First shotgun recommendation for hunting grouse

A 12g with removable chokes, doesn’t matter if it’s a single shot, pump or semi. The grouse won’t know the difference, 12g shells are everywhere and still relatively cheap. Removable chokes will allow you to shoot steel or lead and pick your appropriate pattern for your distances etc.
 
First shotgun I used for hunting was a Stevens savage single shot 12ga with a 36 inch full choke barrel it was my first gun and it was my grandfathers first gun personally any shotgun with a full choke is what I’d use but for grouse I now prefer my .410ga less kick and really you don’t need a 12ga for grouse
 
Where might you be hunting these grouse? If you are up north a little? You can kill a grouse with a sling shot no need to buy a gun.
Honestly, most times you can just walk old logging road with .22rimfire and nock their heads off.
A .410 is a great little grouse gun for that kind of hunting.
If you’re the fancy type and plan only working with bird dogs and shooting at flushing birds short fast and light is what you want. A well balanced upland over under gun in 20 ga with removable chokes. Or a short, fast,light semi auto in 20ga. Upland bird hunting is lots of walking not a lot or shooting. It only takes 1-3 pellet hits to knock down fragile upland birds. And honestly a 12ga although the most versatile shotgun ever made is over kill on pretty much all upland birds.

Good luck searching for your new gun.
 
I find myself using a 28 gauge and modified choke early season. Upon the first snowfall it gets put away and an older 20 gauge takes its place. The twelve is rarely used now, but sometimes with an overlapping deer season is about the only time I select the 12 gauge.
Late season boredom could be set aside if I use the brass barrel blunderbuss. Of course a reproduction flintlock from Loyalist Arms.
 
Brutus said:
Late season boredom could be set aside if I use the brass barrel blunderbuss.
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sillymike said:
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Yeah it's a ten gauge, not that it really matters. Honestly I have never had the opportunity to take grouse with it. Just rabbits. But that's a very stupid omission on my part. When I was fiddling around with it my hunting area kind of unique, ruffled grouse, sharptails and even one time willow Ptarmigan too! In a place very close to my rabbit warren.
That year I got a double on sharptails and a smattering of grouse was the last year sharptails were open this part of north east Alberta.
I digress, the blunderbuss is kind of fun in the spruce thickets. I remember a stubborn rabbit hiding in the thickest of thick stand of spruce.
One #4 lead pellet got him. This single payload chopped down alot of branch foliage with the same shot. Lol
 
Ottawa76 said:
Hey folks,

Was hoping to get a few recommendations as to what a good first shotgun would be for grouse hunting and at the range shooting skeet.
I'm thinking 12Ga pump action with interchangeable chokes. I'm not sure on length of shotgun, 3" or 3.5" and what brand etc.
I don't mind spending good money for a quality 'buy once, cry once' shotgun.

Appreciate any help here at all!
Thank you all.
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I have never knowingly shot "skeet", so know nothing about that - many hundreds of clay pigeons from mechanical and hand throwers - yes, if that counts. But also many dozen sharptail grouse, the odd ruffed grouse, and multiple hungarian partridges. My wife will not clean waterfowl, and I can't say is my favourite pastime, so goose shoots from pits in field with decoys were a "special occurrence" - but we limited out when we did that.

The shotgun was on sale from SIR in perhaps mid 1980's - 12 gauge, chambered for 3" shells, 26" barrel with fairly high rib and fixed "Modified Choke" - was a Browning Pump Shotgun - similar to older Ithaca 37 in that it loaded and ejected out the bottom - was completely closed on both sides of the receiver - no loading or ejection port. Was not unknown with that one to click over the magazine cut-off - eject a 2 3/4" #6 and slip in a 3" #2 for a 100 yard poke at some "prairie chickens" that there was no hope to get closer. I never hunted with a dog - was all on foot and walk - spot and get them - or not.

Currently I have side by side 20, over and under 20 and over and under 28. Since I do not do migratory waterfowl any more - is almost all about what people here call "bush partridge" - ruffed grouse. I have seen some flocks of sharptail grouse, and very occasionally some "huns" - but not often here in Western Manitoba.

Is about what you plan to shoot at - for purely grouse, I can say is nothing wrong with modified choke, 26" barrel, 12 gauge - pump or whatever to your preference. The skeet thing might be different - I would not know.
 
I think you have two possibly three different groups advising you on the ideal shotgun for their particular type of hunting.

If you are in an area where the birds are un pressured, which unless you travel you likely are not (I hunt over a fair bit of eastern Ontario for grouse), sluicing grouse on the ground or out of a tree with the very occasional flying shot a more tightly choked shotgun of whatever chambering tickles your fancy will be fine.

If you are hunting more pressured areas you will perhaps never shoot at a sitting bird and you need to take the shots as they come on the wing a decent pump or auto with IC or maybe LM when the leaves are on the trees and maybe Modified choke when the leaves are off. In eastern Ontario you are as likely to have a whack at a woodcock early or a snowshoe hare late so select your shot size accordingly.

For the single shotgun and shell combination I’d run a Light Modified choke and 1oz or 1 1/8oz of 7.5s , maybe a few 8s for really early.
 
