Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Is a skeet choke in 28 gauge too open for upland hunting?

I have an opportunity to buy a used Remington 1100 28 gauge shotgun which I would use for hunting ruffed grouse. I am concerned that this relatively open choke would not be dense enough in this light gauge. What are your thoughts?

Tubes are always a great idea and that would eliminate all those questions and concerns. I have had a bunch of shotguns tubed all were improved in the process...
art

Based on my experience with the 28 (Ruger Red Label), I'd pass on a skeet choked gun as a serious field gun.

All chokes tend to pattern a bit different, I have no problems with skt/skt in my Briley tubes when hunting grouse.
Cat

GPA
"Based on my experience with the 28 (Ruger Red Label), I'd pass on a skeet choked gun as a serious field gun."

Probably had more to do with the "Ruger" than the gauge stamp! I have a bunch of Ruger guns and many I really like. I cannot begin to like any of their shotguns...
Obviously YMMV.
art

I have a Citori 28 bored SK/SK that will kill my limit of quail every morning, if I am shooting well. I like it in the woods, edges, singles, and close flushing birds, because I can shoot as fast as I get on target and not worry about too tight a pattern. Most of the birds end up with 12 to 25 pellets in them. I have killed some late season pheasant with it, too, shooing Fioochi #6s - none wounded, all one shot, dead in the air.

I respectfully disagree: My Rugers are GREAT shotguns. The 28 ga. is a bit on the anemic side for the brushy, woodsy areas I hunt. Originally, I choked the Red Label IC and Mod, using 7.5's and 6's...no good. Then I switched to Mod. and Full, using 5's and 4's, and my success rate went up.

Where I hunt, if a covey of quail flushes and a bunch go into blackjack oaks, we have to hunt them up singly. The bird might flush at your feet, or 15 yards to one side. If their are logging roads, they will try to head there and rocket away. You may get a dead away, overhead, or head on and rising shot if you happen to be at the edge of such road when the dog flushes the bird. No shot is going to be over 25 yards, most at 15.

I find that the harder target loads work best for my 28.
Like you, I find 6s and 5s kill well, but you have less shot in the pattern. It's sort of like shooting a .410 - you have to be on. My Citori is a target gun, with the buttstock changed to a field one. It shoots pretty flat patterns with sharp edges, which is good. I can see the feathers cut halfway up on a bird and know I just got him with the edge. Adjust it 12 inches and the next bird is powdered.

I may buy a 28 SxS like a CZ, or something slimmer like a Beretta 687, Rizzini, or Weatherby Orion - all have choke tubes. Then, if they outshoot the Citori, I might sell it. Right now, I have killed 16 quail with 20 shots, 11 with 16, etc. The misses were clean misses, not the gun's fault.

All gun discussions are fun. Choke and choke tube discussions included. I once shot in a Sporting Clays league with about 120 other shooters. These guys were veteran shotgunners, many beautiful shotguns, many very good shooters. Not one shooter had ever taken the time to pattern any of their gun,gauge,choke combinations. I will qualify that statement. Not one of the many that I had visited with. I go to South Dakota almost every year. I have met dozens and dozens of shooters there and guess how many of them had actually patterned their shotguns? Yep. Zero! The reason I mention this is simple. If your 1100 is putting 3/4 ounces of shot where it is supposed to, at 25 or 30 yards, you'll be fine. I believe that most shooters shoot shotguns that are choked too tightly. Anyway, your 28 ga Remington will be alot of fun. Probably a 25" bbl? Good Luck

I prefer IC or skeet chokes for dove and quail shooting with any gauge shotgun (410 excluded). The more important consideration is will the gun hit where it's pointed.

I pattern every shotgun with every shot weight I might use.
If I try a new load, I pattern it.
I learned this as a boy. My father, a crack shot, bought a "new" 1928 Ithaca 12-gauge magnum from an old market hunter.
He missed a duck at about 45 yards with #4s. So we patterned it with 4s, 6s, and some old paper hull 2s that came with the gun.
The 4s shot an "S", the 6s shot a doughnut, and the 2s shot increadibly tight patterns. From then on, it was 3-inch #2 WW plastic high brass, and he cleaned up wounded ducks at 60 yards like they were at 25.

I take them out to the range with some friends, and if everyone is cleanly breaking birds with the load and their favorite shotgun, as far as I'm concerned , the load is goodtogo!
if the breaks look like they are not clean, I will lokk at the load then and possibly patern the gun, but if the birds are breaking cleanly I'm not going to worry about patterning it....
Cat

Although not a 28, I used to have a 20 ga 1100 with a skeet tube on it that I used for pheasant and sharptail. I found that with 4 shot it performed wonderfully. With the short light barrel, it was fast to swing onto the target and no less effective than whatever my partners were using.

28ga and skeet is a perfect grouse gun. I do not play the choke game too much, albeit skeet is a bit open, correct lead, gun fit and stayling with the gun will kill more birds, clay or feathered, than worring about choke. IC or Lt mod is the best all around choke for my money. Put it in and leave it.

If I shoot skeet, trap and sporting in 1 day, which I do most weekends, I put in Lt. mod and never change. Does not seem to effect my scores much if at all.

I have shot thousands of birds in Minnesota with guns choked from cylinder to full. Straight cylinder is perfect for grouse/woodcock. Skeet chokes are a close second. Anything tighter is just a handicap.

Tubes would be a great idea but for the fact that a 28 is useless as tits on a boar hog for anything else you might hunt in Minnesota.

Snatch it up and enjoy it in the woods.