I shooting with friends, pen raised pheasant (some are almost wild - been out in the field over 30 days) on a preserve with - 12 Bore 2" shell 7/8 os - 12 bore 2 1/2" shells 1 oz and 28 Bore 2 1/2" 5/8 oz shells. All shells are RST and #6. Guns are all old english guns SxS. It seems to all of us that the 28 bore shells hit harder and kill better. All shells are about the same velocity. Thoughts???

First thought is: what are the chokes? Second thought is that the 28 ga. is "reputed" to apparently have a shorter shot string. Reason most often given is that it has a "square load". Searching for a definition of "square load", the most common and logical definition is that the load of shot is the same dimension in diameter as in length. Only problem with that is that I don't the 28 ga. load meets that definition. I'm going to measure some and will report back.

Reporting back: the 28 ga. (3/4 oz.) load is about twice as long as it is wide. Your 5/8 oz. won't be greatly different. without even weighing and measuring the height of the shot column, merely looking at the length of the shot cup petals give you a major clue.
Tom Roster says the 28 ga. mystique is mostly just urban legend. Bob Brister said they were great but have the normal limits of the rest of the gauges.
If carrying the light gun all day and shooting it with little recoil puts more birds in your bag, more power to ya'.
I love shooting 28 gauges but have never observed any real "magic".
On any given day I might shoot a better score with my 28 than I usually shoot with a 12 but like Brister, if I was in a competition, I would surely use a 12 ga.

I'd have to suspect the 28 ga was putting more pellets into the birds. Shooting some patterns might show a clue.

Each BB wieghts the same and if fired at the same speed it will have the same PFE if fired from a 10ga. or a .410

Chokes for the 28 bore ic/mod Chokes for the 12 bore slightly more open but not much

Also the 12 Bore 2" shell is suppose to be a "square load" . It is better than the 2 1/2 " 12 Bore but not as good as the 28 bore. Note that these RST 28 bore are only 5/8 oz. The birds were falling out of the sky today with the 28 bore.

Wrong guns and wrong shells. To get hard hitting combo you need modern SxS and tungsten, iron, nickel pellets in them shells.

What Jim Legg said...On any given day, they both work.My 28 is choked Full&Mod. I use 7/8 oz loads and when I do my part, they kill well. BUT no more so I think than a 12 or 16 if well shot....I use mine mostly when we have a lil snow on the ground and the birds are flushing closer....

One more comment: I had a 28 Grulla that I couldnt kill anything with unless I beat it to death with the barrels...It was choked Cyl Ic....

Using Jim's definition of a Sq load, & as best as I can determine, this was the original meaning, IE length of shot column in the bore equals it's dia, the following are "near" sq loads. Data derived from a reference table contained in Alliant's Reloaders guide giving length occupied by 1oz of shot in the various sizes of bores.
10ga = 1¼oz
12ga = 1 1/16oz
16ga = 13/16oz
20ga = 5/8oz
28ga = 7/16oz
.410 = 3/16oz

I once read an article in a magazine devoted to shotgunning in which the author was heaping great praise upon the 28ga based upon it's firing a Sq load. His definition however was that it equaled the weight of a round ball which fit the bore. He then rightly stated this weight could be readily determined by dividing 16 by the gauge number & stated the 28 ga round ball would weigh about .57oz. This he said emphatically proved the 3/4oz load in the 28ga was a "Perfect Sq Load". Fantastic!! My 4th grade Grandaughter knows that .57oz & .75oz is nowhere close to being equal even though they happen to share the same two digits (In Reverse Order). So much for the 28ga Sq Load & so much for that mag. That was the "Premier" issue & I never bothered to buy another.

The fact is, the birds have less fear when they see you with the 28g and flush closer. Thus proving once and forall that the 28g is a better killer.

My lifetime ratio of bagged birds to shots fired is highest for the 3" .410. So I guess that's what I should use - it "seems to kill all out of proportion to its size" (as 28 ga fans will say).

Of course there's that shot selection variable.........

Sam

And the gun fits, Samuel, and is comfortable to carry and shoot.

If shot size, velocity, and marksmanship are truly equal, then the answer must be in the choke effect of the different guns. 5/8 oz of shot simply can't be more effective than 7/8 oz or 1 oz if shot size, velocity, marksmanship, and choke effect are equivalent. Bore size of the gun has very little to do with this question --- other than trending in the direction opposite favoring the 28 bore gun.

Absolutely. The secret, if it can be so-described, to using reduced payloads is a combination of choke and accurate placement.

Perceptions about the adequacy of various gauges and payloads reflect how close we get to centering birds or targets. This ability is an individual thing - hence most of the arguing.

Sam

I wonder now days how so many birds fell in my youth to the golden BB fired from my Daisy mod.25

I used a 28ga Mod/imp.mod on dove this past weekend and when I shot it within its range (max 35 yards) it killed all but one bird stone dead. I firmly believe from 0-30 yards it hits with the best of them.