Upland shotgun choice.
- Thread starter regulate34
- Start date
Upland hunting generally is more carrying and less shooting, my go to grouse gun is a 20g Benelli Montefeltro, 5.6 lbs. sweet little shotgun. Also have a Spanish SxS in 20g, killed my share of birds with that one too. Recently thought I would try a 28g, bought a beautiful Huglu O/U but as nice as the gun is, I’m not a fan, not impressed with the 28g, I find it does not kill as well as the 20g. I know the 28g seems to have a loyal following but I am not one of them. 20g is still my preferred choice.
Have you patterned your 28 gauge, and compared it to your 20 gauge? 1/8 ounce of shot , should make very little difference. I wonder if the point of impact is different, due to gun fit.
Two of the best shooting guns I ever owned were both 28 gauge SxS's, and both were at opposite ends of the spectrum. One was a CZ Mini Bobwhite, the other a special order Fausti Dea.
Both pointed exactly where I looked and both have accounted for everything from fast flying chukkers to big Canadas , Sharptails and wild roosters.
Cat
I have patterned my 28 gauge and it does not pattern as well as the 20 gauge, even tried the 1oz loads in it and still does not perform as well. The gun does hit where it’s pointed, but the 20 patterns better with 7/8 oz loads than the 28 does with 1oz. or 3/4 oz. Tried 4 types of ammo, different chokes and still don’t get great results. Performance is only marginally better than a .410 IMO. If it works for someone else good for them but it will be the new safe Queen for me and my 20 gauges will continue to be my upland choice.
Different guns pattern certainly differently and I have seen some dandies. Not saying that you're wrong about the 28/20 thing and shoot what ever you feel works best. I have shot both 28/20 at doves in Argentina over 7000 rounds found both worked well in fact imho no difference. That was with lead out of Benelli's but I have 5 28 g. and boy are they different. The model 12 and Beretta A 400 upland are dead on but the others are very different one I'm surprised I hit the paper it was so off. It will be gone soon .These were all patterned with a rifle rest so no pulling the shot. Some are stock chokes some are interchangeable so yes not just the barrel. Also my browning gold 20G mod. choke from browning is straight cylinder which I'm sure if I did not pattern I would have blamed the gun.
I don't even like coping with the ejectors on a double barrel. You've just downed a bird and know that more may go up when you step forward, plus the dead bird is going to be really hard to find if you take your eyes off it so it would be really nice if the gun just lifted the shell up quietly without making a big deal out of it while you reload. It's also true that there always seems to be a fence or some sort of thorn barrier between me and the bird, so if I just let the shell eject off I'll have to get over that, get the bird, then go back for the shell, and then maybe do it for a third time if I was travelling in that direction, which is generally the case.
Speaking of lost birds, at one time Orvis sold big plastic coated blaze orange steel washers with some trail tape attached and the idea was you tossed one on the spot where a bird went down and you could mess around with the above sort of chores, or follow more birds that walked off, and then come back and find the spot easily. They not only sold them, but I bought a set of 2 and they actually work well.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
After several decades of target shooting my hulls never hit the ground even using a gun with ejectors, long ago I learned to stop them with my hand to pluck them out and throw them in the hull bin. While hunting I do it automatically and don't take my eyes off of the bird.
sillymike
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
That's actually a good idea, and ought to be easy to enough to make, and would probably work good when walking the fields.
- But I don't think I could throw a ball 20y in the woods without it hitting a tree and coming back at me
Well it could indeed be the gun for whatever reason, maybe the way the forcing cones are machined or something, I don’t know. It’s the first 28g for me so don't have any others to compare it to. I do own shotguns of almost every gauge from .410 bore to 10g, only gauge I don’t have is a 16g. For hunting purposes the .410 is by far the worst performer hence my nickname for it the “cripple stick”, and the 28g is rating a close second to it. It’s not that the gun doesn’t hit where it’s pointed because it does but killing performance is not good and the patterning tests reflect this. It does ok if your in slingshot range but then so does the .410. My favourite load for the 20g for grouse is 7/8oz of 71/2. The 20 still patterns better with 7/8 oz of 71/2 than the 28 does with 1oz. It does slightly better with#8 shot on paper obviously but I prefer 71/2 for hunting. Very patchy patterns especially near the centre, using several different loads and chokes all seem to produce the same result. I really wanted to like this gun but my other 20g guns perform better and my 20g Benelli is 1/2 lb lighter to carry.
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All good ,you found something you like and it works for you that is the best one can hope for. Unfortunately there are us that are tinkerers and even when we find something that works great have to try something a little different or smaller or bigger, and I am one of those. The 16g model 12 has worked very well and except for my occasional foray with my 1883 Dougall has been my go to gun for pheasants. Now have both an SKB 20g sxs and the A400 28g that we will try ,shouldn't but ..
The one big sticking point fr me and CZ shotguns are their swaged chokes , that bulge at the end of the barrels reminds me of a trumpet! LOL
Cat
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
My 20 gauge selection is much more limited than my 12s with only an 870 Youth Magnum and Superposed Lightning in my battery. Frankly, the Superposed would be my choice for long walks in the grouse woods. A svelte little side by side would be nice to find as well, but finding one that fits an ape like me can be a challenge, and I have enough shotguns to make the decision difficult that I really don't need another unless I find more hours in the day to really dedicate myself to the endeavour.
Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Agreed here. I have a 20 circa 1971 and a 28 gauge circa 2010. Both are fine guns for all day uplands.
Straight stocked, double triggered, sxs’s are definitely my preferred choice. Early on I used what I had - pump guns and single shots. As my collection grew and my tastes evolved, I started mixing in some sxs’s and u/o’s.
For about a 20 year stretch, my partner and I liked to hunt with all our guns. It got a bit ridiculous at one point where we would get a bird and then head back to the truck to switch guns. Some days we would get 3 or 4 birds, all with different guns.
Then the advancing years begin to take their toll. No way I’d walk back to the truck just to switch guns these days. For the last 10 years, I’ve focused on 20 ga sxs’s that meet my full criteria. Must have:
The search was long and arduous - there are not many guns made to these specifications and those that are tend to be bespoke and expensive. But, luck was on my side and I found a gorgeous Savage Fox A Grade that has become my go-to uplands gun. Nice and light, easy on the hands, and deadly accurate.
I still like to take out my British and Spanish sxs’s, but I use them more for grouse and birds that are suited to light loads.
For about a 20 year stretch, my partner and I liked to hunt with all our guns. It got a bit ridiculous at one point where we would get a bird and then head back to the truck to switch guns. Some days we would get 3 or 4 birds, all with different guns.
Then the advancing years begin to take their toll. No way I’d walk back to the truck just to switch guns these days. For the last 10 years, I’ve focused on 20 ga sxs’s that meet my full criteria. Must have:
- English straight stock and splinter fore end
- Double triggers
- Case hardened receiver, blued barrels, hand rubbed oil finish
- Rounded action
- Removable chokes
- Weigh less than 6.5 lbs. and built by quality maker
The search was long and arduous - there are not many guns made to these specifications and those that are tend to be bespoke and expensive. But, luck was on my side and I found a gorgeous Savage Fox A Grade that has become my go-to uplands gun. Nice and light, easy on the hands, and deadly accurate.
I still like to take out my British and Spanish sxs’s, but I use them more for grouse and birds that are suited to light loads.
