Depending on various factors, while I would not choose a gun with 25" barrels specifically for clays, they're not all the same. The example of the Churchill XXVs . . . those are guns that were built with driven shooting in mind. Basically to trick the shooter into thinking he was shooting a gun with longer barrels. That makes a difference.
Another example in my own experience comes from the Ithaca imported SKB sxs. The 20ga guns came either with 25" barrels, mostly choked IC/M, or 28" barrels choked M/F. The model 100, which had a splinter forend, is very light. I could never shoot one of those with 25" barrels well at all at skeet. With 28" barrels (and the tight chokes opened), they shot well for me both at skeet and in the field. Or give me a 280 with 25" barrels, which had the somewhat unusual combination of a straight grip but a generous beavertail forend, and I could shoot those pretty well. I think that the difference in both cases was the added weight up front: longer barrels on the 100'; beavertail on the 280.
