There has always been a lot of "mystery" and "theory" about what the barrel length of a shotgun has to do with performance. Should not a full choke 20" barrel pattern like a full choke 28" barrel. Apparently not, because the shorter barrel will have a lower velocity. But will the lower velocity make the shot pattern open up much more. Some gun writers used to say, that the longer barrel lengths on field shotguns are preferred, for the improvement in "swing," and "pointing," that the further away the front bead is from your eye, the better you can "point" the shotgun. Then again, some quail hunters like the shorter barrels, because they "point quicker." Who knows. I have seen the late Tom Knapp, shotgun master shoot doubles and triples with the shotgun UPSIDE DOWN. Then I have heard of guys saying they got tighter patterns by "magnetizing" their steel shot loads. At the "turkey shoots" around here, back in the day, they banned handloads; you had to use the loads provided, because some people were supposedly putting some kind of "sticky substance" mixed with the pellets, to make the patterns tighter. Who knows. MM