It is not nearly as much "fad" as many here seem to think. There is good reason serious shotgunners of longer range targets and game use longer barrels. They break more long birds with the longer barreled guns ............. period. They kill more flyers inside the ring with the longer barreled guns .............. period. I'm not going into why I believe that is, I just know from 58 years of shotgunning, most of them years that I have been very serious about my hit/miss ratio, that I shoot higher averages on most types of shotgunning with the longer barrels. I can name one place that I might shoot a 26" gun just as well as longer barrels, pointed quail/woodcock. Other than that example, the longer barrels rule, IMHO.
30" now seems to be the norm for sporting clays...
You're full of misinformation, ed. 32" guns are the norm in serious sporting clays. You see a 30" every now and then. For the casual sporting shooter, who may shoot 4 or 5 rounds a year, what they shoot is not germane to the discussion. They are not setting the standards.
Tell us, ed. Just how many sporting clay tournaments, or big shoots, where you could actually observe what shooters use, have you attended in the last few years?
SRH