Upland birds and short barrels?

[kurtis]

Alright so I had a 1984 remington 870 special field and it had a 21" barrel and from what I know was meant for upland game hunting. I notice now that 28" barrels are whats trending for game birds. I would like to get into pheasant/chukar hunting but when I slap on my 28" barrell on my 500 it feel odd to me.

I ordered another 20" barrel for my 500 and it has a double bead sight like my 28" barrel. Has anyone hunting game birds with a short barrel?

 

[MikeD]

Short barrels are nice for hunting in thick brush where you are taking snap.sbots or shooting birds huddled on the ground.

For any type of wing shooting having the extra weight of a longer barrel makes the gun swing smoother. Some find them sasier to "aim" as well but I am not concious of the bead when wing shooting.

I find 26+" barrels good for this If you really want a shorter gun a 24" barrel is tolerable.

Some of it also boils down to the person running the gun, what they like and what they are used to.

Edit: I did shoot a grouse with an 18" barrel once. It was noticibly louder than the 28" barrel I usually use. Another consideration if you anticipate a lot of rounds fired.

 

[John A.]

I have hunted birds with 20 inch barrels before. And it's not like that's a considerable longer length than 18.5"s.

As Mike has pointed out, one advantage to the longer barrel is the longer sight radius and how it feels as it's swinging. Longer barrels do allow a little more precise "bead".

But as far as how the shell performs, isn't any more meaningful with the longer barrel than the short one and I think that is at the root of your question.

Several of us have discussed this at length before, but the short answer is, way back in the day before "smokeless" powder was created when black powder was still widely in use, longer barrels were more beneficial than shorter ones due to longer range because the longer barrel allowed the pressure to build more as it was being fired.

Smokeless powder that is used today however, for the most part, has already burned out relatively fast in the bore and doesn't really see much of an increase in velocity regardless of barrel length, so the velocity ratings on the shell are going to more consistent whether it's an 18 inch barrel, or a 32 inch barrel.

In my honest and humble personal opinion, depending on the max distance that your predetermined distance where you consider a bird out of range, a bigger consideration than barrel length is your choke and shot size and how it patterns.

It is absolutely possible to find a great combination of choke and shot to use a shorter barrel that is just as good as a long one.

And since you may have to play around and use different chokes to find the sweet spot, having a shorter barrel that accepts screw in chokes would be preferred obviously.

There is a lot of choke testing on this forum. I have personally seen where one brand of choke outperforms another brand of choke of the identical constriction from counting pellets on target. And only testing in your specific barrel is going to be the biggest factor.

 

[kurtis]

I found it odd when I received the second 20" vent rib from mossberg and it had a double bead sight on it. Ill use it for birds and see how it goes. I might look like the oddball in the field . Ive killed plenty of squirrels on the run with it but never a bird

 

[John A.]

A mid bead is good for slow aimed fire.

Like sitting there pointing at a turkey while waiting for it to get in range.

But for shooting fast movers, just ignore it the best you can and use the front bead as you normally would like you would a squirrel running down a limb.

Another side note, just because a shotgun does have a mid bead, doesn't mean that it's going to pattern exactly where you're aiming even if you line up the mid and front sight together. That's really just the nature of the beast with a shotgun though.

 

[kurtis]

A mid bead is good for slow aimed fire.

Like sitting there pointing at a turkey while waiting for it to get in range.

But for shooting fast movers, just ignore it the best you can and use the front bead as you normally would like you would a squirrel running down a limb.

Another side note, just because a shotgun does have a mid bead, doesn't mean that it's going to pattern exactly where you're aiming even if you line up the mid and front sight together. That's really just the nature of the beast with a shotgun though.

Learn something new every day. I just assumed the double bead was a wing shooter thing since i mainly see them on longer barrels but now I Know.

 

[John A.]

That's not how I use a mid bead.

On a fast mover, lining up the front bead is hard enough.

Lining up two as you're swinging with the target, is near impossible to me.

 

[Don Fischer]

Alright so I had a 1984 remington 870 special field and it had a 21" barrel and from what I know was meant for upland game hunting. I notice now that 28" barrels are whats trending for game birds. I would like to get into pheasant/chukar hunting but when I slap on my 28" barrell on my 500 it feel odd to me.

I ordered another 20" barrel for my 500 and it has a double bead sight like my 28" barrel. Has anyone hunting game birds with a short barrel?

I had the same 870 in 20ga. I am not usually an 870 fan but it just caught my eye. Great great great grouse gun. Just mount and shoot. The grouse falls down. Then I tried in really open cover, couln't hit much! For open cover it just didn't swing well but I got by that by snap shooting. Really frustrating at first. Generally in the uplands I like a SxS with 26" or 28" barrels.