Using a 28 is about the gun, and to a certain extent recoil.
I own and hunt with shotguns in all the usual gauges except .410 (they keep coming and going), including 28, 20, 16, 12 and 10—but my 5 pound 2 ounce Fausti side-by-side 28 gets to go when the light weight might be a real advantage, such as when hunting early-season mountain grouse, especially ruffs. But its 28-inch barrels also swing fine on longer crossing shots, so I’ve also used it on other birds up to and including pheasants and sage grouse.
A few years ago my wife Eileen started getting recoil headaches with any firearm that kicked more than a relatively small amount, and since she really prefers light firearms for most hunting it got to be a real problem. We’ve used a bunch of solutions, depending on the firearm, including muzzle brakes, super-pads, reduced handloads, etc., but for shotgunning Eileen found the 28 provided all the killing power she needed for upland birds when using commonly available factory loads—and no headaches.
Yes, you can handload any gauge up to 12 with 28-gauge-equivalent shot charges, and I do that for her other shotguns she likes to take now and then, especially her nifty little British 16-gauge side-by-side which weighs 5-3/4 pounds. But it’s still not quite as light as her Hatfield side-by-side 28, for which she can just go grab a box of factory ammo.
