doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 28 gauge. A viable hunting option????

Miller, I agree on what you are saying in both of your posts. The only thing I want to know is where are you guys finding these 5 1/4 lb. guns? The lightest gun I have is a 20 ga. Beretta sxs 626e, straight stock, 26" barrels and that weighs 6 lbs. 3 ozs. Another Beretta 28 ga. BL4 26" barrels weighs 6 lbs. 4 ozs., and I thought they were light.

Right JDW. 28s can weigh more than 20s built on the same frame due to more barrel wall. The rage now is 20/28 combo sets which makes no sense to me. When would I ever put the heavier barrels on to shoot shells that cost twice as much?

With the price of lead now, several of my casual skeet shooting friends are loading 3/4 in the 20 anyway. Saves wearing out the expensive 28ga hulls...

I know you all know this but, a bird hit with sufficient numbers of leathal sized shot to statistically cover the vitals with shot going of sufficient velocity, doesn't know the difference which gauge barrel it came from.

Sure, to get an equivalently dense pattern with a 28g, the pattern must be smaller diameter than larger gauges with more shot. It boils down to getting the pattern on target. Harder to do as the pattern gets smaller. Has nothing to do with whether or not the gauge is capable of killing. It's all about the shooter's ability no matter the gauge. Large gauges,less difficult to do. Smaller gauges, ever increasingly difficult.

I've reached for small gauges when birds are plentiful and/or conditions assure more bag. When conditions/game are more challenging, I tend to reach for my larger gauge guns. That's the reason I own more than one gauge.

I think it all depends on your skill level. I will use a 28 on quail but nothing larger. One of my friends will use a 28 on chuckers or even larger birds with great sucess. The point being he is a much better shot than I am. If you find your percentage of clean kills remains high, by all means use a 28. They are fun and easy to carry. If it does not work for use then return to the 20 or better. Respect the game. A 28 can still be a blast on clays.

I have shot birds from rail to Canadian Geese with a 28 back in the old days when lead was legal. My first gun was a Winchester Model 12 in 28 gauge. Suspect my father hoped that I would loose interest and he would end up with the 28 for quail. Sorry dad.

After 40 years of shooting the 28 I have found out a few basic truths. Most people who have the strongest reasons to hate or love the 28 are full of BS. It is neither lighting bolts from the Gods or a worthless wounder of game. Used within resonable range it will cleanly kill all the birds any other gauge will.

It does have limits. The later in the year the less effective it becomes. Partly because birds are older, stronger, more heavily feathered and educatated by a long season of hunting and not shot at short ranges, as they were earlier in the year. Late season birds are harder to kill and much harder to trick into getting close to the blind. NO good one ounce load exist for the 28. They end up too slow and pattern too poorly to be effective. You need high quality shot in 28. The better the shell the better the result and no more so than with the 28. 3/4 ounce is about the minimum shot load for hunting so every pellet counts. And last if you lend your hunting partner your 28 he will out shoot you every time.

When discussions turn to gun weight with the 28g and .410, I think it gets down to very personal preference and abilities. Why should someone that cannot shoot a gun well, under say 6 1/4 lbs, but is very much a great shot, be looking for the "advantage" of shooting a 5 3/4 lb 28g? IMO, gauge and "optimum" gun weight (96X shot charge, etc) can be disassociated when going down in gauge to accommodate minimum gun weight/balance for the shooters abilities. The "advantage" of using a smaller gauge comes in the form of the particular hunter's satisfaction with what he is shooting.

Jon,
That last little piece of information is to live by. LOL

"And last if you lend your hunting partner your 28 he will out shoot you every time."

I'm fond of the 28 gauge and love the 16 gauge for the very reasons Jim Legg lists when he slams the 16 ... because they're both unusual and effective. I guess I'm a contrarian, but as long as most hunters (not those who hang out here) think 12 and 20 gauge Italian autos are the only shotguns worth owning, I'll shoot pheasants with my 5 lb. 15 oz. 16 gauge Lefever and ducks with my Sweet Sixteen A-5 ... and not give a rip that most hunters look at me like I've just pulled a hickory shafted "brassie" out of my golf bag. How can anyone who loves to shoot guns that fire only two shots -- out of two separate barrels, for heavens sake! -- NOT love a relic gauge like the 16? TT

I've posted this before about the 28 ga., but I will reiterate again. I bought a 28 ga. BL4 26" barreles, imp.cyl/mod for my wife to shoot skeet back in 1970. She said my Winchester 101 20 ga. kicked too much for her. She shot it a few times, and then I kind of inherited it. We lived in N.J. at the time and I used it along with my English Setter on public grounds, and to give you a conservative estimate, I killed probably 300 pheasants with that 28 ga. using #7 1/2's and # 9 shot, all reloads with 3/4 oz shot. All the shots were probably no farther than 25 yds., and like Chuck H. said, they didn't know what guage hit them.
As far as shooting skeet, I would say that on the average between the 28 ga, and the 20 ga. there was no difference in the scores.
So what ever most of you think about the 28 ga, unless you shoot one, don't knock it. I still cary a 28 ga. sxs with me after stocked pheasants, and chuckers. Yes, you have to be "right on" but then again who wants to carry a 7 + lb, 12 ga. or a Remington 1100 that weighs 8 lbs. Not me.

Tiny and testing. It works fine if you shoot at game at reasonable ranges.