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

Good Morning Board. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I was in the store yesterday and was tempted by a 28 gauge Beretta O/U. My question is, Is 28 gauge a viable hunting cartridge for birds other than quail? I would hunt grouse with the thing, but I feel that anything a 28 ga. can do a 20 ga. can do better. Is this true? I think the 28 gauge's stongest asset is lightweight and pencil thin frame. AM I out in left field? -IM

You have picked a controversial subject.
No one doubts the worth of the 28 for birds the size of quail, woodcock and doves.
Grouse are bigger birds and some think the 28 is fine for them, others don't. All you can do is try it and see.
I have learned to respect both sides of the argument as it seems unresolvable. Kind of like the "Is the .243 Win, gun enough for deer" question. Marginal and works for some, not for others.

IM: I have read that the 28 and 16 gauges are both more ballistically efficient than the 20 -- that if one of the three is redundant and should never have been introduced, it is the 20. However, the 20 was introduced, is the most firmly entrenched, and will be the last of these to go away. Of course, the smaller the gauge, the less forgiving it is and the better your aim must be. I have shot doves and planted chukars with a 28, and they're certainly a pleasure to carry, but I still see the 28 as sort of a novelty gun. When I'm doing serious hunting for wild birds, I try to give myself a greater advantage by using a 16 or 12. I carried my "new" 20-ga. Model 37 Ithaca on Thanksgiving morning and emptied it at a rooster without ruffling a feather. I know that the problem was 95 percent user error, but you can bet I was also trying to convince myself that I was undergunned! Happy hunting. TT

IM,
I currently don't have a 28g that I'm using to hunt with. I do have a .410 . While the .410 is fully capable of killing cleanly the wild quail I hunt regularly, it has a way of stealing my confidence. So, I don't take it out often. I think it's all about confidence. If TT lacks confidence in his 20g (or any of us, in any gun/gauge) he'll likely have less success with it. My example of this is my 20g guns. I shoot primarily 20g at sporting clays and skeet and haven't taken a shot with a 12g in a long time. When it came time to go to So. Dakota for phez this year, I almost forgot to bring a 12g. First day out, I used a 20g 391 to bag a limit. On all the upland birds I hunt (phez, chukar, quail, dove) the 20g gives me complete confidence, probably because I shoot it all year at sporting clays.

IM, the above is from different experience from mine but I agree with the sentiments. Your message also indicates you're on the right track.

Hi,
I believe the largest guage that handles they way you like it, the better off you will be. I like a light 12 about 6lb 4-8oz with 28" tubes & fit well, my next favorite would be a 16ga about 6lbs with 28" tubes. I think the 28 is a novalty that I would like to have for easier pen raised birds but I really will be better off with a 12 or 16. Now Bill G. has one beatiful A & S 28ga that I lust for.
Jeff G.

I'm with Jeff, the larger gauges instill confidence and help ensure taking game. This is especially apparent to me if the birds are few and far between. I don't have to take lots of birds to have fun, but birds is like money; having lots can't make you happy, but having none can make you unhappy.

The fundamental, real, difference is 1/8oz of shot. 27 pellets of #6. The sparse pattern can be filled up by going to tighter choke, if you can control a slim light gun well enough to center your birds.

You know, I've heard at one time or another that a 410 will do everything a 28 will, a 28 will perform as well as a 20, nobody needs a 16 anymore because of the 20, a 16 is indetectable from a 12 as far as performance, and there's no need for a 10 because of the 3" 12, and better performance ammo in the 10 obsoleted the 8.

By logical construction, a 410 then is adequate for any task including 60 yards honkers.

Sillyness. As an old (and geting older) trap shooter, I can't control a light gun worth a damn. I like to carry a light gun, sure... but when the time comes to actually kill something, a little heft helps. I've settled on a 687L 3" 20. The gun has a 28" barrel set and moves well. Good compromise. It's the lightest I'll use in the field.

Well of course the oft stated "Fact" of the 28 & 16 ga's being somehow Ballistically more effecient is Total, Pure, Unadulterated "BS". This is usually accompanied by the stated reason being they shoot a "Square Load". the author then insults ones intelligence by givig the definition of a Sq Load as being either the equivelent wt of a round ball which fits the bore, or that the length of the shot column in the bore is equal to it's dia. Now it don't take a rocket scientist to divide 16 by 28 & figure the wt of a 28ga round ball is .57oz, or just over 9/16oz, far short of the normal 3/4oz (.75oz) load. Hercules/Alliant supplied us with a chart in their handloaders guide showing nominal column length in the various gauges for 1oz of shot. The 28ga is listed @ 1.21" & it's bore dia is .55", then .55/1.21 = .455oz or just over 7/16oz, even lighter than the round ball definition. A shotgun bbl is a piece of pipe to guide a fist full of shot. The bigger the pipe the more shot it will throw effeciently. All the gauges simply take their place in the line-up. The 28ga is way ahead of a .410,the 20 a little better, the 16 better still & for most purposes the 12 best of all. For normal use the 10 is generally too big, being a specialized gun at one end, as the small bores are on the other end.

'zakly!

And what's the crap about Miller only having three stars??

Dave! Help! 2-Piper rates six stars...

Special title is fully in order here... "General of the BBS".