When I still lived in Eastern Washington I bought a Beretta 686 28 gauge to go with my 686 12 gauge. I had a Brittany that was a hunting machine and I bought the 28 because it weighed 5 3/4 pounds and had the same dimensions as my 12 gauge I'd been shooting for many years. I hunted hard with that dog and gun for four years before moving to Alaska and continued to use it for grouse and ptarmigan up here. I killed a lot of wild pheasants, chukar, grouse, huns, quail and even used on a few decoyed ducks. The only time I felt it lacked anything was when I tried the original Bismuth Company 5/8 ounce loads on ducks. I went to handloading 7/8 ounce bismuth and was far more impressed with those loads than the 5/8 ounce on ducks.
My dog was solid on birds and would reposition until the bird was locked down. You could tell from her stance when she was close and my shots were always fairly close. A 28 wouldn't be my choice for high flying, driven wild birds but under the conditions I hunted and with that old Brit, I never felt the 28 lacked killing power and rarely had to follow up with a second shot.
Yeah. I'm a big fan of the 28.
