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

Every once in a while I see a poster looking for a Mod 21, Parker, Fox, etc with 32" barrels. Sporting clays shooters are moving to 32 " barrels on over unders. Is that waht is spurring interest in old duck and fox guns? Comments pls.

Sporting clays...Geo

IMHO, in addition to giving you a longer sight plane, the longer tube also helps you follow through with your swing. Longer barrels have always worked better for me. Maybe a new generation of young shooters is finding out what the old timers already knew. I guess I have graduated to "old timer".

On the collector side, maybe the lower number originally manufactured in that barrel length?

Kind regards,

Driven game shoots in US are springing up like shrooms after the rain?

Find if you can, a Parker or L.C. Smith 20 ga with 32" barrels and see what it sets you back, probably double over 26" barrels.
Those that have them, lucky. It's tough enough finding a 12 ga with 32" barrels.

I agree, it's tough enough finding 12 gauge 32 inchers. The longer sighting plane is what many shooters are looking for. You won't see too many NSCA tournaments won with 26 or 28" over/unders. Maybe that's because all the big dog over/under shooters are shooting 32 inchers. Maybe they shoot 32 inchers because shorter barrels don't work as well for the discipline. You can decide for yourself. Silvers

Some 32 inchers, top to bottom,
Parker VHE on 1-1/2 frame
Smith Specialty ejector
Fox Sterlingworth Trap
Fox CE with Monte Carlo stock

Lets see 28" x 2 ÷ 32 = 1.75. I sure wish I had a few of those 32" bbl'd monstrocities, I'd sell them & buy me twice as many 28" bbl'd ones & have 75% more bbl that better suited my purposes for the same money. Finest shooting gun I ever carried afield had 28" damascus tubes, both bbls ¼ choked.
Length of bbls don't change as often or as fast as ladies hemlines, but both move on a regular basis, "It's Known as Fashion".

I've got a 32" but like the 30" better.

32" guns are the latest fad. The longer sighting plane is a silly point. If you are looking right down the barrels, like you are supposed to be doing, you can not tell if the gun has 26", 28", 30" or 32" barrels. Your face is the rear point and the front bead is the front point and all the rib in the world should be just a very thin, flat space between the two. I do not look down a rib and see six inches of space at a angle. It is a very thin flat area so how long a barrels is not a big deal.

They, 32 barrels, are heavy barrels that are slow to get started but also very easy to keep swinging once you get them going. All the clay target games they are used in either are shot with a sustained lead or shooters do better with a gun that follows though naturally because of heavy barrels that smooth out their swing. The extra weight also help absorb the heavy recoil that the clay target games have with maybe a hundred shells shot in an hour.

Just as the 25" barrels were a marketing ploy years ago to sell more new guns this craze of 32" barrels is just another marketing ploy to sell guns. Face it no company made money unless they could either create demand or fill demand for new guns. All the big names are shooting these longer barrels so every average Joe wants one also. I


I remember years ago Remington gave a all American one of their 3200s and paid him to shoot if for the year. He did and sales went up for several years. That same shooter could have used any gun and did use another companies gun the next year. They made him a better offer, free gun, shells and a little cash. He now uses a 32" barrel and I understand he is looking at a 34" barrel for next year.

[quote=KY Jon]
They, 32 barrels, are heavy barrels that are slow to get started but also very easy to keep swinging once you get them going. /quote]

You must have never shot a Perazzi if you think all 32" barrels are heavy and slow to get started.