tjcnole

I am not a good source of information on this subject - but I can tell how I feel, I have both24 & 26" inlines and a whole slew of 28" sidehammers. I can not find a good reason in the typical hunting arena that i would need one over the other. In a typical timbered tight area i kind of like the shorter 24" barrel, I would think in a tree stand they might be preferred also. I probably do hunt more with the 26" inline than I do with the 24". In my mind I have said I need the 26" for and the 24" for deer. During the ML season I do use the longer 28" sidehammers, but often I prefer the 27" Renegade.

Typically- the longer barrel will provide more velocity than the shorter barrel especially if you are shooting real BP, but with the variety of sub powders available and the different buring rates you can easily overcome the loss of a couple inches of barrel length. It will take some experimenting with different powders and different projectiles, but I am not sure the networth or net gain is the significant.

Get a gun that feels good to you and your typical hunting situation...

Just my 2 bits...