Barrels: how short is too short?

[BlakeJ]

Does anyone know what length a shotgun barrel starts losing performance as far as velocity and pattern when shooting turkey loads?

[dirt road ninja]

It will vary gun to gun. In my opinion if you are looking to chase numbers 22 is the absolute shortest I would go. I've got a 21" on a 20 gauge that shoots good, I got a deal on it used, had I been buying new it would have had a 26". I know it will not compete against the same gun with a longer tube, but she kills turkeys and is a joy to carry.

[TauntoHawk]

I currently carry a remington with a 21" barrel

I have it polished, sumtoy choke, and shoot Hevi shot so it definently can throw a mean pattern and kill turkeys but it won't keep up in numbers what the longer barrels can post.

21" is a dream to carry in the woods, and works great for when I take youths, my wife, or like this year a wounded warrior with limited arm mobility

You have to weight out the perforance on the range (long barrel) verse the ease of use in the field (short barrel)

I think a happy medium and what my next gun will be is the 23-24" range

[mcgruff1533]

Pattern density and velocity will diminish with every inch of barrel length lost.     I have a Mossberg 535 with a 20" barrel and it's been a long, difficult road to find shells that pattern well out of such a short tube.

If I were going to do it all over again, I'd look for something with at least a 22" to 23'' barrel.

[BOFF]

My M2 has an 18 1/2" BARREL.  Does everything I need.


http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,4261.0.html

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,177.0.html

God Bless,
David B.

[coyotetrpr]

I may just be lucky but my 835 with 20 inch barell will out shoot my buddies 935 with a 24 inch barell. I never thought this would be possible but it happened.

[BrowningGuy88]

This is one of the reasons I just bought the two Benellis. I want to compare the 18.5" M2 and the 26" Vinci. I believe based on my past experience that a longer barrel is easier to find a load for, but there are great combos for every gun out there. It may take longer to nail down a carbine length barrel, but you can still turn awesome numbers.

[SKFOOTER]

I currently carry a remington with a 21" barrel

I have it polished, sumtoy choke, and shoot Hevi shot so it definently can throw a mean pattern and kill turkeys but it won't keep up in numbers what the longer barrels can post.

21" is a dream to carry in the woods, and works great for when I take youths, my wife, or like this year a wounded warrior with limited arm mobility

You have to weight out the perforance on the range (long barrel) verse the ease of use in the field (short barrel)

I think a happy medium and what my next gun will be is the 23-24" range

What size Sumtoy choke and what Hevi load are you shooting and what's the 10 inch 40 yard pellet count???

[bandedhonker]

I had two SBE's...one had a 28" the other 24"..I saw no difference between these two with the same choke and load.  It did not matter what size shot or brand ammo...they through almost identical numbers.  The 24" was a lot nicer to carry in the woods and shoot out of a blind.

[fountain2]

2 -20" bbl 835s here too ...will shoot with the longer bbl guns all day long.  I also have a 19" bbl old browning a-5 and its a shooter.  It shot 277 in a 10" circle at 40 with 3/2/7 and 30 yards was a ball of shot almost a hole

[Skeeterbait]

The real difference in short vs long barrels is in manuverability in tight woods and sighting plane.  If your only going to use barrel bead sights then the longer barrel will be more forgiving.  If you use optics it doesn't matter.  Performance differences aren't enough to mean one will killl at 40 yards and the other won't so it is a moot point.  There has been some discussion of short barrels being hard to get good patterns out of but there is enough people on here getting good patterns with short barrels to lend suggestions.

[Skeeterbait]

Take a look at the table on the bottom of this page comparing muzzle velocities of certain shells in barrel lengths from 22 inches out to 30 inches.  The variance in velocity is generally 100 fps or less. For some loads it is a lot less.

http://www.guncustomizing.com/tech.htm#barrelvelocity

[sugarray]

I shoot a 20" barrel on a MB 835.  It has patterned well with everything I have shot.  I shoot a 2 oz TSS load of #8.  It patterns a great killing pattern at yds farther than I can say.  I'd put up my penetration with any other TSS shooting gun 30" or any other length.  If your not comfortable killing birds, then you'd be hard pressed proving that penetration with a shorter barrel was the issue.

[fountain2]

i think we are thinking entirely too much into this.  they are gonna lose performance with shorter bbls yea, but noticeably..naw.   overthinking this too much....set it up and go.  yea number 7s will put up numbers, so will the tss 9s.  i look at it like this....im getting over 300 with every gun i shoot...be it 9s or 7s.  a turkey aint gona walk away with that much head trauma...no matter what the slight velocity loss may be from shorter bbl lengths.  i know all the pellets are not hitting him..but a dern bunch of em will and they just cant take it.  we look and test and do penetration tests and look and shoot some more and make new loads and so on...and yea im as guilty as anybody, but its all overthinking......very well prepared, but overkill. 

its bad to say, but i know birds are killed every year 30 and in with plain ol birdshot in plain ol bbls with plain ol chokes.  a magnum load..be it 3 or 3.5" have more than enough umph to carry energy to kill at our reasonable distance no matter the bbl length.  if a short bbl gun will put any respictive turkey load on target well...its gonna do the job no matter if it did lose 30 fps due to its length. 

bbl length is a personal preferance to me...not a factor of killing. i can tell my guns have the umph when i pull the trigger and i know its has enough velocity to kill..not scientific there..no matter how it is set up. 

[ibtx]

I suppose barrel length is just a matter of personal preference.  I started out Turkey hunting with a 30" barrel.  I never felt handicapped in any way because of the length. Just prop it up on your knee, aim & shoot. It was the popular thought when the shorter barrels came out that you could get equal preformance from a shorter barrel with the modern powder & shells, but I think that it has been proven that there is a slight velocity drop with the shorter barrels.  I read a test one time where they took a 36" Marlin goose gun & started cutting it down 1" at a time.  The velocity dropped slightly with every inch they cut off.  That being said I have seen a gobbler shot dead in his tracks with a .410, so I guess its a moot point.