Mike, I do not currently own a 3" 20ga nor have a desire for one. My statement regarding the load was in fact in "Response" to another poster lauding the "Greatness" of a 1oz 28 ga.
If you load all the common gauges to the same level proportionate to their bores using the 1oz 28ga as standard you have; (rounded to nerest 1/16oz
.410 = 9/16 (67½ gauge)
28 = 1
20 = 1¼
16 = 1 7/16
12 = 1 3/4
10 = 2
Of all these note that .410 loads heavier than ½oz, 20ga heavier than 1 1/8oz, 12ga heavier than 1½oz & 10ga heavier than 1 5/8oz are ordinarily put up in 3" cases. (I am not aware of any 16 loads heavier than 1¼oz being currently offered)
It has simply always been amazing to me how many will condemn all these other loads as being inefficient due to their "Overloading" & then "Praise" the 1oz 28 ga which is put up in a normal length hull not having suffecient room for an adequate wad column.
Now lets do the same thing but this time use the 28ga 3/4oz load as the standard & we have;
.410 = 7/16
28 = 3/4
20 = 15/16
16 = 1 1/16
12 = 1 5/16
10 = 1 ½
All these loads are much more sensible. Note also though "IF" the 12ga should be confined to 1 1/8oz then the 28 should likewise be confined to 5/8oz. The 12 is of course quite at home with 1¼oz. W W Greener stated over 100 years ago there was no reason for a 10ga unless one shot at least 1½oz of shot as the 12ga would handle 1¼ quite sufficiently.
One can convince themselves to "Like" whatever they want to, just don't confuse "Like" with facts. Fact is boring a steel bar with a .550" dia hole imparts to it no magical ballistic qualities nor does it automatically make it better handling. A 28 can be made Sveldt & a 20 can end up like a Club, "BUT" the reverse can also be true.
I did once purchase an Itallian made 28" bbl'd 20ga having 3" chambers with a wt of 6¼lbs. I bought it in spite of rather than because of the chambers. I did buy one box of 3" 1¼oz #4's just to have around & over a period of time shot them all up. One definitely knew it was there, but I could have handles them ok if the situation called for them, it didn't. most of the time I had it I fed it a diet of 2½-1-7½ loads. This has long been a favorite load of mine in either the 20 or 16 ga's & have shot a lot of similarily loaded 12's. This gun was given to my son when he lefy home & he still has it.
Although I was never one to keep accurate records of hit vs shots fired the one gun I always felt I probably had the highest ratio of hits to shots fired for my normal hunting activities, which consisted of quail, dove, a few woodcock & rabbits, was a 12ga 28" damascus J P Clabrough back action side lock with ¼ choke in both bbls & weighing 6lb 14oz. The loads used were 1oz of #6 or #8 shot depending on the quarry for the day @ about 1125fps. This was/is a very sweet handling shotgun for me & also pretty nice to look at. Certainly only a "Medium" quality gun, but then I don't own any Bosses or Purdeys.
