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...)