowed my gun for a station when his went down. The puller reported him and his winning score was disqualified. Pullers would be fired if they saw a violation and did not report it. The shooter didn't find out about his disqualification until the results sheet came in the mail without a check. One of the participants in these great shoots was someone most of us know, gun dealer, Roger Bain. We learned about ZZ birds at this shoot. The ZZs were part of a regular 85 bird round at first, then became a separate event later on, with a purse for that event. There was a cash purse on every station as well as for high score for the day. When sporting clays became a sanctioned event in the mid eighties, the "round" became 100 birds so we could hold a state championship under USSCA rules. This shoot is where I first met Shelly Gitman, the great Parker collector.

interesting fact bill....thanks for the storey....charlie

Remington 3200 skeet guns were advertised as 28". In fact, they were all 27 1/2.

And 26" 3200s were about 25 1/2". The Lovely Linda still has one of those. It is a great gun.

I like Remington 32’s although I own none at the moment . The Krieghoff guy in NC , Marlet oughtta be able to rebuild your moms 32 easy enough .

The market was saturated with 26- and 28-inch barrel skeet guns so the manufacturers got their pros to start shooting longer barrel guns and the public followed. Ca-ching!!

Before the 30” Skeet gun thing really took off there was a retired military shooter from the Oceana or Langley clubs in VA that I used to see often . Anyway he was shooting a Winchester 101 field gun with 30” screw chokes in the 12 gauge event . Many people rolled their eyes at him then , but he shot well enough to be low AA or high A . Now years later after having shot that game a long time if I’ve got my s..t wired right I can go out and break 25 straight with a 30 or 32 inch full choke 10 or 12 and then shoot the next round with a 26” full choked IJ 410 and get 24 or 25 . All that goes to show if you’re minds in the game gauge , barrel length and chokes to a degree are not deal breakers or deal makers .

My 682X Trap 32" gun was a strange sporting clays gun when I started shooting it in about 1985, but today it is the "gun of the day". I am still shooting it in 2022 and there is no other gun that will do the job better. Some of our posters are asking "When did the 32" gun become popular for sporting clays?" Although I built the my 32" heavy sporting clays gun in about 1985, long before any registered SC organizations like USSCA and NSCA got a start, they didn't become popular for a few years after that. Dallas Berry and his friends at the Wardensville West Virginia range were all ATA trapshooters and probably used their trap guns initially. At that range, full chokes were necessary for a good portion of the shots and screw chokes were banned. In today's world, 50 and 55 yard sporting targets are addressed with less than full chokes, but not in 1985.

I started shooting sporting clays about that same time period, and with a 30" Beretta 682 International Trap, that I ordered as a pigeon gun.
When I went to a 32" Perazzi Comp 1, I was shooting long barrels pretty well. Then there was a Step Ribbed MX 8, and then a 30" SC 3.
The last 15 years or so, I've been using a custom built AL 391 Trap Gun with a 30" bbl on sporting clays, and have shot that gun very very well.
My Parker's that get the most play are 30 and 32" guns, btw.

When I started in the gun business in the early 70s a 26" gun would bring a 25% or more premium over 30" guns. You could not give a 32"away. The only people who bought long barreled guns were a few hard core duck hunters. It all began to change in the 90s when sporting clays really took off. I think the decline of quail and grouse hunting have contributed to lower demand for 26" guns as well.

I shoot 28 and 30 inches better than 26. Prob longer barrel helps with follow through.

I prefer 26" for quail hunting although I have my fair share of 28" guns that do just fine too. 30" is all I need for duck hunting. I am sure I am one of the few

Short barreled guns are an abomination and no one should own one. You can send them all to me and I'll keep them out of circulation. I will especially keep the higher grade, well balanced, straight/splinter, two trigger guns out of circulation. You're all welcome!:whistle::bigbye::rotf:

Hey Garry, you can send me your excess. I'm not fussy - lower grades with pistol grips are fine with me. I don't seem to have a need for long barrels on a clays gun. For me 28 inches is long.

Sounds quite fair to me!:)

These days about all of my grouse, woodcock and Skeet shooting I do with 26” Parkers because I just prefer that length… But not so long ago, maybe 15 years or so, I had that two-barrel set twenty-gauge Repro, both choked Q1 and Q2 but one set was 26” and the other was 28” and I much preferred the 28” set for Skeet, and I just don’t know why. The development of my preferences of barrel length was still in its infancy though.





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It means little to say that there is a lot of difference in handling with longer vs shorter barrels. How the barrels are built/struck means just as much, or more, than length. There are 32" barreled guns that handle like a dream ........... quick and lively as any person could need. My 31 1/2" Perazzi MX 8 is such a gun. There is no target too fast for it, regardless how close in it is. Where the weight is concentrated on the gun determines how lively, or how sluggish, it will be. Not all 32" guns are created equal, and not all 26" ones are, either.

I shoot longer barreled guns better. Period. A 28" barrel is short, in my realm of thinking. My main quail/woodcock gun is a 28" barreled Philly Fox 20 ga., but I have done some good work in the quail fields and woodcock tangles with a 30" Verona 28 ga., properly choked. Personally, I think too much is made over speed in gun handling, for fast flushing birds. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

This bears repeating, and applies to most tasks we face.