Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Your ideal wild quail shotgun ???

I was stationed at Ft. Benning in Columbus Georgia back in the late 70's. I had a really good English Pointer then. We had a lot of fun Hunting wild quail on that Base.. For me, I considered those the good old days. Things are a lot different now.

A quick swinging 20 gauge gives you a chance with the speed and chaos of a wild bird covey rise….

I've hunted quail with more shotguns than I can remember.

My favorite is a Winchester Model 12 16 gauge 28" modified. I've shot more quail than any other with this combo. They're the right weight for me (6 5/8 pounds or so for a field gun with plain barrel) and with normal, lead loads, have the same range as a 12 gauge in my experience.

Honorable mentions include the wonderful Benelli Montefeltro 20 gauge. I killed a ton of black throated bobs down in Mexico one trip with one of those and have hunted with them in the US also. I also have done really well with a Benelli M2 12 gauge with 26" barrel that I hunted for 15 years or so. I have a really clean, older Winchester 101 20 gauge I want to try. It's lightweight with 28" M/F barrels and handles perfectly. I think it may work really well. I've hunted with various side by sides over the years but always migrated back to pumps, semi-autos and O/Us. I love the thought of a nice SxS but seem to shoot better with other guns.

I've primarily hunted wild flushing blues with the occasional covey of bobs thrown in and mostly on public land. Most of this hunting has been done without a dog so the birds can be hard to find. I found long ago that when I switched to modified chokes with quality 6 shot loads, I considerably increased my odds of finding downed birds.

Boss makes some good 16 gauge bismuth loads if you ever want to put the Browning back in the field.

Browning citori 410. Mod and full.

Nowadays, a Benelli Montefeltro Silver 20 ga with 24” barrel and a Briley Extended skeet choke.

When I was in HS, I had an old Ithaca Model 37 Police Riot Gun that worked very well.
We had a ton of quail on the Ranch back then, 40 something years ago. Once got 5 birds on a rise.
Not near as fast with a pump gun as I was back then. 😬

1) Winchester 101 20ga.

2) Benelli Super 90

3) Benelli Montefeltro 20ga

I used a Browning A-500 with 26” barrels, improved cylinder choke. I used hard #9 shot loaded to the max. I hunted them hard for 25 years with English pointers

Close to my list but mine is just a little different
1) Beretta A400 in 28 ga
2) Winchester 101 20 ga
3)Benelli Montefeltro 20 ga
4) Browning Cynergy 20 ga

Yeah I am scrambling for a new 16 ga bismuth load, since the Rem Sp16 wad is now unobtainium. Good info on the BOSS.

I made it out this morning, we got A half dozen Gambles.
My buddy used an 1100 in 12ga, I shot my 20 ga Montefeltro.

For me depends on early in the season or late.
Early Benelli Monetefeltro 20 gauge / 26 in barrel
Ithicha 200e 20 guage / 25 in barrels
Late. Browning Citori 12 guage / 26 in barrels Hasbeen

More of a grouse guy but I do make it out for quail
a few times a year.

Im in the SXS 20ga crowd. Straight stock, splinter forend, and double triggers are a must. Oh and pointing dogs. Preferably a stylish setter.

I hunted bob whites in the Red River area of North Texas for several decades. I trained my own English pointers and Brittany spaniels. Lots of birds in those days before the fire ant invasion. My favorite shotgun for it was a 20 gauge 870 from 1964. 26 inch non ribbed barrel with I/C choke. I preferred one ounce loads of #9 shot. I also used a Remington 1100 and Ruger Red Label but that 870 was lighter and fit me better. It was fairly common to kill 5 birds out of the covey rise with that shotgun.

Winchester model 59

Kudos on the choice of a Win-Lite. JB here offered one at a good price, and I jumped it. It's one of my favorite chuckar guns. They're light and fast pointing.

My friends and I use the 20 gauge Benelli Montefeltro. Scaled and Gambels with improved and 1 oz of #7 1/2s. Mearns cylinder and 1 oz of #8s.

Many doubles taken on Scaled and Gambels covey rise. Quite a few triples, a few quadruples, and one quintuple taken on a mearns covey rise with this combination.

Note the two Benelli 20 gauge shotguns:

Quntuble each with a single shot, and all on the initial covey rise...none getting up late.....is impressive.

1957 round knob Belgium browning sweet sixteen with 26 inch matte rib ic choked. The classic southern bobwhite gun

Great thread! I’ve not hunted nor had the opportunity to hunt quail, but enjoy the posts, the good guns either by description or pictures. Dogs too.

Real Campfire stuff. 👍🏼