Just purchased a weatherby sa-08 and i got it in a 28" barrel length. Brother says i should of got 26" instead. He didnt really have a reason other then the 28" will be longer and he prefers shorter guns. What is the main difference for shotguns having different length barrels. Will the 2" longer barrel improve accuracy?
Diff in barrel lenghts
- Thread starter Sandrewb
- Start date
Agree plus a 28" will always sell before a 26" if you ever want to part with it. More waterfowl hunters prefer a 28" over a 26".
Thats because more waterfowl hunters have never stepped outside of their comfortable little box
My first duck gun was a 28" , then a moved to a 26" on my Fabarm, then a 24" on my extrema II and now i use a 22" pump for everything ..
i'll never go back to a 28" barrel as it offers no advantage... unless ridiculous length and unnecessary weight are an advantage
"oh but the swing.. the swing.. think of the swing!" .. learn to handle your firearm
Maybe where you live pending what you are doing with it, 18-22" barrels are easier to handle, especially in close-quarters or indoor situations. Longer barrels provide a longer sight radius and greater accuracy at a distance shooting.
I use 30's for most waterfowl and even have a couple 36. I would love to see you in the blind with your 22" chasing some snow geese out west or sea ducks here at 55- 60 yards. Even better a nice round of trap. Pretty easy to stop your swing with a 22". But hey to each their own.take care
Why go out of your comfort zone when it works. You dont see the best wing shots in the world using tiny barrels, and especially when duck hunting. Its not a whole lot more weight and it makes the gun smoother despite what you say. To the OP 2 inches wont matter much either way. I love the 28 inch bbl on my SA-08.
Barrel length causes alot of controversy as alot of opinons are based on old traditions which as we all know do not die easily.
My advice is if you like the gun and it fits you well, the barrel length you will become acustom to for the most part depending on what particlar type of shooting your doing. My advice is based on the following.
Since shotguns became popular in the age of black powder, the longer barrel length necessary in ensuring complete burning of the black powder before the shot exited the barrel, thus acheiving the maximum velocity from the charge of powder. Black powder needed at least 30" of barrel to make efficient use of the powder. Modern smokeless powders however have given there maximum efficiency by the 18" mark.
Of course the average shooter at the time was unaware of this fact. He just new he had at least a 30" barrel and often 32"/34" in a 12 ga. As the transition from black powder to smokeless was not over night. Shooters buying new modern shotguns which used smokeless powder by tradition were used to long barrelled guns.
And it was and still is in some cases an traditional established fact that long barrels were an obsloute necessity and the longer the better when shooting at long ranges so you could really hammer those geese.
So gun manufacturers continued with longer barrels as there customers and tradition demanded it.
In fact they were not, and the fella with the 34" barrel could shoot exactly 4" farther than the fella with the 30", as his choke (end of barrel ) was 4" closer to the goose.
The second difference which is still in play to-day is swing speed, most importantly at short ranges. That short barrel 26" OU just plane swings quicker onto target than the same OU with a 32".
At longer ranges when a slower smoother swing is the norm the 32" OU is going to feel better to the averge shooter.
If you want to do a little experiment in you living room. Go get your wifes vacum pipes. Pretend one section of pipe is the shot gun and point it as various objects, now keep adding pipe sections and pretending. You'll see what I mean.
Short barrels tend to be quick and whippy, long ones slower and smooth. The shooters skill and what he therefore feels comfortable with and can adapt to will determine more than anything the barrel length he is ultimately happy with.
More Tradition;
Look on the box flap of a box of store bought shells and you still may still may see the designation "Drams Equiv" it will give a numerical figure of 2 3/4 - 3 - 3 1/4. This was actually telling you the velocity to expect from the load. You will also notice a "OZ" designation which was ounce weight of lead shot in each shell.
In the old black powder days a shot gun shell with 3 drams of black powder behind 1 1/4 oz of lead shot would produce a velocity of approx 1250 ft per sec. A good maximum hunting load was 3 1/4 which is about 1330 ft per sec. If it's marked "max load", same thing 1330.
