Back into Upland - shotgun questions

Since my GSP Gustav made his way to the hunting grounds of Valhalla, several seasons back
I lost my passion combined with lock downs but I'm back, had a great few hunts on the roosters and ducks and ready to hit the hills

I've got my Berretta extrema 12g for the ducks which is my waterfowl work horse but it's a tad on the hefty side for big walks.

Do I run a light weight 20g or just go with O/U 12g?

I've been looking at second hand 20 gauges, U/O Miroku, Rizzini and a few very light weight Turkish semis which fit but I'm not sure a semi is right
from a safety and carry in the rough terrain POV.

I'd be interested in your experience, pros and cons of a 20g, thoughts and set ups that have worked for you.

Thanks in advance.

Comes down to weight, gunfit and balance. I mainly use 20 & 28ga for all .y hunting but I also have a imp cyl old super saive 12ga which I put away when lead was bànned for wetland shooting with that calibre. I used it with bismuth on waterfowl this year and it is a lovely upland game gun too.
You could go 20 or 28 ga but a fine alternative would be to acquire a nice old browning and shorten the barrels and use it cyl with 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 oz 7s. This gives a great pattern with more lead in the air than the smaller calibres and reasonably light and fast handling. Nothing wrong with 20 28 ga though but I usually need to shoot 1/4- 3/4 choke for 20ga and 1/2 - 3/4 choke with the 28 for dense enough patterns especially if using 6 shot on roosters and that means less margins for error. Roosters will go down with 7 shot (lead) at 40m no problem if patter n is dense enough.

20 gauge with win AA 9 ,s brilliant on close flushing quail over a pointer or flushing dog.
all my pheasants down here taken with gamebore 30 gram 7,s first shot backed up by the same shot wieght in 5,s /6,s. for the 2nd which i never needed while havin a dog
.if you feel under shot wieghted the fiocchi 20 gauge 2 3/4 inch 32 gram loads will take even geese at normal hunting ranges the 5.s should assuage any under gunned fears
the 2,s deadly on even the largest honkers
most guns shoot 7,s or 6,s well but some of the turk semis have problems with light trap loads.
1 1/4 0r 1 1/2 ounce 12g loads sound like overkill to .

I use a 20 u/o with 24gm trap loads of 7's currently but if I were to start from scratch I would use 28ga SxS (if I could find one)

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Originally Posted by mikee

I use a 20 u/o with 24gm trap loads of 7's currently but if I were to start from scratch I would use 28ga SxS (if I could find one)

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@mikee I'm pretty sure there was a Turkish 28 gauge SxS in Nelson H&F (a pox be upon them) for a reasonable price.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rockland

@mikee I'm pretty sure there was a Turkish 28 gauge SxS in Nelson H&F (a pox be upon them) for a reasonable price.

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I better go look perhaps, cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikee

I better go look perhaps, cheers

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thats the absurdity of the new regime
if you wanted to 28 gauge ducks you,d be scratching to find a suitable non toxic load country wide
aint it funny the one rule for all only seems to apply to gamebird hunters/ gunowners

Regarding the 28 bore - while I have one it's certainly not as versatile as the 20 bore. When you start packing 1oz loads into one you give away a lot in terms of velocity, and the 20 is much better at slinging 1oz loads. Using the 3/4oz loads the 28 is designed for is OK with #7 to #9 shot for quail, but when you go #6 upwards you lose alot in pellet count. A good quail and early season rooster gun within reasonable ranges, but that's it. Would wholeheartedly recommend the 20 for all upland - so much more versatile.

Took my 28 bore down south this week for my second chukar trip of the season. Did I feel undergunned? A little. The shots can be quite long on chukar and I will stick to my 20 in future.

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