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

Improved modified, you have heard a lot of, I don't know what you would call it. Seems that half have shot a 28 ga. and the other half belittles it. I see you are from Utah, you still have wild birds there, so if it were up to me and I wanted a 28 ga. I would get one with 28" barels, imp.cyl/full. I don't know if you were thinking choke tubes or not. Like I said I killed a lot of pheasants, yes they were pen-raised, and yes they are slower getting up, but I still got them, and didn't use any high velocity loads, skeet loads, 7 1/2's and 9's. Wouldn't do the same with chuckers and wild pheasants, I would go to 6's. Did the same with wild quail and woodcock. Never hunted grouse much. So if you read the posts with people that have owned and shot one, you can get an idea of how they, like me, really love them. Still have that BL4 28 ga, and a imported 28 ga. sxs. Bought the imported 28 ga. in 1980 for my son going hunting on our club for him to shoot, and I still use the sxs 28 for most of my hunting for stocked birds. Wild pheasants here are non-exsistant.

I'm finding out I'm no expert shooter. Big surprise! The 20ga provides all the challenge I need most times, even with little quail. To me, it's all about getting the pattern on the bird. I seem to have sufficient difficulty, on these quick little quail and the difficult cover, with a 1 oz 12g or a 7/8 oz 20ga.

I'm not particularly sensitive (my wife says regularly) ... to recoil. Most of the 20ga guns are light enough for me to comfortably carry all day and heavy enough for me to shoot well ... well maybe just acceptably.

No question the 20 is more versatile than the 28, and the 12 more versatile than the 20--and that you can find 12's that don't weigh much over 6# if you look hard. (A friend with a Red Label 28 thought his gun was light; we put it on a scale, then my Army & Navy 12 with 28" barrels. One of us won by an ounce, but I can't remember which.)

And you can indeed find 20's that are lighter than many 28's. I think Guerini has an OU out that's under 5 1/2; Franchi 20ga OU's tend to be in that range as well. Which puts them lighter than my Parker Repro 28 by a few ounces, although my Repro 28 is half a pound lighter than my quite light Army & Navy 12, and when in the grouse woods with lots of one hand carry situations, I'd just as soon save that half pound.

The 28 is definitely a gauge where reloading pays off, big time, because as pointed out above, primers cost the same for all gauges; you use less powder and shot (which is the same price, no matter what size hull you put it in), and there's almost no difference in wad price at the club where I buy them. In other words, I can reload 28's for pretty much the same cost I can reload 12's. (Hulls are somewhat more expensive, buying them either once fired or shooting up factory shells, but that's pretty much offset by the savings in powder and shot.) And I'm not shooting enough factory shells to make anyone rich, that's for sure! So why not a 28? I mean, so what if the gauge is a little odd? So are guns that open via a sliding breech rather than a toplever!

Come on guys, we don't need a logical reason to own a gun do we? If so, my wife will be all over my gun cabinet, sending various beauties to the nearest gun store for resale.
I LOVE the 28 ga! In fact, just bought another one. I own 2 each, 12, 20 and 28 ga shotguns. Do I need that many? Don't ask my wife!
We buy/shoot guns that we like. Period.
Is the 20 more versatile than the 28? YES! So what?
Buy it if you like it and shoot it at appropriate birds (quail, woodcock, dove, etc.) and enjoy it!
That's my opinion.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

Ray, you obviously need a 16--for no logical reason.:)

"We buy/shoot guns that we like. Period."
Ray;
My point exactly. That should be reason enough for most guns, unless one is just totally inapprropriate for the job at hand, (wouldn't take a .22LR elephant hunting, regardless how well I liked it).
Guess what made this post so long was my comments on the "Ballistic Advantages" of 16 & 28 ga's. One writer for a major publication (Not Larry) made a big popint about shotguns being "Superior" if their shot load equaled the weight of their round ball. He then correctly showeed how to find this wt by dividing 16 by the gauge & got 1.33oz for 12ga, 1oz for 16, .8oz for 20ga & .57oz for the 28ga. He then stated this showed the only available loads that exactly matched were the 1oz 16ga & 3/4oz 28ga loads. I just get irate that someone "Selling" me stories thinks I'm so ignorant I don't know that .75 & .57 are "Not" equal.
I had no intention to actually belittle the gauge itself, Only some of the totally ignorant stuff which has been written about it by some trying to "Justify" owning one.
Seems to "Just Like IT" is not good enough for some, they have to make it sound "Superior".
Agree with Larry, "You" need to show us you "Like" the 16ga, terrible hole in your battery there.

I'm a meat-and-potatoes middle-roader: 12-16-20 gauges. Guns of smaller gauges at both ends of my spectrum are effective in better hands and beauties to behold but they don't work for me. A properly fitting 16ga 0 frame comes close to the ultimate for me.

.410s for rail; 28s for woodcock; 20s for dove; 16s for grouse; 12s for everything else including leopard at close range. KBM

When I had a gun made by Grulla (working with Terry Wieland), I went with a 12 gauge on a 20-gauge frame. It's just slightly over 6 pounds with 29-inch barrels.

Not for heavy loads, of course, but it's delightful.

At some point I want to get a 28. No practical reason . . . thank goodness! Isn't it great that we can get guns "just because"??

After watching a friend take his share of South Dakota pheasants with a 20 ga O/U, I decided to start shooting one after years with 12's. The 20 was a little more challenging, of course, and it made me shoot better. I really enjoyed it and now shoot 20's on everything except waterfowl. The next year the same fella went out with a 28 and did well on pheasants--he's a good shot.

I wondered if I should try a 28, so I started looking. I found the Beretta Silver Pigeon S Combo O/U, a light weight gun with both 20 and 28 ga barrels and each with its own forearm (Sportsman's Warehouse). My wife "gave" it to me for Christmas three years ago. She only paid $400 for it! (I paid the rest :-) ).

I have enjoyed shooting both guages, but clean kills are important to me. I shoot the 28 at sporting clays enough to know it is definitely more difficult to hit with and has a shorter range because of a less dense pattern. On something as large and fast as a grouse--especially a sage grouse here in Utah--I would use no less than a 20.

But I would definitely buy a 28. It will make you a better shot with whatever else you choose to shoot and is adequate for small birds like dove, quail, etc.

CB3 in Utah