This whole shotshell box marking system was carry over from the black powder erra. Mainly because the hunters and shooters needed something on the box that they could relate to and understand. This tradition carried on well into the smokeless age despite the fact it was meaning less to most shooters by then.
But as I said in the begining old traditions die hard. I hope all this is informative and of some help
My advice is if you like the gun and it fits you well, the barrel length you will become acustom to for the most part depending on what particlar type of shooting your doing. My advice is based on the following.
Since shotguns became popular in the age of black powder, the longer barrel length necessary in ensuring complete burning of the black powder before the shot exited the barrel, thus acheiving the maximum velocity from the charge of powder. Black powder needed at least 30" of barrel to make efficient use of the powder. Modern smokeless powders however have given there maximum efficiency by the 18" mark.
Of course the average shooter at the time was unaware of this fact. He just new he had at least a 30" barrel and often 32"/34" in a 12 ga. As the transition from black powder to smokeless was not over night. Shooters buying new modern shotguns which used smokeless powder by tradition were used to long barrelled guns.
And it was and still is in some cases an traditional established fact that long barrels were an obsloute necessity and the longer the better when shooting at long ranges so you could really hammer those geese.
So gun manufacturers continued with longer barrels as there customers and tradition demanded it.
In fact they were not, and the fella with the 34" barrel could shoot exactly 4" farther than the fella with the 30", as his choke (end of barrel ) was 4" closer to the goose.
The second difference which is still in play to-day is swing speed, most importantly at short ranges. That short barrel 26" OU just plane swings quicker onto target than the same OU with a 32".
At longer ranges when a slower smoother swing is the norm the 32" OU is going to feel better to the averge shooter.
If you want to do a little experiment in you living room. Go get your wifes vacum pipes. Pretend one section of pipe is the shot gun and point it as various objects, now keep adding pipe sections and pretending. You'll see what I mean.
Short barrels tend to be quick and whippy, long ones slower and smooth. The shooters skill and what he therefore feels comfortable with and can adapt to will determine more than anything the barrel length he is ultimately happy with.
More Tradition;
Look on the box flap of a box of store bought shells and you still may still may see the designation "Drams Equiv" it will give a numerical figure of 2 3/4 - 3 - 3 1/4. This was actually telling you the velocity to expect from the load. You will also notice a "OZ" designation which was ounce weight of lead shot in each shell.
In the old black powder days a shot gun shell with 3 drams of black powder behind 1 1/4 oz of lead shot would produce a velocity of approx 1250 ft per sec. A good maximum hunting load was 3 1/4 which is about 1330 ft per sec. If it's marked "max load", same thing 1330.
This whole shotshell box marking system was carry over from the black powder erra. Mainly because the hunters and shooters needed something on the box that they could relate to and understand. This tradition carried on well into the smokeless age despite the fact it was meaning less to most shooters by then.
But as I said in the begining old traditions die hard. I hope all this is informative and of some help
M'aiq the Liar
Member
- Location
- Vancouver Island
Doesn't mater, they will both bust clay birds and the will both take real birds. I haven't noticed a difference in performance from 26" to 28" other than id rather carry a 26" barrel O/U than any other kind of shotgun.
mr goat summed it up!
cheek
Any more that 18", the shot is coasting out of the barrel and losing speed. The longer the barrel the slower the swing.
With two beads on a Vent rib, accuracy will be the same with a cheek-weld.
IMO 24" is the best all around, but my SBE II would only go as short as 26". So I bought an extra barrel and got it cut down to 18.5 and threaded for chokes. I use it for everything because it is so handy and agile.
Barrel length has nothing to do with effectiveness on targets, just personal preferences.
cheek
Any more that 18", the shot is coasting out of the barrel and losing speed. The longer the barrel the slower the swing.
With two beads on a Vent rib, accuracy will be the same with a cheek-weld.
IMO 24" is the best all around, but my SBE II would only go as short as 26". So I bought an extra barrel and got it cut down to 18.5 and threaded for chokes. I use it for everything because it is so handy and agile.
Barrel length has nothing to do with effectiveness on targets, just personal preferences.
