Mngane,

You have a beautiful Thys.

My favorite elephant and buffalo rifle is also a Marcel Thys sidelock, though mine is in 458wm.

Personally I like the longer barrels, mine are about 26 1/4" so are probably the same metric length.

I would never hesitate to change or alter a rifle to make it more suitable or functional. If I thought I couldn't alter a rifle to suit me, I would sell it pronto and replace it with a suitable rifle or one that I would alter. I've had my Thys reconfigured to suit me, though the barrel length wasn't an issue for me. I am a lefty and the rifle has been reworked to accomodate me, and it does.

Everyone talks "original" but if a rifle has had much use use it isn't likely to be original, at least if its in good condition, only safe queens are likely mint and original. I gaurantee the fellow who built or bought a second hand an H&H or Purdey rifle in the day who then thought the barrels were too long had them shortened, or thought the forend should be redone redid it.

Have JJ do the work and Marcel will enter it in the factory order book, that is a compromise if you need one.

Reregulating and rebalancing the rifle will be no big deal and this is right down JJ's alley. BTW, he was an aprentice to Thys as well as a student.

If it was mine, I'd leave the barrels as is and redo the forend. But if I thought, as you do, that the barrels were too long then I would redo the forend to see if I still thought that and if so, start cutting barrel by 1" increments until I was happy.

Can't resist posting a couple of photos of my Thys, below. The rifle had a temporary finish on the stock for this trip since I had been fitting it to me between trips and time ran out to fully refinish the stock.

Best,

JPK

Marcel Thys