Page 199 of TPS notes: "Barrels should measure to two full-inch intervals, plus or minus one eighth of an inch." (Obviously, as noted, there are the occasional odd lengths.) There is mention of early guns (the 1880s) having barrels shortened by cutting off ends damaged in finishing.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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