#2243398 - 06/07/08 05:15 AM
20ga for pheasant
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DillWeasel
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Registered: 10/13/03
Posts: 154
Loc: Terre Haute, IN, USA
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I am going to Kansas with my father-in-law to hunt pheasant for the first time this November. He has gone west for several years and is an adamant that you need a 12 gauge to cleanly bring wild birds down. I would like to use my 20 gauge Browning Gold because I shoot it better than my SBE. If I shoot 3" shells loaded with #5's will that be enough for wild pheasant?
Thank you for your input.
Matt
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#2243468 - 06/07/08 06:28 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: DillWeasel]
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kstwind
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Registered: 12/24/02
Posts: 18
Loc: Eastern KS
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I grew up in northwest Kansas and have shot many pheasants with a 20 ga. My favorite load was 2 1/2 x 1 x 7 1/2. The key to shooting pheasants with small shot is to concentrate on using the head for aiming point. When a pheasant takes off, the most noticable part of the bird is the tail and wings. Most guys take the lead off the biggest part and complain that the birds are hard to bring down but all of their shot is in the tail area. It takes some time to really train yourself to only look at the head. When a bird is hit hard in the head, they usually flop around long enough to make it easy to find them in tall weeds too.
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#2243717 - 06/07/08 09:47 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: DillWeasel]
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Johnny Dollar
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Registered: 07/16/06
Posts: 97
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Dill,
I have been using 20ga. on Nebraska and Kansas birds for many years. I have 5 20ga and the only time I don't use one is when I'm using a .410 or 28ga. If you shoot the little Gold well-- I love mine -- then take it. The #5's are fine, but take a box of premium 1oz #6 along too.
Have a great trip!
Johnny $
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#2244754 - 06/08/08 06:44 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: DillWeasel]
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goodnews
Campfire Guide
Registered: 02/19/04
Posts: 4306
Loc: Iowa
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Your 20 ga will be more than fine for pheasants; in fact I'd favor 2 2/3" 1 oz loads of 6s over the magnums because I've found them fully sufficient in 99% of pheasant-hunting situations.
I live in Iowa and have hunted birds here and SD since before I could drive. My junior year in college when I skipped too many classes when we had a fresh snow I took about 90 birds legally (the days of government acres we now call CRP), I was shooting a plain jane Stevens 311 20 ga. SxS. It was deadly.
Now, although I have nice 12s, if I'm going to hunt over my dog which is almost always I grab my 20ga Beretta SxS or my 28 AyA.
The 28 with good quality loads of 3/4 oz or certainly the 1oz loads are very nice over pointed birds.
Gdv
_________________________
"Content to live and willing to die....Hoping to do a little good." John Adams, amidst the turmoil of his presidency, Christmas Day of 1798, in a letter to his wife, Abigail.
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#2244825 - 06/08/08 07:59 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: goodnews]
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Ole_270
Campfire Regular
Registered: 02/02/03
Posts: 881
Loc: Ks
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The first 3 or so years I hunted pheasants as middle schooler was using a cheap SXS 20 my dad had, and then an 870 youth. Killed quite a number of birds. Have used an Ithaca 37 in recent years on occasion.
My girlfriend went for the first time this year, shot her first bird of any kind on the wing with a Browning BPS using some 3" high velocity 6's. Four of us were walking through some sloughs in a half section of CRP, I heard a bird get up, but the sun was in my eyes, first I saw of it was at the shot and a pile of feathers blew off it. She was like a little kid, had walked in on the point of the German Shorthair pup she had been given, shot the rooster, and then in the excitement didn't even let him retrieve it like he was trying to, ran out and took it away.
We started off with 5's, but decided to up the pellet count and velocity for her and went with some 6's the local store had.
Cheesy (using Ole_270's account)
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#2245000 - 06/08/08 10:07 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: DillWeasel]
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Uncas
Campfire Regular
Registered: 02/04/05
Posts: 671
Loc: Kansas and Alaska
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Depends. Your father-in-law is probably right. I would guess half of our team hunts flush the roosters at 40 yards or so (15 -20 hunters, dogs and blockers in 1/2 and full sections). Often after several shots are fired ... then a baby magnum (12ga)of 5s or 4s settle things.
I feel the once-a-year hunters shooting cheap #6s do alot of shooting to kill a bird. As a note, no one in our bunch shoots other than a 12 ga....
That said, for a little pocket of wild grapes, or after first snow, a classy little SxS will kill those birds as well. Head shooting at 15-20 yards is encouraged. BTW I have a little room for a few hunters this season at the Pheasant Shack, PM me if interested. Bill
_________________________
Watch 'Yer Topknot!
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#2245470 - 06/08/08 04:39 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: Uncas]
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peepsight3006
Campfire Guide
Registered: 10/10/06
Posts: 2854
Loc: Utah
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A 20 Ga with a full choke and 3 inch 6's works very well. Take your time and head shoot 'em. Same advice for 12 bore shooters.
