Hello all,

I recently bought a Mossberg 535 ATS. It came with a 28" barrel on it. My plan with this gun was to make it an all purpose gun from hunting to home defense. I am relatively new to both hunting and shotguns, but not firearms in general. I believe that the 28" barrel will fulfill most of my hunting needs, but I think it is too long for the home defense side. I can swap barrels out on my gun very easily, so I'm considering buying another barrel. I am trying to decide what length would be best for a second barrel. I think that an 18.5" would be best for home defense, but I think that with a 22" would be decent for home defense, and could also be used for hunting deer and turkey in situations where I wouldn't want to carry such a long barrel. Would a 20" barrel be a good compromise between the two where I could still hunt with it but also be practical for home defense? So 18.5, 20, or 22? Should I even consider the shorter barrel for hunting or just stick with the 28" for all my hunting needs? Also as a side note, I can get a 20" or 22" barrel with factory choke threads, but the 18.5 would have to be threaded for chokes. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

I would personally buy the 20" or 22" with choke tubes. I wouldn't sweat a couple inches or spend my time or money getting chokes installed in an 18.5" cylinder barrel.

Noweil,

Thanks for the advice. That's what I was leaning towards as well. My house is a pretty open floor plan, so I don't have tight hallways or anything where I think the 18.5" would be absolutely necessary. Would you have any preference between the 20" and 22" and if so, why?

I have 20" slug barrels that I wish were longer. If you are shooting buckshot it shouldn't matter. If you plan to hunt turkey with short barrel or deer with slugs, I would take 22". For straight home defense probably the 20".

Thanks for your advice! I have a 22" that I'm looking at now.