Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is 20 the new 12?

With the advent of heavier than lead shot I'm wondering if more high end hunting shotguns will be available in 20 gauge. I bought a cheap kids model 20 gauge camo pump gun for turkeys ( VERY LIGHT AND SHORT STOCK IS PERFECT ON THE KNEE SITTING AGAINST A TREE) and with TSS it's crazy how far it would kill a turkey every time you pulled the trigger. I want a new duck gun and think I'll go with a semi auto 20 in camo and retire the heavy 870 12 magnum I've been lugging around. Problem is I don't want a M2 and hope Fabarms will come out with a 20 gauge dedicated duck gun like the XLR5 in 2023 I know the shells are expensive but I'd be lucky to duck hunt 4-5 times a year so it's a nonissue. Plus it would make a nice dove gun. I just don't see the advantage of a 12 anymore. I think I'll try a Retay if Fabarms doesn't come through. Anybody else feel a 20 will be their go to? Would you go with a 26 or 28" barrel?

I think 12 is the new 10

In the area of slug shotguns, the 20ga has certainly made great inroads into the 12's territory. With enhancements in shotshell ammunition, the 20 is effective and much easier for most folks to shoot.

That reminds me of my other pet peeve. Growing up getting an extra barrels for a shotgun was easy. Nowadays it seems really hard to pick up a slug, a turkey and a longer barrel for the same shotgun.

Excuse my ignorance but is it hard to hunt turkeys other places? In Idaho here turkey hunting is very easy for me and I do not take much consideration as to what I am using. But to the topic… I enjoy the 20 gauge for the weight of the gun but also shoot the light loads.
S.

I wouldn’t exactly say a 20g is the new 12g. Possibly for some people, depending on the feathers they mainly hunt have found the reduction in overall weight by dropping down to a 20g without significant limitation in killing is a win for them.

Weight reduction in the field has become common place. Guys are buying up hard to find double stacked 410’s. The 16g has always had a certain sweet16 spot for many, and the 28g has started to emerge as another sought after, lightweight field gun.

For me, finding the best tool for what I’m hunting has been a goal. Field hunting where walking is the norm. I prefer a lighter shotgun in a 20g or 16g. My wife’s 28g is admittedly a nice shotgun and doesn’t lose much, if any punch over a 12g.

Hitting the water for ducks and geese. While a 20g isn’t that much of a handicap shooting over blocks. I typically stay with a 12g shooting 3” shells.

Nothing fits everyone and everything. YMMV.

🦫

Churning.

The industry pushing demand In a new direction to force sales.

Without it, they would die.

I can't help but laugh.
The very same idiots who told me I needed a 3 1/2 gun for turkeys(i have a 3" gun with lengthend forcing cone a good .665 tube, DT reciever with a red dot.) told me how I should go to a 3" 20ga. Now, they are going 410.

Started out on a 20ga, I will die shooting a 20ga.

Regular 20 gauge shells have been non existent for 2+ years, except for the occasional 7-1/2 or 8 shot variety. You’d have better luck finding LR primers.

I’m a 20 gauge guy, but had to break out the 12s this year - or risk totally depleting my 20 reserve.

Exactly!….and the 20 is the new 16ga. 😀

I only shoot/own 20 gauges. There is very little that a 12 gauge can do that a 20 gauge with 2-3/4" shells cannot. Especially with the advent of TSS/heavier than lead shot. For Dove/Upland birds, there is plenty of #8 - #5 shot available. I just got done hunting pheasant a few weeks ago using only my Browning Citori Lightning in 20 gauge. I used Fiocchi 2-3/4" Golden Pheasant #6's and was never undergunned.

Right now, ammo availability is a problem for both 12 gauge and 20 gauge. It is hard to find anything outside of 2-3/4" 7.5# to 9# shotshells. There are places you can find bigger shot and 3" & 3-1/2" shells, but it's not like it was in 2019.

As for barrel length, I posted this recently on a thread on ShotgunWorld: "Give input on a 26" vs 28"?" -- My opinion is that you probably won't notice the difference when bird hunting. The FPS difference is something like 15FPS - 20FPS, so is negligible. 2" barrel length difference really only becomes apparent in clay games and it is more about balance point than anything else.

Of note, I have 2 shotguns with 26" barrels and 2 with 28". I have no problems switching between them and my Citori is 26" barrels. I use it for Trap, Skeet, and SC when I do those and am not handicapped at all. Also, 20 gauge. If I was really serious about clay games, I would end up with a 12 gauge with 30" barrels. But I am not serious about clay games. I am serious about hunting and use clay games to improve/maintain my shooting skills for hunting.

I prefer this 20 ga for turkey.

The 20ga is great. I’m just stunned that the cheap bas*ards around here haven’t complained yet about the cost of said advanced shotshell technology that has made the 20 so lethal

Same here. I'm a third generation die hard 20ga fan. I've had 12ga guns but they were shot alot less and went away.

If you’re asking if a 20 can get it done for many people for most things, I’d say probably. But that may entail using very expensive ammunition (even if you load your own) in some cases. Shooting deer with slugs, or turkeys with TSS, and other sitting ducks, so to speak, is one thing, but for stuff flying through the air, the 12 has the advantage of a shorter shot string and shot column that can result in better patterns. Check out serious clays shooters and see what they use.

I’ve played with TSS in the 20 and .410 a good bit the last couple of years and the patterns can be really amazing, but their size and density means you have to aim carefully so you don’t miss and also so you don’t effectively destroy that which you intend to eat. And the price of the shells? Oh my! I have a good many from my messing about, and they were spendy, but it seems that of late they’re even worse. Since the patterns are so tight, you really need to determine their POI, select a choke, and maybe sight in an optic, which means a lot of money is going up in smoke before you ever hit the woods. My take on all this now is that for turkeys, a good 12 is the easy button, or even a 16 or 20 if you reduce your range expectations to more traditional ones. I’ll reserve my 20 and .410 turkey guns for times I want to travel light. Given the quality of the ground I have available to me and my skill level, I have a lifetime supply of the magic fairy dust shot, so the price is no longer a factor.

Overall, I have two 12s, two 20s, and a .410. Use them all for clays, and turkeys, but haven’t done much bird hunting as it requires travel or paying preserve fees.

When I started serious bird hunting 30 years ago I bought a nice 12 ga.

I thought it was strange that a few of my older mentors shot only 20 ga. One kept a hunting log documenting bagging over 5000 ducks. He had one dog that retrieved 800 of them.

Then I discovered the 20 ga. for myself. Now I do 90% of my bird hunting with one, including Africa and Canada. Big honkers to Mearns quail have all fallen to the same gun.

I've killed most of my turkeys with a 20. Never felt handicapped. My 12 is covered in dust.

Most high volume shooting waterfowl hunters are not going to pay the premium price of heavier than lead shot or Bismuth. Until cheaper steel shot replacement options become available, the 20 will not replace the 12.

12, 16, or 20, I launch the same shot load at about the same speed. Give or take maybe 50fps and 50grains of lead.

At least when it comes to upland, dove, etc…..