Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game How many of you guys use a 20 gauge?

most of the pheasant guys I know use a 12.. so just checking

I've used both, but if I think the shots might be on the longer side,for a little extra insurance I'll go with a 12 with a size larger shot and bigger payload and maybe a tighter choke. But mostly if I can't kill'em with a 20 I probably can't with the 12 either.

I go with a 12 KK all the way.. I have tried 20’s and they work most of the time..

I'm not one to keep a lot of different guns. The main reason I chose 20 gauge is because it will pattern better with smaller, lighter loads that my kids (12 and 13) can shoot more comfortably than a 12 gauge, and I can buy those light loads as factory ammo for lower cost than I could make handloads or buy 16 or 28 gauge factory loads. They'll never outgrow 20 gauge and for the foreseeable future, we won't have a 12 gauge that someone can accidentally put a 20 ga shell in the create a barrel obstruction.

For quail and chukar, which is what I'd rather be hunting, I would have been content with a 28 gauge but both the guns and ammo are $$. The 12 is better for ducks, geese and turkey. I'd still use the 20 on ducks with a tighter choke but I really don't care for duck and geese compared to upland birds. There just isn't enough turkey in my current state to make it worthwhile. They've been introduced here. Most recent count was 1200 and their range is very limited. I suppose turkey really call for a specialty gun
or barrel anyway, but I'm not bothering unless I move to another state.

20 is fine for cottontails and squirrels. A bullet might be better but not a 12.

12 wins for turkeys, geese, long-range ducks and civil work. For just about anything else, I'd rather have anything smaller (16 to 28 ga) and 20 is the most practical of those.

I love the 20 ga. Killed a turkey with one this past spring. Do all my upland hunting with my wife's M2.

At the ranges most of us should be shooting it makes little difference.....a Pheasant being a large Bird, pretty much fills the pattern circle of either....and that circle will contain the minimum 5-8 pellets required for clean kills. The 12 with the additional pellets will always hit them with more strikes....are they necessary?
With a good point, no....

I would rather hunt Pheasants with a quick handling 20--or, 28, or 16---than a burdensome 12 better suited for trap and sporting clays....

I’ve used 20’s and 28’s as well as 12’s my whole life. And now have picked up a 16 again also. All will take pheasants. The quality of shot shells has never been better.

Perhaps much more is dependent on you, your inclinations, desires; a favorite gun, pointing vs. flushing dogs, etc.

Frankly, in fifty-five years of hunting pheasants, I’ve not discerned a difference when carry a 12 or a 20 other than size and weight.

20 ga only.

90% of rooster kills are #6 shot and improved. The other 10% are with Modified.

BTW I do not hunt water foul. If I did I would use a 12 ga.

I've taken a lot of birds with 12, 16, 20. they were all same degree of dead.I primarily use a 16 sxs now , carry like a 20 hits like a 12, 1oz loads have a short shot string. One thing about hunting birds today you carry your gun a lot more than you shoot it.

truth

I use a 16 and have no need for a 12

I often use my 20.

But hate being limited and discriminating against my other scatter guns. 😀

They probably have fat labs too.

Pheasant hunting sucks, in comparison to sharptails, huns, chukar, or any other upland bird really....

But if it's the only game in town I would never feel handicapped with a 20ga.

I live to hunt Ruffed Grouse. I usually hunt WI and the UP, but have gone to MN. Also hunted SD many times for pheasant, ND and MT many times for pheasant and earlier in the year for sharpies and huns, and CO for blues and ptarmigan.

For grouse I usually use a light weight 12ga O/U with 3 1/4 dram, 1 1/4 oz, high antimony #6 shot. This load patterns very well out of my guns and is in all scenarios a better killer on grouse sized game than smaller shot sizes and/or sub gauges, and I have both taken and witnessed a lot of game being taken with about every combination available.

Sometimes I carry a 16 ga O/U in which I shoot 1 1/8 oz #6, which is also a great load and gun combination for grouse size game. For pheasants I load 1 1/4oz #5 shot in a 12 ga and use heavier dram eq loads later in the season. The only times I carry a 20ga is for smaller game birds, and early in the ruffed grouse season when there's a lot of wood cock around and the leaves are still on, meaning shots are close. In the 20 I use 1oz #7.5 shot; it's an ok to marginal load on grouse sized game up to 25 yds.

In my experience, it's more about shot size than guage, and if you can get adequately sized shot for the game at hand to pattern in your gun/choke, you can kill larger birds efficiently with sub gauges and maybe a slightly tighter choke up to a point.

