maytom

Va huntr, good point, but exactly how much are you loosing going to a 24" barrel from a 30" ? If you loose 7 fps per inch, you lost 42 fps. If shooting a 1,300fps turkey load based on this info, your now shooting 1,258fps, do you think that makes a really big difference to a turkeys head at 35 yards? Or if you agree with wernerjd, would a 40" barrel be that much better? I realize that some people just use what ever shotgun they own with what ever barrel they have on it. Hey, no problem with that at all. But if your going with a shotgun set-up just for turkey hunting, again a barrel in the 21-24" length is best in this situation for the reasons I gave above. Just my two cents on it. I think BossTom has a barrel 36" long, bayonet mount and all!!

SnoBall57

My buddies and I did some testing years ago on barrel lengths for scatterguns, and with the same model guns, with the same chokes (extra full) using the same loads, the 30 inch barrels delivered much more energy downrange than the 26 inch barrels. Say what you will, I much prefer a 28" or 30" barrel over a " shortie" for turks. I want ALL the good cards in my hand when I go for a possible trophy gobbler.

PABeardBuster

I like Remington' s current barrel length of 23" on their turkey shotguns. They seem to hug your back and go through anything you go through. That being said, my Dad still shoots an 870 Special Purpose turkey gun he bought back in the early 80' s with a 26" barrel and when we hunt side by side he seems to have no problem with the extra barrel length.

PBB

Turk_man

I got to respond again because a moderately short barrel i.e. 24" does not give up any significant velocity over a 30" barrel. As far as energy is concerned, energy is a result of weight of projectile and velocity. So if a #5 pellet is moving at 1200 fps it has the same energy regardless of the length of the barrel it was fired from. As Maytom already pointed out the loss of velocity between a 24" barrell and a 30" barrell is marginal at best.

Mr. Longbeard

Do yourself a favor and go with the 26" ..... Take a look around the next time you see some pro' s on video. I think you will see that they all shoot a short barrel!!!! There is a reason for this..... And if you put a 30" barrel on your turkey gun you will find out....

Bobgobble2

Squid,choose whats most comfortable to ya and what you have the most confidence in!!Both will kill turkeys no doubt,heck I haul a 32 incher around the woods and beleive me barrel length is probably the last thing on my mind in the turkey woods!!

VAhuntr

It boils down to a matter of what you feel comfortable with. I would like to know what people are considering a long barrel? Personally I consider anything over 30" long, but others may differ. I shoot a 3.5" Browning BPS with a 28" barrel and a 2" extended choke tube. The difference in velocity between my 28" barrel BPS and a 24" barrel BPS may be marginal but the difference is there. Another difference, my longer barrel does shoot a better pattern than the 24" barrel BPS shotguns. I have seen this with my own eyes and I have friends who own the 24" BPS shotguns and as much as they try when patterning our guns, they can not put as many pellets in the target as I can. Sometimes the differnce has only been 5 or 10 pellets but other times it has been as much as 35 and 40 pellets. I can' t speak for other brands of shotguns but I would imagine that any brand of shotgun would have similar results.

Shoot both the 26" barrel and the 30" barrel and see what you like the best and which patterns the best.

maytom

Hey guys, remember that the custom turkey chokes add another 2-3" of length to your barrels!! So figure that in as well!! Example: A 21" becomes 23" or 24" !! So if your shooting a 30" barrel now look how much longer that would be!! To each his own here, personal preference comes into play!! But I much prefer 24" max, and that' s including the choke tube!!

TREEDOG

what u guys think of this gun i was interested in this, it has a 18in barrel here is a link for specs on it.

http://www.winchester-guns.com/prodi...d=902&cat=012C