And my friend Lenny in Denmark, ME just sent me this text... and I replied...

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Had one below me and one behind me this am. Had the hammers cocked! Heart ❤️ was thumping! A hen flew out of a tree 20 yards below me and I could see them breeding! Pretty awesome but I’m still here and they gone ��

My friend with the 28’s on swans picked up an Ithaca NID 20 gauge 3” with 32” vent rib barrels last week he said its choked pretty tight . He laughs at me playing with 10’s and told me this 20 would be his turkey gun . You oughtta give consideration to the 28 with buckshot and or slugs for a deer this coming fall . I’ll carry my one and only Parker 28 out again all be it in a gunsock until I’m situated in the tree . I’ll have a home cast slug in one barrel and hand loaded buckshot in the other . :whistle:

I would love to try a slug in my 28's Craig but they are both choked F/F, M/F respectively so I'm not sure what kind of accuracy I could achieve with them. I've never fooled with loading slugs and they are rare on the shelves in stores.
How is your 28 choked?

As far as buckshot, they are not legal here in MD where I hunt.:crying:

Mines full and full . I got about a two inch group for three shots from the right barrel at 25 yards within an inch or so of point of aim . The left barrel grouped almost as well but not that close to point of aim . I loaded #1 , #2 and #3 buckshot for the 28 and they did okay at 25 yards . So if I have it out it’s loaded with a slug in the right and buck in the left all shots to be thirty yards or less . I’ve got a bunch of the Gactory loaded Brenneke slugs also but I don’t think I’ve tried them yet . They’re a bit pricey at about $2 a shot dealer cost , but I got ten boxes that oughtta last my lifetime .

These were the home cast 28 slugs at 25 yards . I did forget to write on the label that I fill the cavity in the bottom of the slug with hot melt glue or wax , reason being it keeps the 410 card wads and or the 28 gauge CB wad from becoming caught in the bottom of the slug messing with what little accuracy one gets .

My three buck loads .

I would be happy to run the "Big Turkey " contest next year, since I brought it up in the first place. For simplicity sake however, I think just the beard and length of each spur.
Yes we could give handicap scoring with gage, and how about with hammer guns? You could really score big with a 28 or .410 hammer gun.
Anyway, the fun part is just seeing the pictures of those birds with our Parkers.

Here is my Grade 2 Hammer 12 with one of the birds I took this spring.

I would think you’d do it in a three measurement thing measure beard , both spurs and not exactly a measurement but the weight so let’s say your bird weighed 22 pounds , 9 1/2 inch beard and the two spurs combined were 2 3/4” . So your total would be 22+9.5+2.75 for a total of 34.25 . Just my opinion and I don’t even pursue hobble birds anymore .

I did not include the weight as many, myself included, don't have a way to get an accurate weight. I absolutely agree with you however. I have run big turkey contests for our sportsmans club in the past, and when asked the weight you could tell people just made up a weight, they really didn't know.