I saw a post in another CAS topic stating that the existence of 20" barrelled shotguns has not been documented. This would be good news, since I would have a good reason to purchase another shotgun.
Might anyone have any info on this?
This is good "hard" evidence:
RL Wilson "The Book of Colt Firearms, 3rd Ed." pp.483-490. The 1878 Hammered Colt SxS was produced in factory lengths from 18" to 34". The 1883 Hammerless Colt SxS was offered in 18" to 36" barrel lengths. Wilson does note that 28", 30", and 32" were the standard lengths.
Madis "The Winchester Book". He notes the Winchester 1887 and 1897 were produced in 20" barrel lengths as "Guard" or "Riot" guns. The '97 was also offered (post 1900) in 20" "Trench" variation with the bayonet lug.
So there is documentation, but to back up Tascosa's writing I have a handful of pre-1900 hardware catalogs. Browsing through two (N. Curry & Bro. San Francisco, 1884 and George W. Harder's, Williamsport, PA, 1890) shows that ALL of the sporting SxS shotguns (Ithaca, Parker, Remington, etc...) were only offered by these retailers to the public in 28", 30" or 32" models. This tells us that the "shorties" were not common and factory special orders.