Is a shotgun with an 18.5'; barrel too short for goose hunting?

Why or why not? Advantages or disadvantages?





Thank you for answering?Is a shotgun with an 18.5'; barrel too short for goose hunting?
Barrel length itself has nothing to do with the spread of a shot pattern. A full-choke 18'; barrel is better for long-range work than a cylinder-bore 30'; tube. The assumption here has been that your barrel is indeed an open-choke police or defence-type barrel, and no, that will not do for geese, unless you are stalking them within about 15 yards.





Waterfowl guns have traditionally had very long barrels, up to 36';, for three reasons: to give a longer sight plane for long-range accuracy, to facilitate a good swing and follow-thru for shooting birds ';on the wing';, and to fully burn black-powder loads, irrelevant today as most modern smokeless-powder shells burn efficiently in 20-22'; of barrel.





So you should probably get yourself a gun with a 28'; barrel and interchangeable choke tubes. With steel shot, the ';improved-modified'; choke can pattern as well or better than the traditional full choke. If you're a lousy wing-shot like me, a 20'; or 22'; barrel will be a lot easier to maneuver, however unconventional, though recoil will be more pronounced. Either way, choke - not length - is key.Is a shotgun with an 18.5'; barrel too short for goose hunting?
Whoever says velocity and pattern size is affected doesn't know what they're talking about. It's fine.





The swinging is not as bad as one might think on a short barreled gun. It's much more important to make sure the length of pull (butt stock) fits you properly in winter clothing.











The only real negative to having a short barreled waterfowl gun is that you may never be invited to go hunting with people a second time. If you're in a blind, you need a long 28-30'; (26 at the absolute min) barrel to stick out past your hunting buddies. Do you know how loud a shotgun blast is when the barrel is still in the pit or blind???


If you're hunting layouts, that's one thing. If you're hunting with a couple people in the same blind, they will not be happy with you.


That's the real reason people use the long barrels.
Unless you can sneak up to within about 50 feet of the geese yes it is. Barrel length will give you a tighter pattern on your shot at close range and keep it from spreading until it gets farther out. My experience with geese is shooting at that little bitty speck in the sky or way the heck out on the lake. Never ever close in. My gun was a 12 guage, 2 3/4 inch mag with a full choke 28 inch barrel. I can think of three direct hits on geese that rocked them in the air but didnt bring them down. tough birds. Had I been using a shorter barrel that let the shot patter disperse too wide, too early I wouldnt have even hit them. For geese I found that bigger is always better. a 10 guage with a long barrel is usually adequate to the task.


I gave up goose hunting becasue in 7 years of shooting at them I never brought down a single one. And I got tired of freezing my butt off for nothing.
I have to say it depends on the range, but my gut says YES unless youre hunting the ones in a city park. (Dont hunt in the park, it was just a joke.) The short barrel wont do a very good job of keeping the pellets together in a tight pattern. You will likely do a lot more injury than humane killing.
Too short.......





The problem is the shot would pattern so wide that many of the pellets and maybe all would sail right on by the goose never hitting it.....





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Technically no, but it will be much harder to aim with that lower-probably not ribbed barrel. The velocity will be lower too than good 28-30inch goose guns.
Not,for close ranges shooting.