Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What Happened to 20 Gauge Ammo?

Iv'e used TSS a couple times in the 28. Hit a few and missed a few also. However hits were impressive, and what you mostly saw was the head flop and the wings quit beating, before they came to ground.

Even Walmart carries 16 gauge ammo now. I see a lot of 28,16 and 12

Yep!

But that's also what I saw with the high-antimony lead 7s....

That all depends on where you are. It lucky when you find any decent 12 ga ammo in the ones out here, let alone 20, and NO 16. Also, this is mostly trout fishing territory, so Walmart has no stock of anything trout and lots of bass.

No LGS carries 16, and they shy away from stocking much 20ga. This is chukar country where high base #6 rules, so they stock 7 1/2 and 8 shot field loads.


I find a better selection of the 16ga ammo I need on line than I do 20ga.

RST seems to be slowly getting up and running again...Would be a good idea to keep checking their website.

Just looked and they list 16 gauge 2 1/2 inch 5’s in stock.

If you think 20 bore shotshells are scarce, try finding slugs, especially sabots. And if you find them, it will melt your plastic, five to eight dollars each. Some are available on GB, not cheap and plus shipping. Haven't seen any in my LGS for nearly two years and those were not sabots. Of course I live in slug and buckshot only country.

Back in old times when I was working at Gander Mountain, just a few weeks before trout season opener, we got in two aisles of walleye and pike stuff. Walleye and Pike would be closed for two more months. PA's trout opener was almost as big a holiday as buck season opener.
Bfly

In the current situation....which many in the know say is not going away soon.... the game has changed. 20 Gauge offerings are out there. You can wait until the season and hope you find something, or you can get it now. Most likely you are going to have to pay dearly either way.


Here is your 20 gauge 5 and 6's. I bit the bullet and bought 250, which should last me a good while for hunting Pheasants. Two years ago a friend waited and paid $20 plus a box for the cheap stuff in Mitchell, SD and was glad to get it. Have close to enough target loads for practice, and even they are not as inexpensive as in the past. So if I'm still here next season I won't be scrambling around.

Gas alone for a Grouse trip and two trips to SD is a couple K. Factor in food, lodging, etc and shells are mostly, as a friend says, another bag on the Queen Mary.

It's out there...get it now or hope you can come hunting season. 2 3/4 and 3 inch.. 5,6,7,8's.

https://bossshotshells.com/shotshells/bismuth/?Per_Page=24&Sort_By=disp_order&gauge=20%20GA

Walmart here in MI has Express 20 gauge 6's for $18 and change. They had Fed 28 gauge and some Game Load 16's. Quite a few 12ga target or field loads. One LGS has 410.s but they go dear. The rifle and rimfire choices are many. No doubt certain specific loads are scarce, but there seems to be no general shortage here. Dunhams has even a bigger selection. Prices, I fear, are up to stay.

I’ve observed the frantic search for fancy sabot slugs on here for a while, re-enforcing my resolve to never get involved. Meanwhile, though it’s been decades since I used them in the field, I still play with Foster and Brenneke smoothbore types from time to time and still believe they serve a purpose for those who still have to use them, or who are blessed with overlapping deer and small game seasons, just a Francis E. Sell described back in the 60s. Just about any slug will be accurate enough for 50 yard shooting, and select examples have been perfectly fine to 100 yards.

Meanwhile, regulations allowing certain rifles in formerly shotgun-only states threaten IMO, the entire shotgun slug market. As more shooters switch over, sales will drop, which will cause a contraction in the availability of both slugs and guns designed to shoot them. Anyone who enjoys using slugs or that hunts in the places that don’t allow the new specialty rifles might want to either stock up or begin to cobble together the gear they need to roll their own. Another option is to switch to an inline or other ML.

Just bought a flat of Federal 7.5's from these guys..$98 shipped/250 count

Link is for heavy field #6 shot

https://www.gricegunshop.com/fedh2026-fed-game-shok-heavy-field-load-20ga-2-75.html

Grices is a shop you would like. I used to stop in there pretty often when i lved in PA. I hate to think how much plastic I melted there.
Bfly