Enlighten me - is a pigeon so hard to kill that a 20 is out of the question?
They are tough birds, and particularly on box birds, it not just killing them; it's dropping them before they get outside the circle (35 to 40) yards in diameter, and you are probably at least 32 yards from the boxes before you call for the pigeon is released.
I have participated in pigeon shoots where the Calcutta purse was in excess of $200K. If you are shooting for the money (and not everybody does) there's no reason to handicap yourself with your equipment. Having said that 1 1/4 oz loads are the max allowed at pigeon shoots, and you cam probably get that in a 3" 20 ga load.
As others have pointed out certain shoots may have a special 28 ga event, but I have never seen a pigeon shoot with a 20 ga event. However I have no idea what they may have done 50 years ago. In the 28 ga events I have shot a Fiocchi pheasant load with 7/8 oz of nickel plated shot, and I swear I killed birds as hard if not harder with those shells
Hack
