GF, Gene Hill had a brief fling with a 16 bore Greener with 24" barrels. Thought it would be the ultimate grouse and woodcock gun. A few years later, he was touting a 28 with 28" barrels. Not knocking the late Mr. Hill there, but gun writers in particular--because we try out a lot of stuff--tend to bounce around quite a bit. I've flirted with 28's (to much less of a degree than with 16's, however!) and like them a lot for everything up to and including preserve pheasants. But I'm down to 20's and 12's, the 20 doing everything for me a 28 will do--and again, cheaper reloading (especially with the new CB 3/4 oz wad.)

Mike, if you see more Ruger GL's in the field and at sxs shoots than you do Brit 12's, you're hunting different places and going to different shoots than I am. If you go to the Vintagers this year, please count up and report back. I think I may have seen a GL or 2 at the UP SxS Classic, but they didn't go out of production due to overwhelming popularity. And of course there's no need--at least not with the vast majority of Brit/Euro 2 1/2" 12's--to fool around with short hulls, or to shorten hulls. Standard American hulls work just fine. And they cost less and/or last longer than either 16ga or 28ga hulls.

As far as pheasants go, having hunted them since the 50's, I'd say pretty much nothing has changed. Or at least they haven't started wearing Kevlar, as American ammo makers seem to think--based on what they're promoting these days as pheasant loads. The vast majority of pheasant hunters could kill most of their birds with 16's, assuming rational choke and load choices. But of course if you can kill them with a 16, then you can also kill them with a 2 1/2" 12ga.

Last edited by L. Brown; 07/03/12 04:20 PM.