doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why so much interest in 32 inch guns?

Quote "If a guy can shoot he can do it with any length of barrels between 24" and 34"."

Quote "Guess it boils down to shoot what works for you."

Couldn't agree more....IMO all else is conjecture.

So when lead is banned and only steel is affordable, when you bulge the chokes on your 32" you can cut it back.

Just getting ready, right Ted? I'm listening.

I shoot a 32" Renato Gamba in Sporting Clays because it follows
thru easier, I also like the longer sighting plane and it seems to be a more "steady" gun from station to station. I also have a 30" Renata Gamba which does fine particularly in closer transitioning targets.

I'll bet if a guy used only one gun for everything in 5 years he'd be pretty deadly with it on everything. It's all the switching around that gets a feller confused.

It was of course always a fallacy that BP "Required" long bbls. The pressure curve for BP is very similar to modern day "Progressive" powders so velocity accelerates at approximately the same rate. Using a very coarse granulation of course heavier charges could be effectively burned in longer bbls, but this was not the general rule. For all practical purposes a 28" bbl'd gun using BP is just as efficient as a 32" bbl'd one. Greener stated in the days when BP was still "King" that a ratio of 40:1 of bbl length to bore dia was suffecient ballistically. This gives a 29" length for 12ga.
For my uses & purposes (primarily upland game hunting) a 28" bbl'd gun has proved to be about "MY" ideal length. I could really care less if a longer bbl'd gun would give "ONE MORE" hit out of some 500/1,000 rounds fired on a clays range. Requirements for a "Dedicated" clays gun are about as different from a field gun as an "Indy" car is from one used to go pick up the groceries. I have no desire for a NSCA or NSSA class rating but that doesn't mean I don't use a shotgun for other purposes. I do not however base my gun upon one suitable for purposes for which I have no need. Neither do I take gun "Bird" (quail in my part of the South) hunting which is most eminatly suited for pass shooting geese. To not be able to choose a gun suitable for ones own purposes, but to strictly pick according to "Some Expert" in a totally different field is the "Heighth of Ignorance". Pass me the 28" please, it will do me great.

I like that, Miller, only I would say an "Indy" car is from a Model "D" John Deere. ;^)

I suggest matching the barrel length to the game, wild or clay, and not try to have a "one length fits all" gun.

GregSY is right. For the 11 years I shot nothing but my Remington Model 3200 tube set (28-inch), I was a far better shot then I am today, taking something different to the renge every week. So far this year I've shot Pheasants with a 1913-vintage A-Grade Ansley H. Fox 20-gauge with 28-inch barrels, a 1938-vintage Remington 16-gauge Sportsman with 26-inch barrels, my new RBL with 28-inch barrels and a Husqvarna Model 310ASE 16-gauge with 70-cm barrels.

However, the A.H. Fox Gun Co./Savage advertised 32-inch 20-gauge guns from beginning to end, and I want one in my lineup. One year at the winter Las Vegas show I found six Parker Bros. 32-inch 20-gauge doubles, a 32-inch Crown Grade L.C. Smith 20-gauge and a 32-inch Grade 4E NID 20-gauge. I have yet to find a piece of NID period paper that offers 20-gauges with anything longer then 30-inch barrels!