There’s no hard and fast rule on barrel length, but it does seem the Europeans made a lot of shorter barreled guns. Look at the Beretta S3s from the 60s and 70s. Not much over 28” and that would be 30”. Buddy of mine has a Fabbri with 29” barrels. Hard to find one with 32s. Based on my limited observations it seems shorter barrels were the prevailing fashion 40-60 years ago just like longer barrels (32”-34”) are prevalent today. Personally I believe shooters are missing some great guns because short barrels are out of fashion. And Cyril Adam is pretty much silent on this topic in his book, although his 34” hammergun figures prominently as a modern example. Perhaps Doc Drew will chime in here. He probably has the data.
Last edited by eeb; 03/16/26 07:13 PM.
