What about the 28 ga?

[Joe Bernfeld]

Originally Posted by Kenny Graft

collected all the gauges...and 12. I still need a steel shot special for the duck blind....Just can't find one to match my others....)-: Love them repro's thanks all, Kenny Graft SXS ohio

Kenny, you do not need a Steel Shot Special to hunt Ducks; all parker Repros are steel shot compatible. Chris, the 28 ga gun is a 3/4 oz of shot guage. If you want to shoot 1 oz,use a 20 ga or better yet, a 12. Match the gun to the load and the game. That means doves, quail and maybe Ruffed Grouse with the 28. It's ideal for those birds, but not for Pheasant.
Joe

[SXS OHIO]

I know I don't need a SSS.....They are bored special to give good patterns with steel, bores are .740 with IC/MOD chokes......Good excuse for me...(-: Im a collector, shooter, investor or somthing like that?! I guess I just want one...All the 12ga repro's are scarce with PG-DT 14 3/8 pull, other wants would be the same specs in a sporting clays special...(-: That should finish the DHE part of my repro shooter collection. thanks all, Kenny Graft SXS ohio....(-:

[Chris T.]

Bruce,
I usually stick around CT and southern MA. There aren't alot of choices around here and the hunting is real easy, but it's nice to get out. I would love to go on a real trip hunting wild birds, but it's tough to get away.

[King Brown]

I don't own a 28 gauge and have not used one. I have a half-dozen friends who annually use only 28s hunting with dogs in the plentiful wild grouse and woodcock coverts of New Brunswick. They use the larger gauges for everything else. Any thing is possible with any gauge but that's not the game for me.

[Bruce Day]

My experience with a 28ga is that they were seldom dead in the air and I had to use the dog, and they'd run and sometimes we would find the cripple and sometimes not.
I think respect the game and use either choose your shots with a 28 very carefully or move to a bigger gauge. Parker never intended the 28 to be an all around gun.

You can kill a deer with a 22 cal bullet also, but should you?

Save the 28 for what it was meant for; quail, doves, snipe, rail, etc, or use it around Winner or Mitchell at those places where they release the birds early in the morning. At least that's what we used to do when I helped out on a preserve. If you put them out the previous night, the coyotes, foxes and bobcats got them.

[Graham Mason]

The 28 gauge has over late years benefited much from improved components.It took awhile for the manufactures to include these improvements in the 28 gauge.Many think in terms of these older 28 gauge shells.Do not sell the 28 gauge 1 ounce load short.In the 28 gauges I have tried it in the one ounce load patterns well.


Have been using the 28 gauge in the field for over forty years and with the right load the 28 gauge is capable of doing many things.Just my opinion.

[Rod N. Gunn]

Pheasants should be hunted with a 12 ga, 5 shot, and a spaniel! There, that should make for some lively "differences of opinion."

[Richard Flanders]

As Bill elegantly says, lightning has indeed struck the forum. I agree with Bruce/Bill overall. I'd add that the better the shot you are, the smaller gauge you can get away with using on wild pheasants. Afterall, you're sending the same size shot out at the same velocity; there's just less of it in a small gauge gun so you have to be good. My neighbors hunt geese up here with 20ga guns exclusively, mom, dad, and the kids, and they rarely fail to limit out. They're just good shots and don't skybust. I feel that I personally need a 10ga with 2oz of #5 shot to bring wild flushing wild roosters down; I'm just not that good a wingshot to reliably get good head shots. I do however use my 28ga w/3/4oz loads on preserve birds with devastating effect because our preserve birds up here mostly hold tight and are just not strong fliers at all. Even I could likely do just fine on them with a .410. I'd not argue with Dave's post on ga. and #5 shot, but I much prefer a pointer to a spaniel, but Trigg's GSP Dodger would spoil any bird hunter in short order, I assure you. I really hope to participate in Bruce's late season midwest pheasant hunt someday and will most definitely not bring a 28ga along.

[Chris T.]

I do most of my hunting on preserve birds, there aren't too many places to find wild birds here in southern New England. The birds are pretty dumb and hold tight, I'll give it a try and bring a 12 ga. along with me. Richard, I bought this gun from Trigg, and I believe he mentioned in passing you had shot some pheasant with it on a visit a while back. Thanks for the advice, I'll let you guys know how it works out.

Chris

[Richard Flanders]

That would be the 28" BTFE SST gun? I shot shortly after my shoulder surgery and before I had my own 28ga. Very nice gun if I remember right. I wore a down parka for padding and had to carefully get the gun all the way up before they kicked the birds up. Don't remember that I missed any.