When did the increased desirability of longer barrels begin & why is that so?
 

Decades ago, a shorter set of barrels, like 26”, were more popular, or so I believe. A compact shotgun for use in woods & thicket, for grouse & woodcock.

Now, it seems shorter barrel lengths are increasingly unpopular, and longer ones are desired. Why is that so? Perhaps a longer sighting plane as hunting for game birds has diminished and the most a shotgun might do now is shatter a clay pigeon? Or…???

I think Sporting Clays played a large part. I saw barrel length go from 28" to 30" then to 32" in fast order in the game. Why? Because most people shot better with longer barrels.

With the plummeting population of game birds, grouse, woodcock, quail etc, longer barrels came into popularity shooting clays.

I like extremes on either side of the spectrum 24" and 32" or 34". I find I can shoot sporting clays well enough with short barrels. Although long barrels look so good!

If you think it will improve your shooting it will. The human mind is very susceptible to suggestion. Believe a shell, shot size, palm swell, barrel length and on and on. If you believe it will it will. For a time.

The lovers of 'quick' short barrels are alive and well, but 28 is the new 26. My dad, in his later years, favored 26" guns, but remarked that when he was growing up, everyone wanted a 30" gun. I keep a few still, but like my 28" and 30" guns equally. They look good arranged that way too. I think, like so many other things we feel strongly about, these things go in cycles.

Must have begun when Jack O'Connor retired from being the Shooting Editor of Outdoor Life. His nearly forty years of extolling the virtues of 26-inch barrels had a lot of folks in the 1960s & 70s taking hacksaws to those old 30- and 32-inch guns!! I have mostly favored 28-inch barrels on a break-action gun and 26-inch on a pump or auto. I can't prove it, but I bet I shot a lot more ducks with the 28-inch barrels on my Super-Fox than I did with its original 32-inchers. Did shoot a lot of trap in my college years with those long barrels.

I’m leaning towards the decline of upland birds and the popularity of duck gunning and sporting clays.

You can bet your backside if I had the J Cliff Green skeet set I’d shoot the hell out of them both at skeet and dove/quail . However in the last four or five years I’ve gained an affection for 32” guns and use them at pheasant tower shoots . When I was a younger fellow I thought 26” and possibly 28” were bird length while 30” and above were duck goose length . Now things kinda merge !

Thirtyfive or so years ago I had a pair of 16 gauge Citori’s I shot A LOT . One was a 24” Upland Special that killed a fair number of grouse and quail . The other was a 28” Lightening that one was my dove and sporting clays gun . :whistle:

All one has to do is handle and shoot a quality smallbore, I'm talking 20 or 28ga, and if you don't understand the attraction for the longer barrels then fine. There aren't enough to go around anyway. I've loved them since the 70's so it's nothing new to me.

Is the implication that a long barreled smallbore shotgun is something to strive for, or is the implication why bother at all with a long barreled 12.gauge as a small bore handles better?

Am I correct in my historical perspective that a 12 gauge side by side on the shelf in 12 gauge with 30” barrels, sometimes choked full and full, even if in superb condition, would languish? 32” even worse? We are talking the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Ian, that all depends on the individual. I've got some great handling 12 ga guns but I've always loved the 20 and 28 gauges. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Thank you for your response. It was ambiguous with regards to the first post as to what your inclinations are, and I see they are both!

The lowly 12 gauge is the Rodney Dangerfield of the shotgun world. It just doesn’t get any respect! Many nice examples sell very cheaply.

A 28 gauge or .410 side by side Parker definitely is of interest—but they aren’t cheap.

I’m small and light and I like shotguns that are too. I shoot all the short presentations and rabbits at sporting with a 20 inch 20 gauge coach gun. haha...not the norm but it works. I use more conventional guns for the longer shots...like my VH 30 inch. I’m fairly new to this and just do it for fun so I just don’t know better.

I like shooting both the long and short. I have 24” bbl 12 ga I like for wild quail, grouse or woodcock. For game where fast shooting isn’t necessary, ducks, geese, turkeys, I like the longer bbls. For targets, which I shoot for fun, I like longer bbls.

I like 28" barrels on everything, and a 28" 16ga sxs is just about perfect to me.

Interesting how what was old is new again ;)

1878 available in 28", 30" & 32"

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...%20List-XL.jpg

1898 Sears 28", 30" & 32"

"We can made shorter or longer barrels..."

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...20Parker-M.png

1906 now 26" listed

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...0catalog-L.jpg

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

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...0catalog-L.jpg

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"

https://photos.smugmug.com/Trap-Skee...portsman-L.jpg

Hunter Arms' offering was initially named the "Skeet Upland Special" with barrel lengths of 25" to 32"; 26" was the most popular

https://photos.smugmug.com/LC-Smith/...gure%204-L.jpg

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.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Trap-Skee...re%202b-XL.jpg

For hunting, carry whatever is comfortable and handy in the field, where I think barrel length is the least critical.
Sporting Clays: Shoot what works the best, which could be short medium or long.
That said, if you are a competitive shooter, and your goal is to win shoots, do what the top shooters are doing. Which usually means shooting guns with 30 to 32" barrels.
What is driving the long barrel trend in SxS guns could be connected to the long barreled target guns of today. I'm not sure. I know, at least for me, the longer barrels just work better on the long complicated targets they are setting these days.
Long barrels just seem to be smoother on the long targets.
Another maybe better question could be: why the trend to long complicated targets in a game that's supposed to replicate hunting?

Sporting clays as well as FITASC has gone on to the competitive level. Thus the more complicated targets to sort of shake out the shooters into classes...

JMHO

What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. I know, without any doubt, that my years competing in registered sporting clay competition, in the NSCA, made a better wing shot out of me in the field and marsh/swamp.

I shoot better with longer barrels, almost without exception. My dedicated A H Fox quail and woodcock gun has 28" barrels. That's very short for me. The best shooting I ever did on quail was with a 30" barreled 28 gauge. As an aside I will contribute this bit of ephemera. In 25+ years of competition I've never been outshot by anyone using 26 or 28 inch barrels. You may value that information accordingly, based on what it cost you.

I agree with the above posts, and think the SC shooting has improved my overall gun game, for sure, but no shooting game has improved my field shooting like box birds.
I'm sorry so many had to die, but it was for the greater good ;-)

Many believe that by changing guns, shot, technique, stock length or whatever is going tp greatly improve their shooting. I started with a 28" barrel 63 years ago. I found a great deal on a citori with 26' barrels and found it improved my SC shooting. I bought a 32" 686 but soon traded for a 26' Citori that the retailer said couldn't be used for SC. The best length gun barrel is what works best for you.

A "new gun" always improves one's shooting. At least that's what we tell our wives ;-)

Based on how tall the guns are in my safe, the 30" guns are no longer than the semi-autos with 26" barrels. Due to the semi-autos having the vent rib plus the top of the receiver, I believe both have about the same amount of sighting plane. Thus a 30" or 32" double is easily adjusted to if one grew up on hunting with semi-automatics. A 26" double on say doves would not feel the same. Just my two cents.