shot gun barral lenth?

[BT]

Most new shot guns now come with a 26" to 28" barral compared to the older 30" to 32" and the acosinal 35iner.

I have read that you gain about 7 fps per in up to about 38in.

I know the 32 to say 38 in barral would be unhandy so lets look mainly at the 28-30 iners.

Now here is my thinking. for most shooting the 26 to 30 is fine.

But i am seeing a rise of realy short barrals for tukey hunting some as short as 20in.
That is geting up there in volicity lose.

Not somuch for the whole charge of shot 1 1/2+ oz for turkey loads.
But if you look at it buy the induvisual pellet the lose of volicity would seam to have a bad effect of killing power and penetration at range.

espicaly at distance fouther than 30yds. put in to prespictive that many of the turkey hunting "writers"masters"" say pattern you trukey gun for 40 and so eaving saying 50yds..


I have a few specks on old duck loads not on the new turkey loads so it wont be a fair comparsion but close.

The book says a 12 3" load of #3 1 5/8 oz. leaves the 30 in barral at app 1300 fps with each pellet having around 5 ft lbs of K. energy . By the time that heavey #3 "compared to #6,4or 5 for turkey" is at 40yds it has less than 2ftlbs of energy.

That fokes is less that the power of a stander crossman modle 760 pump airrifle at 20yds with a bb. "the bb is 3 ftlbs. BTW.

so a 20in barral vs a 30 could be as much as 70 fps differince with smaller shot "the volicity is still close to the 1300fps with the turkey loads in the 30in barral"

with the smaller shot at the same volicity you would be talking less than 2 ft lbs.
when you take away that 70fps you may not evan have 1 fp per pellet with the smaller shot.


whats yalls take on that?

[Antler Eater]

Well shucks, now I am kinder wonderin myself about this here problem. Less than a foot pound ya say? I knows my feet er heavier than that but we ain't here to argue over who's got the bigger clod hoppers. I've never been very good at decipherin numbers so suppose'in you walk off down yonder about 40 yards and I will shoot old "Betsy" in you-alls direction and we'll see what happens....

Seriously though, it is a good question, especially since I use a short barrelled gun, which I prefer in the turkey woods. The number of turkeys killed every year at forty yards tells us that there is enough energy left to do the job allbeit I don't like six's at that distance.

I have shot into pine boards at forty yards to get a feel for the type of energy that is left in the pellets. Here are a couple of conclusions I came away with from my testing.

First, the penetration of the pellets tells me there is enough energy left to do the job. Second, the energy is not evenly distributed over the entire swarm of pellets. Some penetrate noticeably deeper.

Assuming the pellets themselves are equal in density, much of the energy distribution has a lot to do with air resistance as the latter pellets draft behind the lead pellets. In other words upon ignition, as the shot string is released, the front pellets encounter resistance from the atmosphere and slow down. The pellets that are behind them in their wake, pass the lead pellets, and this process continues downrange until they are spread out far enough to where the atmospheric pressure is equalized. In effect the shot string is "peeled" back in mere milliseconds as it goes down range.

I do think that powders burn more efficiently now than they did back in the day when we could use lead on waterfowl so that would also affect velocities in a short barrel in a positive way.

There is no question that a heavier pellet is advantageous downrange in terms of energy and most times pattern density. I also believe that while ft/lbs of energy is certainly important, the shock value of multiple hits also carries merit.

[BT]

so suppose'in you walk off down yonder about 40 yards and I will shoot old "Betsy" in you-alls direction and we'll see what happens....

Nah i have been shot before so i would not stand still. lol----------------------------------------

I also believe that while ft/lbs of energy is certainly important, the shock value of multiple hits also carries merit.

------------Yes i think the multi hit does in efect make up for loss in ft lbs.

and the combind hit's make the ft lbs total go up drasticaly. evan at 1 ft. lb. 8 pellets would be 8 ft. lbs. in the kill zone.

I think it show just how inportant pattering of the gun and load is though.

espicaly with the shorter barrals.

with mulitible hits in the kill zone the one pellet ft lbs is not as inportant at the pattern.

But you know there are still alot of people around that don't pattern there shot guns.

with some of my buddys i have used the ft. lbs. explaniton to show the inportance of pattering there guns.

[Antler Eater]

But you know there are still alot of people around that don't pattern there shot guns.

So true, BT so true...

To further add to your discussion, I have found in my testing that my 28 inch barrelled guns (from different manufacturers) pattern better with any of the combinations I have tried than my 21 inch gun barrel. The difference is never what I would consider big, but nevertheless it exists. I know there would be those that argue barrel length should not affect the pattern, but my experience shows other wise. Perhaps there is not a noticeable difference between the pattern of 28" barrel vs a 30" barrel but in my case where the barrel lengths are farther apart there is a slight difference.

Also as long as we are talking about pellet energy I would also mention this. I have never been able to achieve some of the numbers in terms of pellet count in a ten inch circle that I read about with any of the components that I use. Shooting a 3 inch shell out of more than one manufacturers gun, I have shot Federal, Remington, and Winchester in shot sizes ranging from 4 through 6 at 40 yards without coming close to some of the numbers I read about. Even with Remington's version of Hevi-shot (tried both 5&6) I was disappointed. Before anyone recommends I use an after market choke, I have got four different ones from four popular manufacturers and while I feel they do a better job than the factory choke, there isn't that big a difference in performance between any one of them.

I guess that brings us right back to where we started. A guy better know what his gun does in terms of performance so you don't attempt any unrealistic shots in the field. The only way I know how to do this is to pattern your gun....

[1950KID]

I have a 28 inch Mossberg 835 with a Hastings extended choke tube. I shoot 3 1/2 Winchester #4's (2 1/4 oz) out of it.
It is a long distance thumper.

[Orions_Bow]

I used to use a 30" & it shot great & grouped great. I now use a 24" & it shoots great & is even better while in the field! I really think the handy nature of a short barrel is worth any tradeoffs.