Some forget that upland hunting with or without a dog may decide your choke for maximum success.
With dogs you may be very much closer to your game birds so more open chokes can produce better results if the gunner is up to the more sudden & quickly moving target.

My 2 bits.....
 
My recommendation would be an 870 but since they have closed shop and no new stock, it seems the prices have gone thru the roof but saying that. I got a 870 (3” mag) new in 1984 and paid $429.00 ( just look it up a $100.00 in 1984 is worth $285.00 today I guess I can’t sell it and get my money back. I still have original bill.)

In the market now there are a lot of lower end guns to fill your needs. Go to a store and pick up them up and feel the fit, if it does fit don’t buy it. How long you want to keep it and how long you going to use each year. Price will set your limit.
 
Butcherbill said:
A 12g with removable chokes, doesn’t matter if it’s a single shot, pump or semi. The grouse won’t know the difference, 12g shells are everywhere and still relatively cheap. Removable chokes will allow you to shoot steel or lead and pick your appropriate pattern for your distances etc.
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^^There's some good, straightforward advice right there. For the first few years I hunted grouse and Prairie Chicken with my Dad's old Tobin 12 ga double. Both barrels full choke. I bought a Savage 24H-DL I 22/20ga in about 1967, and have used it pretty much all the the time since. The Savage is also full choke, but in the last 55 years, I managed to fluke a fair number. I usually only shoot a couple a year, as hunting upland is more of trip down memory lane for me than shooting a big number.

I have Weatherby autos in 12 and 20, both with removable chokes. I did smoke a couple of pheasants with the 12ga two years ago, hunting with my old Metis buddy down in the Willow Bunch area. That hunt was the last time I used Dad's old Tobin. I got two Huns with it. She's been retired permanently now, as the butt stock is getting a little ragged where it fits into the action.
 
Brutus said:
Some forget that upland hunting with or without a dog may decide your choke for maximum success.
With dogs you may be very much closer to your game birds so more open chokes can produce better results if the gunner is up to the more sudden & quickly moving target.

My 2 bits.....
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Dogs, yes. I always intended to get a bird dog, either a Griffon, a Brittany or a GWP, after I retired if not before, but talking to a couple of semi pro handlers at a show here revealed that the local grouse will not hold for a pointing dog, they're smart I tells you, and also I was so accustomed to my solo stalking methods that I would have hated to give them up anyway.
 
Big Bad said:
Dogs, yes. I always intended to get a bird dog, either a Griffon, a Brittany or a GWP, after I retired if not before, but talking to a couple of semi pro handlers at a show here revealed that the local grouse will not hold for a pointing dog, they're smart I tells you, and also I was so accustomed to my solo stalking methods that I would have hated to give them up anyway.
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If you are hunting in eastern Ontario they will certainly hold for a dog. Just not for long. The 20 minute point that trial judges like is useless for actual bird hunting in the woods.

My GSP would horrify a “pro trainer”, especially since I have thought him the “show me” command which releases him to flush a running bird.

You only get some many dogs in your life, better to start now.
 
Big Bad said:
Dogs, yes. I always intended to get a bird dog, either a Griffon, a Brittany or a GWP, after I retired if not before, but talking to a couple of semi pro handlers at a show here revealed that the local grouse will not hold for a pointing dog, they're smart I tells you, and also I was so accustomed to my solo stalking methods that I would have hated to give them up anyway.
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i have been raised in brittany with mostly brittany and i have a griffon korthals ... dogs are so great for so many reasons using the excuse to have one for hunting is an extra one. typing it while our griffon is sleeping on me ... what a hunting dog. but seems swans flying over just wake her.

but we are far from grouse and shotguns lol ...
 
medvedqc said:
i have been raised in brittany with mostly brittany and i have a griffon korthals ... dogs are so great for so many reasons using the excuse to have one for hunting is an extra one. typing it while our griffon is sleeping on me ... what a hunting dog. but seems swans flying over just wake her.

but we are far from grouse and shotguns lol ...
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A good dog (mine are Llewellin Setters) makes upland hunting infinitely more enjoyable.
 
If you are planning on going the sporting dog route and become a dedicated upland hunter my choice for shotgun would be a browning citori 725 in 20ga ( bring ur wallet) As for the dog it is your choice, pointers are the quintessential upland dogs but any dog is the best hunting buddy you will ever have. They love hunting more than we do! And they’re better at finding game than we could ever be.
If you plan on other types of hunting.. waterfowl, big game etc I would choose a versatile semi auto 12 ga made by who ever fits you best.
 
For hunting grouse and shooting skeet, I'd go with a good quality semi, new or used in 20ga(Browning, Winchester, Remington, Beretta). I shoot an SX3 20ga I picked up at a great price in the EE that only had if I recall two boxes of target loads down the pipe. It has alot more than that through it now, about 10 flats of target loads and over 10 flats of hunting loads and it performs flawlessly and is an absolute joy to shoot. The IC choke has only been changed out once for the M choke and it went back in shortly after. It shoots everything well through that choke, kills big geese cleanly out to 40 yds and crushes targets on the skeet field beautifully. I no longer own a 12ga except for one "defense" gun for the home-truck and my trap guns. I hunt and shoot skeet exclusively with the 20ga as does my wife.
 
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