Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Upland bird hunters....what's your gun of choice?

I use a Benelli SBE for pheasants, turkey, and whaterfowl, or anywhere I have to use steel.

My favorite and primary upland gun for pheasant and smaller birds is a 12ga. Antonio Zoli, 3 inch barrel; IC and Mod. chokes if I can use lead shot. Use 2 3/4 inch 1 1/4 5's for pheasants; 1-1 1/8 loads of 7 1/2 for grouse or similar size birds.

About 5 yrs. ago I bought a 20 ga CZ Ringneck that I've been using for Rough Grouse with 1 oz. of 7 1/2.

16 gauge Winchester Model 12



Browning Superposed 20 gauge

Another shot of my treasured Westley Richards and my first 2015 ruffy.
We have been experimenting with shot this summer, and are using some wheel weight shot fro clays , and last weekend my buddy shot some pheasants and chukkers with it as well.
Works great!
These are low pressure smokeless loads with 700X and 7/8oz of shot.
No recoil at all i the old guns and the pressure is down around 6,000PSI or less.
Cat

Love those hammer guns.. Beautiful!!

Churchill 28 gauge SxS

Now there's something I can relate to!

Pretty sight ain't it?

Browning Superposed superlight 20ga

With the new Dogs 5&6 Birds. Custom stock work and if I could be 100% positive of duplicating it in wood I would have it done. I can't, so I'll just leave it perfect. Mod choke and I need a 16Ga IC barrel if any out there wants to part with one.

I have a soft spot for Ithaca M37, either 12 ga or 20 ga because that is what I grew up using!

Basiclly if it will handle 3/4 oz of shot up to about 1 1/8 oz of shot it will work fine. Most upland game is killed at ranges under 35 yds so chokes wise IC or modified are plenty. If you hunt extremely heavy cover you may want to go more open than IC but generally the IC or modified rule will keep you in the game. I tend to let the shot payload influence my choke selection with the 3/4 oz I choose mod with 1 1/8 oz IC. Get the nod most frequently.
Shot size I use mostly 6 and 7.5 depending on the size of the bird, 6s for pheasents and sm game 7.5 for everything else. Speed s/b 1150 fps to 1300 fps and I tend to stick with 1150-1200 fps loads.
So if you have a 20,16 or 12 that fits you and is choked appropriately you s/b good to go. Gun type is largely irrevelant as long as you like it. I have repeaterswell as break action guns and they all work fine. Just remember on repeaters that many places require you to limit the magazine capacity to two and one in the chamber so remember your magazine plug. Also watch your rules regarding non toxic /lead shot in the area you hunt.

Current favorites a couple of brownings. A m12 and a sweet sixteen