Effect of drop in barrel lenght?

[tony.s]

I got a big case of Helsinki-simulator syndrome in the Army. (Ie. I prefer short & maneuverable longarms over long and bulky ones. Yup, prefer 'em a lot.) I started thinking (you can just smell trouble now, can't you? ), how much does reduction in barrel lenght effect the useful range of a generic shotgun? Shot velocity is reduced, of course, but what about the pattern of the shots? At what point does the barrel lenght really start to reduce maximum useful range? Or is the general drop in muzzle velocity too big before that?

For a good example: At my favorite gun store, there is a double-barrel shotgun (12/70, so no magnum capability though. ) cut down for CAS shooting. As I understand, CAS shotgun shooting is quite close-range. What if I would want to shoot some clays, or something else? Would a short-barreled shotgun be for short range only?

(I don't have any one single shotgun shooting sport in mind. I just generally would like to shoot more scatterguns... So I can't really be specific regarding the intended purpose of the gun. Bear with me...)

 

[Dave McC]

Within legal and practical limits,zero cause/effect between bbls and range.

But remember, the shotgun is a great close range weapon, and the key word in this sentence is, "Close".

Under 25 yards or so, the shotgun is devastating when used with proper ammo by a trained and cool hand. Much beyond 25 yds, there's better choices.

Most folks capable of dressing themselves and crossing the street on the green light are capable of making good hits at 75 yards with slugs. That's IF they train and practice.

Buck, even the best loads, start impacting off the target around 25 yards with some pellets. The folks who go to turkey shoots and hunt deer in buckshot areas have done lots of research on this, and the result is there's limits on the projectiles and pattern even after custom smithing and load selection.

A short bbled scattergun might not win many trophies nor make you into a local legend, but there's much fun to be had with a riot shotgun and clay pigeons, or real pigeons for that matter.BTW, a riot bbled 870 with just a bead sight and #8 shot loads does one great impersonation of a quail gun, tho the folks with the Parkers and other doubles might not invite you to lunch with them(G)...

There's a 21", tubed bbl on the 870 I use for flying stuff, and I do OK with it.