This year brought me renewed interest in small game hunting. What started as shooting a few pheasants one day turned into endless days pursuing grouse and rabbits. It was refreshing to not sit motionless in a tree or worry about the wind after a long sucessfull deer season. Just walking around, exploring thickets and kicking brush. Most days, I fired more shots than the last 2 deer seasons.
Grouse hunting in particular has taught me you need to shoot qucik as your windows are small and you better be prepared to walk alot. My 28" barrel old 870 seemed quite long in the thickets and the fixed mod choke did tend to tear them up pretty good when I did connect with #6's @ 15-20 yards. All this has me thinking, I need a close cover grouse gun. I am inclined to get an 870 wingmaster 20ga. 26" IC choke, but also thinking of an auto. Everything I read says Franchi 48 or Benelli. Anyone gone down a similiar road? What did you choose, what did you learn. Chokes/Loads/Guns? Balance to me is most critical and planning a trip to a large gunstore where I can handle a montefeltro or AL48.
