I'm planning to buy a Browning Gold 10 ga. soon and I'm trying to decide on barrel length.

I seem to remember something about anything over 24" or so in a 12 ga. being of no further benenfit velocity wise, but the memory is foggy.

Can somebody tell me if I'll lose velocity with a 24" barrel or a 26" vs. a 28" barrel in the 10 gauge?

I'll likely get the 26" but would like 2 fewer inches if it is not going to limit the range.

I'll be using it mainly for geese.

I couldn't locate a 26" anyway so I got the 28.

Had A ithaca 32 inch which needed a new stock, traded for a remington 26 inch. Bad move, got a gun two + pounds heaverier with a shorter sight plane. Got into Benelli 3 1/2 inch twelve guage at 7 and or 7.3 lbs. and only look back occasionally. Can't cary 12 pound gun any more comfortably where I want to go.Maybe never could but have to admit it at sixty.

If you are going to do a ten guage there is nothing like them, but you have to do the whole program. Long barrel, heavey gun. I rememeber a flock of fifteen red heads, missed the first two shots along with all the brothers when eleven folded on the third shot. It was like someone shook a feather pillow up in the sky when they tumbled out onto the water.Some visualls will live a long time. Well worth the price of admission.

Wow! 11 with one shot. Yes, I can imagine that is a memory that will last a lifetime.

My Browning Gold with 28" barrel will be here tomorrow. Christmas is coming early this year...

I have a remington sp-10 with 20 inch and 26 inch barrels with the screw in chockes and a h & R with the 36" full barrel. I like the shorter length as it is a bit quicker swing.

Yesterday I used the Browning Gold on its first hunt. Up until now I've only fired at claybirds for practice.

This was only my second Canada Goose hunt, and we didn't get to shoot at any on my first goose hunt last year. It didn't look promising in the morning as the weather was clear and calm, but the geese started coming to the decoys in spite of that.

On the first stand-up and my first shot at geese I got a triple. Two doubles and another triple later and we had the limit for our group of four hunters. 20 birds, 10 of which were shot by me.

The 10 ga. far out performed the three 12 gauges that made up the rest of the party, including one 3.5" 12 ga. I would say that anyone who claims that the 3.5" 12 ga. is the equal of the 10 needs to try a 10, it's like magic.

For now I'm calling the gun 'Goose Hammer'. So far I'm extremely happy with this Browning Gold, it knocks them out of the sky with authority.

Two Tone,
I have a Zabala 10 that I shortened to 26" and installed choke tubes, turned the huge beavertail forend into a splinter, skeletonized the forend iron, and removed a pound and a half of lead from under the recoil pad. All of that reduced the weight of the gun from 12 1/2 pounds down to an even 10. I find the 26" tubes to be no handicap whatsoever and they certainly make the gun a lot handier in a blind or a layout box. I had a similar experience to yours last Friday. Three of us killed 15 Canadas, one shooter was using a new 3 1/2" 12 gauge, but it was obvious that my 10 gauge, 3 1/2" killed those big honkers with more authority. I load Bismuth 2's in the right barrel and Bismuth BB's in the left. Last bird of the morning, the other two shooters fired two shots each but only knocked a few feathers out of the bird at about 45 yards. I gave him the left barrel, going away from me at about 55 yards, and killed the bird clean. The ten gauge RULES!!!

Hi Ron,

Do you reload with Bismuth or are these factory loads?

They are factory loads. I am down to about 20 rounds now. I would KILL for a 7 pound jug of Bismuth BB's right now!!!!

I bought me a browning 10 gold in shadow grass with a 28" barrel the first year browning offered one, (didn't want a remington) i had to order from the factory. in my opinion it is honestly the best duck/goose gun out there for shooting them with steel. that being said you do have to be very carefull shooting into a flock of ducks over decoys.

I have owned a Rem SP 10 26" barrel for about 17 years now and I love it. I just pickced up a Laoronha 10 ga side by side 32", it is an older gun that I have some plans for. Although I haven't done any paturn test with it yet I will most likely send to to Briley for forcing cone and choke work.

With Canada Goose season at an end I will have to try it out on Snow Geese.

A few inches of barrel length either way is insignificant to load perfromance or killin' effectiveness.

To answer your question more direct. Yes, a shorter barrel will generate a little less velocity, but it is not enough to worry about. I think it comes down to about 5-10 fps per inch of barrel length, but there are many variables to that. Heck, load velocity usually varies more than that between shots.

Don't make your barrel length decision on load performance, base it on gun weight, balance and feel!

Good luck.