It's perfectly legal to cut a sxs barrel set down to 19" and trim the stock to a pistol grip. Most guns this will still give you over 26" overall length. I've cut down quite a few sxs guns and they function just fine with the cylinder bores
Cutting a sxs to 19" will not effect the forcing cones at all. No sxs has forcing cones that long
Case in point is brobee on this site he's been posting videos of his chopped down bss
Impressive groups with slugs and buckshot and plenty of video to back it up
...19" is 5" more than 14". Some guns "cylinder bore" is the actual choke near the end of the barrel. Chop that C choke off, and you'd be throwing 12 gauge shot down a 10 bore barrel. JS.
I really have no idea where the law stands on chopping barrels, I just don't think it's a "good" idea.
If the gun has to be 26" overall, does a 6" barrel on a 20.5" stock make the gun non-restricted if I were to do it myself, is one question. The other of course is, what kind of performance are you going to get out of a 6", in the forcing cone, barrel?
From Brobee's data sets, if I'm reading them correctly, an 18" barrel is really as short as you can go without a precipitous drop off in performance.
Here's where Ai shines:
In Canada, a shotgun is classified as restricted if its barrel length is less than 470 mm (18.5 inches). Additionally, a shotgun can be classified as restricted if its overall length is less than 660mm (26 inches), even if the barrel length is greater than 470mm.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
- Non-Restricted:
Shotguns with a barrel length of 470mm (18.5 inches) or greater are generally considered non-restricted.
- Restricted:
Shotguns with a barrel length of less than 470mm (18.5 inches) are classified as restricted, requiring specific licensing, registration, and storage requirements.
- Prohibited:
Shotguns that have been altered by sawing, cutting, or other modifications to have a barrel length less than 457mm (18 inches) are classified as prohibited. Altering a firearm to reduce its overall length to less than 660mm (26 inches) also results in prohibited status.
Important Considerations:
- Factory-Made Short Barrels Shotguns that are manufactured with barrels shorter than 470mm (18.5 inches) are legal in Canada, provided they meet other length requirements (e.g., overall length of at least 660mm).
- Overall Length:
A shotgun's overall length is also a factor in its classification, especially if the barrel length is 470mm or more.
- Semi-automatic:
If a shotgun is semi-automatic and has a barrel length less than 470mm, it is automatically classified as restricted.
So, you can't chop a barrel down any more than 18" it's prohibited. Cutting the barrel down to 19" and cutting the stock off also makes the gun prohibited if doing so makes it shorter than 26" overall.
You can however buy a factory made short barrel (referred to as 14" but they're usually 14.5"), and it's still non-restricted provided that it's 26" overall.
A semi-auto shotgun cannot have a short barrel without being restricted...and once it's restricted, you know what the Liberals will do to it.
