Bear and grouse gun??

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RidgeHunter

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Ok so I’m fairly new to shotguns so excuse me if this is a stupid question.
I recently bought a short barrel shotgun mostly for a fun camp gun and a little extra insurance in bear country.
Obviously I’d like to load it with slugs for bear defense, but if I come across some grouse it would be nice to finger load some bird shot. I’d like to be able to have the full choke in and aim high for mostly a head shot with little damage to the meat, but I’m thinking slugs and a full choke is probably no bueno.

So what would you do? Run a different choke and aim different for the grouse? Forget the slugs for defense and stick with 00 buck? Forget the whole idea and work on my David skills with a sling??

And yes I have bear spray I don’t want this to turn into a bear spray vs 12gauge debate. I still want the shotgun for protection.
 
Mod choke in both of my 20” barreled 12g’s gives me poi/poa out to 50yrds with challenger slugs and shoots buck and birdshot a tad high out to 50yrds, under 25yrds it shoots slugs into a ragged hole and tight patterns with #7.5 birdshot.

Set up a patterning board and test out different chokes with different loads, you can shoot slugs through a full choke. You might not get good accuracy but it’s safe to do. It’s my grouse set up and I’m good to shoot a deer or bear out to 50yrds, I usually shoot grouse around 25-30yrds so mainly head shots. Rare to get more than a pellet or two in the meat.
 
Lots of birds shot with old fixed full choke shotguns I use an old Cooey myself. Slugs will go through a full choke as well so fire away
 
Pattern your bird shot and group your slugs and a choke that does both should become apparent.

I like mod in my 870 for foster slugs and 6s when I am feeling like I want both.
 
0faustus0 said:
#6 shot for grouse .... the pellets rarely penetrate the breast meat
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You must has some tough birds there cuz I use 7.5s and 8s in my 20ga and regularly get pellets in the breast. Are you wingshooting or groundshooting?


fraserdw said:
Tried a 16 inch barrel once for Grouse. It did not point naturally and the range was really short.
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"Range" has nothing to do with bbl length. It's all about the choke, shot size and velocity.
 
I use IC for grouse and 7.5 shot. I shoot them on the ground or wing, their tasty little critters so I am not fussy. My IC choke also shoots slugs well too, though I usually carry 00 Buckshot for bigger animals, which are usually coyotes where I go.
 
Depends what type of grouse hunting you are doing. Up here, they are very sedate, and quietly wait for you to blow their heads off. I always use full choke. However, in other areas where they are naturally spooky, wing shots are the norm, and IC is the way to go.

You could always buy a new gun. In fact, you need a new gun, lol. Look at a combination gun. Chiappa makes a 20 guage /.22 combo. A good 20 gauge slug will dispatch your normal black bear, and the .22 is good for sitting birds. I think there is one on EE right now, you could buy it and give us a review (I've been looking at it for a while, but want more reviews).
 
Personally I think the OP is overthinking it. Leave the I/C or Modified tube in and life will be just fine. Even with the Full choke tube your #### will not drop off if you shoot slugs through it. There's no good reason to do so, your head-shooting idea is attractive, but still feasible with an open choke plus you have a much better chance if you take a shot at a flying bird with I/C.
 
Well that's good to hear. I had read that shooting slugs with a full choke in could wreck the barrel so good to know I can leave the full choke in.

I'm curious of those that said they're using a mod or improved choke for Grouse, are you shooting flushed birds in the air or birds on the ground? Here the birds will flush but really only fly 20' or so and then wait there for you to shoot them in the head. Hence why I was preferring to use the full choke.
 
RidgeHunter said:
I'm curious of those that said they're using a mod or improved choke for Grouse, are you shooting flushed birds in the air or birds on the ground? Here the birds will flush but really only fly 20' or so and then wait there for you to shoot them in the head. Hence why I was preferring to use the full choke.
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9/10 times I’m ground shooting or they flush into a tree and I drop them from a roost, if they flush and fly away they do so into thick woods too quick to wing shoot in the areas I’m grouse hunting. Ranges anywhere from 10-40 yards, on fsr’s and overgrown skid trails and footpaths. My 12g patterns a bit high with a mod choke using buck and birdshot, if I put the front bead on the head its a head shot. I came up on one last season close enough that I broke its neck with the shot, head was totally spun around. No pellets in the breast with a 6 o-clock hold.
 
The first thing you need to do is pattern your gun with the ammo you intend to carry in the field, and decide from what you see on your pattern board if you need greater choke constriction, or just a better quality choke tube, or maybe nothing needs to be changed. Should you change brands of ammo, you should repeat the exercise since no two different loads pattern the same in any particular barrel, just as no one load will pattern the same when fired in different barrels. Should your observations convince you to use a tighter choke constriction than IC, switch to the modified tube, and repeat the exercise; I doubt you'll need to use the full choke tube.

You will also want to see the point of impact of your slugs,relative to the bead, if you are not using adjustable sights, and again, this should be repeated if you change slug loads. If your bead is mounted on the barrel with no pedestal under it to raise it to the height of the receiver, you will shoot high if you employ a proper cheek weld. To make the gun hit point of aim with slugs, you might need to depress the muzzle until the bead dips below your line of sight, just below the receiver. This technique is counter intuitive, and will have to be practiced extensively if you expect to use the gun effectively in a bear emergency. A better bet is to mount adjustable sights, or an optic on your shotgun.
 
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