In the Small Bore Shot Gun brochure, Parker was recommending the 20ga for small game such as quail at up to 25 yards and rail up to 40yards. You can imagine the 28ga would be less.
Sure, take your 28ga, just limit your shots to 25 yards or so on crossing shots, all the more so if you are hunting wild birds in mid to late season. Pheasant are well armored from behind with a tough bony shell. Some people go to SoDak and talk about how they got a lot of birds each day, how the shots were easy, how tight the birds held, and then you come to find out they were preserve hunting. The preserve operators talk about quickly the birds become wild. Well, its not so, and they aren't alive long enough to develop strong, fast flight or the skittish instincts of a wild born and raised bird. You hunt in the 20-25 mph wind, wild birds, and the 28ga is a crippler. You need to break bone on a strong bird to bring it down, and for that you need heavy shot, like #5 or maybe #6 and the long time gun of choice for pheasant hunting is a 12ga. I use a 16 or sometimes even a 20 early season, but I carry a 12 in the truck. The 12 I carry is a tight bored 2 frame damascus GHE for when I need a heavy concentrated pattern at 1 1/8oz or 1 1/4oz at 1200 fps or so. Come hunting with us some time and be prepared to walk and follow the dogs on exclusively wild birds. My buddy Charlie killed pheasants last year with a 410 and a 28, but it took him days to wait for just the right shot and he did it just to say he could. SO, if you can choose your shots carefully and pass up lots of flushes, take only the 28.
I started out in SoDak following at age 10 following my dad and Gov. Joe Foss and have hunted the Dakota and the central plains and in the Cal central valley for 50 years and have killed lots of pheasant. Its shocking sometimes how much lead they can absorb and stay in the air, or set their wings and fly a half mile, then drop dead. Unless you get that head shot, you need to break bone and the 12 does that best. Its a long way from dove shooting.
Last edited by Bruce Day; 08-01-2009 at 08:45 PM..
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