doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com TGS, short barreled double gun for sporting?

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.

Thanks, I was just saying seems like many years ago shorter barrels were the norm. Especially the European ones. I have seen Purdey pigeon guns listed with 28" barrels.
Barrel length is just a myth. Didn't Robert Churchill show up at a pigeon shoot with a 25" gun because it had been damaged and had to be cut off.

I'm impressed by your memory Mike!
https://shootingsportsman.com/the-churchill-xxv/

But, what historical evidence do you have that '60s pigeon guns had 28" barrels, predominantly?

That is your claim.

Showing up means nothing. We are all entitled to mistakes.

Show me where 25-26" guns dominated pigeon shoots. Then, I will listen..

Beretta offerings 1968
The $750 SO2 would be about $7000 in today's money



The Franchi Pigeon Gun was available with 28" and 30" barrels

Many of the guns being discussed were made before sporting clays had become popular or brought to the U.S. They are guns that can obviously be shot at sporting clays but were not designed specifically for sporting clays. FWIW: A Beretta catalog from the early 90's (a few years after sporting clays was introduced in the States) lists their dedicated Sporting models (A390 through SO5) as being available in either 28" or 30" barrels. I recall Digweed tried 34" barrels for a while before settling back to 32's. Olympic skeet remains the domain of 28" and 30" barrels. The point is not whether Brandon Powell can outshoot me using a clapped-out 26" Browning BSS: I'm betting he can. The point is whether he could shoot the same gun to beat Anthony Matarese et al. Probably not...

The Browning BSS and the Spanish gun could, however, lead to a good day in the grouse woods, for Brandon, Anthony, yourself, or, little old me.

Just sayin’.

Best,
Ted

I began shooting sporting clays with a 26" barreled BSS, and did well. However, there were no highly technical targets thrown in sporting in those days. You seldom saw a target over 25 yards, 30 tops. No problem for a well balanced 26" gun for close stuff like that.

I see few courses set that way today. My home range, Bay Gall Sporting, has two courses, Red and Blue. Even the Blue course is exceedingly tougher and longer than the old days.

Point is, a 26" gun will be hard pressed to do well ( scoring in the 90s) on a course with lots of long stuff. But, a well balanced 32" gun can excel at both soft, close stuff and long, technical stuff.

Ever seen a 26" barreled double (S X S or O/U) doing well on a Make-A-Break, or at FITASC? I haven't.