I had a whole host of reasons; it is a bear gun and easier to scramble in and out of the rig with a stubby tube than long, in the brush I use it in it is handier, and when strapped on my back with the double sling the muzzle doesn't rise above my head and get caught in the treeboughs when I'm snowshoing to the upper road thru the woods in the dark and carrying my skis in my arms. And for my purposes the loss of velocity is unnoticed. If it was an open-grounder, I'd not mind a full-length barrel at all.