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What Barrel Length For Sport Clays?


Grinch

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The boys shooting Over/Unders dedicated for sporting clays usually shoot 30" barrels followed at a distance by the 32" barrel guns with a few out there using 28" barrels.

The receiver on the Benelli is about 6" long plus the 21" barrel puts you at 27", close to the 28" O/U.

It seems that the shooters that prefer the 32" O/U are shooters switching from a semiauto with a 28" barrel (34" of sighting plane) and feel the need for the longer barrel. The shooters that use an O/U for bird hunting are are comfortable with a shorter gun and are often seen with the 28" barreled guns.

And like the man says "Its the shooter, not the gun."

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As with any shooting sport...longer bbls mean better sight alignment...with clays, it means smoother tracking, less jerking the gun and easier followthru...I am a believer of 30+ bbls......at least 28+ with autoloaders...

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By all means, shoot what you have and have fun. However, if you go and buy another gun take tightloop's advice. A 30" O/U will be one of the shorter ones on the course these days.

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My highly scientific analysis of the available literature points to one inescapable conclusion: the optimum barrel length for sporting clays is whatever barrel is not presently mounted on your shotgun.

According to the "experts" anyway... <_<

Edited by EricW
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Sporting shooters have definitely gone to longer barrels. Typically, the semi-auto shooters (Beretta 391 or Browning Gold) shoot 30 inch barrels and then extended chokes. Over/unders are often now 32" and some 34" barrels are also showing up.

The opinion is that longer barrels promote follow-through on the long crossing targets.

Be careful, you can get hooked on SPorting Cays to the detriment of the other shooting sports!

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My highly scientific analysis of the available literature points to one inescapable conclusion: the optimum barrel length for sporting clays is whatever barrel is not presently mounted on your shotgun.

According to the "experts" anyway... <_<

Not only the barrel that's not on your shotgun at the time, but definately the choke that isn't in there :D

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My highly scientific analysis of the available literature points to one inescapable conclusion: the optimum barrel length for sporting clays is whatever barrel is not presently mounted on your shotgun.

According to the "experts" anyway... <_<

Not only the barrel that's not on your shotgun at the time, but definately the choke that isn't in there :D

Yup. I'm pretty sure that in a couple decades choke tube kits will be so voluminous that they will require an entire range bag of their own and will be calibrated in angstroms of constriction. :lol:

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Yup. I'm pretty sure that in a couple decades choke tube kits will be so voluminous that they will require an entire range bag of their own and will be calibrated in angstroms of constriction.

And take that number and double it for all the O/U shooters.

:)

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Naw, lots of choke tubes is not the answer! There are shot shell loadings out there for every situation... you'll just have to buy a tricked out golf cart to carry them all from stage to stage! (an ex-sporting clay/trap/skeet shooter). IPSC is more fun and lots cheaper to play! :ph34r:

Bill

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LOL thanks for the help guys I guys I'll go try it with what I got for now and just see how it goes I'm sure I'll find out what gear is appropiate just by going.

I'm sure they will look funny at me since it has MMC rear and hi vis front sihgt blade set up for more 3 gun type shooting.

Grinch

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And after you buy $600 worth of choke tubes you'll soon hear a Master class shooter tell you, ...."you know my shooting really improved when I went to tight chokes. I pretty much shoot a .025" and a .028", and that's it."

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  • 2 months later...

I just went to the Sporting Clays range with my 3-gun shotgun (11-87 with 22" barrel). That is the first gun that I ever had fitted and it made a lot of difference. I shot a personal best score. Nothing to brag about, since I don't shoot a lot of sporting clays, but I think that a comfortable gun plus familiarity due to consistent practice really made a difference.

$0.02 from someone completely unqualified to offer an opinion about shotgunning.

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  • 8 months later...

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