At the Dallas Safari Club Convention in Atlanta held January 11-14, we ran into Longthorne Guns’  Managing Director, James Longthorne Stewart. The English gunmaker was showing, for the first time, their new 12-gauge Peregrine barrels.

The barrels’ name pays homage to the Peregrine Falcon because the raptor, as James put it, “is fast, deadly and accurate.”

Longthorne established a reputation for innovation through advanced barrel manufacturing. The company started milling shotgun barrels from a single steel billet in 2006 and by 2010 released their first products to market. Longthorne has since applied that patented process to titanium and Damascus-steel, and beyond that is currently developing a three-pound, 28-gauge all-titanium, over/under.

In their stand at DSC, James explained that through innovative engineering they were able to change the handling dynamics of a Longthorne from a swing to more of a rotation for a smoother and more controllable shotgun.

The 33-inch barrels feature a “reverse mid-rib,” according to James. The top rib, which has the design elements of a competition gun, starts at 8mm at the breach and widens to 10mm “for a better sighting plane.”

The goal of the new design was to shift the balance of the barrels more toward the receiver. “By moving the weight of the barrels closer to the breach, the gun rotates more than swings,” James explained. “We moved the inertia towards the back of the gun.”

He elaborated that peak barrels pressure is now about eight inches from the breach and starts to decrease as the payload moves midway through the barrels. By decreasing the pressure, Longthorne was able to make the barrels thinner toward the middle, but soon returns to the thicker inner bore as the pressure starts to increase again at the muzzle. Overall, the design yields a more balanced field and clays gun.

Longthorne’s Peregrin barrels will be available in both fixed constrictions and multi-choke options.

–Irwin Greenstein

For more details visit https://www.longthorneguns.com

Irwin Greenstein

Irwin Greenstein is Publisher of Shotgun Life. Please send your comments to letters@shotgunlife.com.

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