General 28 Gauge Question

[Kevin McCormack]

Without going into a chain of Aristotelean logic on the ballistic enigma of the 28 gauge, I would say that the answers to your 2 questions would be strongly dictated by the type of cover you will be hunting in. Almost 100% of my 28 gauge hunting anymore is for woodcock in VERY heavy cover; a short-barreled gun bored wide open (Q1/Q2) would be my choice, but I see nothing wrong with IC/M. Since you already have a good dog, gun handling technique comes into play very quickly and the shorter barrels are much handier. Conversely, in wide-open (treeless grasslands, etc.) spaces the MOD/FULL combo is hard to beat since flushed birds get away fast! One thing I can tell you for sure after shooting the 28 gauge on everything over the past 60+ years is that beyond normal regulation skeet station 4 distances, they LOVE choke and will do phenomenal things at long ranges with the right boring.