Dustin,
I honestly see about a dozen 870s to every model 37, and Mossberg 500s outnumber both of them. From what I’ve seen a guy had to go a bit out of his way to get a 37, back in the day, and if those guys circa late 60s-70s were reading the wags they probably went with shorter barrels. Short tubes were the rage, until they weren’t.
You could get any choke you wanted in a barrel, but, when it came to 26” length, I’d bet whoever ordered the guns for stock probably just went open on the short tubes and tighter as the barrels got longer, trying to avoid having a bunch of different stock cluttering the place up.
Been there.
Best,
Ted