From what I see in a lot of areas I hunt, many hunters are using shot that's too small to kill humanely in a lot of scenarios for the game being hunted. In my home coverts we get a lot of out of state hunters, and many seem to favor sub gauges with #7.5-8 shot, which are very poor loads for grouse and bigger sized game, and it's not too uncommon for my dogs to retrieve wounded birds I didn't shoot at, or for me to clean birds I did shoot that have smaller shot embedded in them. Further, I've often helped out of staters who are down on their luck and are having a tough time finding game, by hunting with them for a few hours, showing them the type of cover that's most productive. Through the course of this I often encounter hunters who are actually hitting game they shoot at with small gauges/small shot but not killing it quickly, leaving them to conclude that they missed outright while the game is left to suffer. Same thing happens in the pheasant fields, where I often run into hunters using light loads of #7.5 and #6's in 12's and sub gauges, which are not enough to consistently take large roosters humanely at common distances. I hate to think of the wound fest going on every fall with all of these hunters not being adequately equipped.

An added benefit of larger shot is that there's less of it in the same sized payload; by extension, the birds you get will have less shot in them to be found at the table.

The main reason I'm not more fond of the 20 more often is that I personally haven't found many #6 and #5 loads that pattern too well at all in my 20's, whereas I have a lot of options that do in the larger bores. Still, when I take young hunters, I set them up with a 20 ga gas auto that mitigates recoil well and load it with appropriately sized shot and just hope they're able to connect in spite of the inconsistent patterns. If I was more recoil conscious with the 12ga, I'd do the same for myself.

Ok I got old. Since I seem to take my gun for a walk most of the time, I look for two things. 1) What is the weight of the gun? (I like it in the 7 pound range.) 2) How does the gun fit me for the type of shooting I am going to do?
So mostly now I use a 20 ga. pump. Mostly for pheasants, rabbits and squirrels in OH & PA.
I don't really worry about how much ammo I will carry.
I do have a 12 ga. auto but it keeps getting heavier each year.

I try to kill at least one bird a year with my guns. I shoot a lot of 20 and 16. Only have one 12 in the stable currently

This year I bought a Remington 870 Express 20ga with a 28" barrel. Been using it because gun and shells are lighter to carry. After rotator cuff surgery, 2 hip replacements and a lower back fusion I will take a lighter weight 6.5 Ib gun over 7.5 Ib even though it is only a pound lighter ammo will be lighter too. With today's choke tubes and ammo I don't feel under gunned.

Starbucks,

If you don’t mind, what would be your definition of “common distances”? Also do you have any thoughts on TSS shotshells?

Addition: It is also appreciated that you "often" help out ot State hunters..."often" encounter hunters who are hitting game they dont' know they hit....and how do you know that? I mean you must "often" by no more than chance cross paths with them and see them hit birds they thought they missed....then you "often" have the same occur in your Pheasant fields....

Ruffed Grouse have been cleanly killed for at least a century with 20 Gauges and size 7.5 or 8 shot.....And since the pattern diameter-please don't get me started on your two dimensional pattern theory-patterns of a 20 is the same as a 12....how well one points or the number of shot they put on the Bird is the main determination of how well one kills...What kills better when it comes to Ruffed Grouse"? 3 x 5's or perhaps 10 x 7.5's? Give that one a little thought....How does the total energy of multiple hits relate to clean kills vs less energy of fewer hits....when one considers the random nature of shotgun pellet strikes????? And factor in varying speeds of Game Birds as they pass thru shot....Which is another dimension added to the picture perfect two dimensional pattern sheet...

Those two holes on the pattern sheet....the ones real close together....were they traveling the same distance apart before they hit the pattern sheet? How does the dimension of time factor into your pattern percentage? How does the perfect shotgun mount on the pattern plate relate to perhaps an imperfect mount on a Game Bird?


These are questions I "often" ask myself.....

Upland 20 or 28 SxS or O/U with purdy wood. Waterfowl 12 semi auto synthetic stock. Haven't taken the 12 SxS's out for a bit, must rectify that!

I agree, "quick handling" being critical. Frequently the rooster has moved from the spot where the dog is pointing, so you don't know where it is going to launch from, and you have about one second to shift your feet and get your gun up.

Pheasant hunting for me entails miles of walking through tough ground. The light weight of the 20 is helpful.

Photo from last week in S.D.