So, I've been mostly out of registered skeet for 4 years or so and only shoot sporting recreationally and not particularly seriously.
BUT, I'm sort of wondering how these guns maintain this weight with such long barrels.
One thought, and with all due respect on my part also
@308pirate, the only difference I'm aware of in a 68x skeet versus sporting model is one has a modified beaver tail fore end and one a Schnabel's which will take a small bit of wood out and hence weight but not significantly. Leaving out subgauge tubes, the guns are identical in my past experience. This may have changed...dunno, too busy learning about rifles! haha
Now, with skeet guns, most have an adjustable butt pad and add subgauge tubes and there is a good bit of weight.
I have a 682 E 30" two barrel set that I play with shooting low gun. Its a "sporting model" which means it has the Schanbel fore end. I really like the 20 ga barrel on the 12 ga frame for upland hunting though others may find it to be a bit heavy. Great guns, those 68x.
Now, I also have a circa 2000 or so Kolar (but I did have the triggers upgraded by Kolar which was badly needed) and its comes in with the 12 ga barrels at 10 lbs, 4 oz. I looked at the specs of the Kolar Max Skeet and see that its a back bored barrel to .740 so that will take a good bit of weight and moments of inertia out of the gun. My Kolar was before they made carrier barrels and so my 12 ga is a .740 bore with weight added between the ribs to match the subgauge barrel which is at .750 with Kolar AAA tubes. While this is, to me, a very pointable skeet gun...compared for example to my K-80....it would be too much gun for me in sporting clays but I'm not even in the same universe of skill as
@MPrimo.
Another thing skeet shooters have been doing more of in recent years is having very high adjustable ribs and custom stocks made with comb roll over and toe out built in which tends to make many of them the size of boat oars. Very like the Dennis Devault trap stocks (and I recently found out that sadly Mr. Devault passed away a few years ago...and he was still pretty young). Lots of weight there and no bueno for low gun, IMO.
I do see a lot of Caesars in SC with 32" barrels but to me these are somewhat lighter guns and while you see some on skeet fields, they seem to be far more popular in SC and FITASC.
For me, sight plane length will shorten a picture some and as
@MPrimo said it seems to reduce muzzle movement a bit and let him be a bit slower and smoother. But to me, barrel length isn't the key factor in pointability as much as balance and the gun being low in the fore hand. My K-80 weighs 10oz less than my Kolar but the Kolar is to my mind far quicker pointing gun for some reasons of balance and moments of inertia. K-80s are feel like barrel heavy guns to me but that makes them great to shoot skeet IMO.
Ok, done with the hijack and clearly my knowledge of SC gun preferences is clearly dated and I need to shut up now! LOL
Have a great day, guys.....going out to the range now to shoot rifle as its a beautiful day.
Cheers