Wayne
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#2245639 - 06/08/08 06:06 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: peepsight3006]
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Dutch
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Registered: 01/28/02
Posts: 2113
Loc: Idaho Falls, ID USA
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It depends on the shooting. When I hunt local roosters over my Drent, the points will be "just right", and the vast majority of the shots will be 20 to 30 yards. I carry a 12 with 1 1/8th oz of 6's. A 28 gauge would kill the birds cleanly. Even the late season old roosters. Just have to pass up the wild flush once in a while.
When we go to North Dakota the birds tend to be far more jumpy, and my load becomes two rounds of 1 3/8 oz of 5's, followed by a buffered load of 1.5 oz 4's. The buffered load patterns 89% (to point of aim) at 40 yards, and 69% at 60 yards. It'll kill them "way out there", and it has brought down any number of "dropped a leg" birds.
So, I think the answer is "it depends". Birds, circumstances, dogs, it all makes a bigger difference than the gauge. JMO, Dutch.
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#2246435 - 06/09/08 08:13 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: Dutch]
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Rabbitdog
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Registered: 10/07/04
Posts: 155
Loc: Riley Co., Kansas
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As an active skeet shooter and a competitive trap shooter I have spent a lot of time test patterning scatter guns. I have never found a 3" shell of any gauge that would pattern well.
I live and hunt in Kansas and have found that a well patterned,
one ounce load of #6's from any size bore is all you need for any Pheasant. A WELL PATTERNED GUN THAT YOU SHOOT WELL is the key. Besides the carry weight, I perfer my light 20 and 28 gauges. One ounce shot of #6's in either. The last time I fired a 3" 20ga. load it felt like a 300 Win Mag ! I have had no trouble taking all the ducks, geese, turkeys , quail and
pheasants I have ever wanted with standard loads of # 6's using 16ga. 20ga and 28ga. My opinion.. Mag loads in shotguns are just sales hype. I sold my last 12ga. field gun 25 years ago and have never looked back.
Rabbitdog.
_________________________
Shriners Helping Kids
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#2246728 - 06/09/08 11:10 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: Rabbitdog]
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Uncas
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Registered: 02/04/05
Posts: 671
Loc: Kansas and Alaska
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I shoot an o/u 12 ga 2 3/4" with 1.25 oz of naked 5s in the IC and 1.375 oz of nickel 4s in the mod tube. It is my main gun. If ever I was tempted to buy a Kansas drive gun it will be a Bps 30" full choke gun, well patterned at 60 yards or even a BT99 and simply shoot last. (clean-up) The 26" 12 ga has just been so ...well deadly to leave it in the safe, I can recall several doubles on longtails, there have been quite a few including the first two shots from this gun!...regards, Bill
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#2247042 - 06/09/08 02:18 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: toltecgriz]
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grand_veneur
Campfire Regular
Registered: 08/06/07
Posts: 559
Loc: Boar's nest ... South Belgium
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About 50 % of my hunting buddies use 20 gauge on pheasant, hare and even fox and sometimes duck. Some use their 20 gauge loaded with slugs or sauvestre "arrow slugs" on driven boars. They can kill any of those critters as well as others with 12 gauge. Appropriate pellets and trained shots do the job.
I don't because I use old family guns which are 12, but I wouldn't feel insecure with a 20 gauge I would know as good as my 12.
_________________________
This is my opinion! There are many like it, but this one is mine! My opinion is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, like I master my life. Without me, my opinion is useless. Without my opinion, I am useless. I must fire my opinion true!
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#2247474 - 06/09/08 06:13 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: toltecgriz]
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DillWeasel
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Registered: 10/13/03
Posts: 154
Loc: Terre Haute, IN, USA
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This is pretty interesting. At this point it sounds like I am going to end up bringing both with me.
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#2247700 - 06/09/08 07:54 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: toltecgriz]
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Uncas
Campfire Regular
Registered: 02/04/05
Posts: 671
Loc: Kansas and Alaska
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I have never (yet) patterned a 3" that was superior to a 2 3/4" Mag. I was a Turkey hunter, at one time and settled on Baby Mags back then too. Bill
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Watch 'Yer Topknot!
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#2248545 - 06/10/08 10:29 AM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: toltecgriz]
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grand_veneur
Campfire Regular
Registered: 08/06/07
Posts: 559
Loc: Boar's nest ... South Belgium
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Everybody knows American pheasants are bigger and tougher that Belgian pheasants.  Heck, they're bigger and tougher than most Belgians. But seriously, you can use what in Vietnam were called flechettes in your shotguns? Wicked load if you can.
no "flèchette" at all ... That's a sauvestre shotgun arrow slug:
http://www.sauvestre.com/index_us.htm
Very accurate and powerful indeed, but recoil is harder too.
Well, if our woodcocks are bigger than yours, why our pheasants should be smaller  
_________________________
This is my opinion! There are many like it, but this one is mine! My opinion is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, like I master my life. Without me, my opinion is useless. Without my opinion, I am useless. I must fire my opinion true!
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#2249400 - 06/10/08 06:50 PM
Re: 20ga for pheasant
[Re: grand_veneur]
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DillWeasel
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Registered: 10/13/03
Posts: 154
Loc: Terre Haute, IN, USA
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I saw those Sauvestre slugs in an article about shotgun slugs. They look like they would work well, same idea as the sabot rounds the M-1 Abrams uses.
Do they expand well or punch through like a Brenneke?
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