Think about this one name me one professional shotgunner in trap or skeet shooting a 19-22. HUmmmmmm wonder why.
I don't case how good of a shot you think you are the lighter weight and short length will cause you to shoot behind targets. I notice it big time when shooting a 25" 28ga then going back to a 28" 12ga.When shooting the 28 there is an extra focus to keep the gun moving which is not good since it is taking from target focus.
I don't case how good of a shot you think you are the lighter weight and short length will cause you to shoot behind targets. I notice it big time when shooting a 25" 28ga then going back to a 28" 12ga.When shooting the 28 there is an extra focus to keep the gun moving which is not good since it is taking from target focus.
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It all boils down what particular purpose the gun is used for and what your personel skills will handle.
If you can consistantly smoke them off 8 station skeet with 30" semi then thats just great.
Right now it seems especially in the sporting clays game long barreled OU's are in vogue, there in style. Why because a couple of the big name shooters were using them. And shooters being human always follow with what the big boys are doing. And gun manufactures will supply to the trend of the day.
In my hay days Browning Citori's and Win 101's with 26" or 28" barrel's were popular. If you were really getting serious and wanted to be stylish you had Briely tubes for the sub gauges. A Browning 4 barrel set, Remington 3200, or a Kreigoff meant your Grandfather had died and left you some serious money.
Personally I shot a 101 in 26" in the 12ga and a 101 in 28" for the .410. Always shot better with the 410 as the stock was slightly different and it fit me perfectly.
If this was the 1950's they all would be shooting Winchester model 12's with Cutt's compensators. As at the time they were all the rage and in style. Over half you reading this will probably have never seen or heard of a cutts compensator as they have been out of style for many years. And Win. M-12's next to given away unless there of the small gauges and rarer configurations.
If you want to really, really, want to spend some time, effort and money on your shotgun then take a serious look at stock fit.
Stock fit for general hunting and clay shooting type shooters will always be a bigger factor than a couple inches of barrel.
Anyways Iam sorry I got a bit off topic and rambled, but the bottom line is worry more about your stock fit than barrel length and you'll be leaps and bounds ahead of your buddies.
If you can consistantly smoke them off 8 station skeet with 30" semi then thats just great.
Right now it seems especially in the sporting clays game long barreled OU's are in vogue, there in style. Why because a couple of the big name shooters were using them. And shooters being human always follow with what the big boys are doing. And gun manufactures will supply to the trend of the day.
In my hay days Browning Citori's and Win 101's with 26" or 28" barrel's were popular. If you were really getting serious and wanted to be stylish you had Briely tubes for the sub gauges. A Browning 4 barrel set, Remington 3200, or a Kreigoff meant your Grandfather had died and left you some serious money.
Personally I shot a 101 in 26" in the 12ga and a 101 in 28" for the .410. Always shot better with the 410 as the stock was slightly different and it fit me perfectly.
If this was the 1950's they all would be shooting Winchester model 12's with Cutt's compensators. As at the time they were all the rage and in style. Over half you reading this will probably have never seen or heard of a cutts compensator as they have been out of style for many years. And Win. M-12's next to given away unless there of the small gauges and rarer configurations.
If you want to really, really, want to spend some time, effort and money on your shotgun then take a serious look at stock fit.
Stock fit for general hunting and clay shooting type shooters will always be a bigger factor than a couple inches of barrel.
Anyways Iam sorry I got a bit off topic and rambled, but the bottom line is worry more about your stock fit than barrel length and you'll be leaps and bounds ahead of your buddies.
Hey what's worng with a model 12 and a cutts. I still have a few in fact probally one of the best shots to ever pick up a gun here still uses his for trap. I love to hear the bark out of them. Like you I stater in the 60's, still have my 1100 and 870 sets, 4 barrel brownings and even did make it to a k32 modified. But stock fit or not just cannot see no matter how well you shoot a 18-22 inch barrel is not going to cost you birds. I'm with chuckie on this one. I own 870's with 23 and 18 .5 but use them for slugs mainly
http://www.chuckhawks.com/shotgun_barrel_length.htm
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