Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Your ideal pheasant-with-dogs shotgun ???

John, I would just love that. That little get together in Livingston was ten +/- years ago now. And I’ve been collecting after-market parts.

That time was a spring bear hunt and I strained and my tore my lateral ligament in my left knee and had to drain it. Took 80 cc’s off in our tent. But I’m back to walking form again.



Ironically, it’s the other one I had to have replaced.

Dang!

Have heard of needing the "opposite joint" replaced. It even happened to my mother, who apparently ruined her "good" hip by using it a lot more after her other hip went bad.

I'll let you know if we have a decent upland-bird population this year. The winter was one of the longest and snowiest we've had in years.

George,

And here I thought I was the only one to ever do that to myself. I didn't get it all so finally went to an ortho guy. He asked, "Just how did you do that?" I replied with betadine and a 60 cc syringe. He just smiled and went to work. However mine was an elbow.

Battue

😀. In 2018, I drained my bud’s bursitic elbow in our outfitters bathroom. Soap, and some alcohol was our disinfectant. The patient survived…of course, I’ve known mules and donkeys that were not as tough.

Never went on a trip without a couple of syringes, appropriate needles, some butadiene, marcaine and some steroid.

It’s enabled what would have been a couple of miserable hunts to become comfortable ones.

I forgot to add to the above, in the 16 Citori it’s M/F and in the 20 Ultrlight I just keep a M in it.

See I come from a lesser budget line. Been over a decade since I lost my 14 year old German Short Hair. Tough loss & chose not to replace him as my joints were getting the best of me.

I was pretty much a one shotgun for everything kind of guy. Simple 12 gauge BPS with 26 " barrel modified choke. 5 shot lead was my favorite. When the grounds called for steel, duces was the first choice.

For years, many years ago I hunted everything with a Rem 870 Wingmaster, 12 ga. with a M choke. It got it all done. As a nostalgic, I regret that gun sailing away.

Kurt, the AyA #2 is just very, very nice as is the A400, but in a different way — a work of art and a Smooth Operator. 😉

George, that A400 28 ga is so light to carry, yet isn't too whippy to shoot well. Works better than a 5-1/2# shotgun should. But the AYA #2 16 ga SxS has been the favorite for 20 seasons for pheasants.

George,

I ordered a 12-gauge 870 in 1979 from the local J.C. Penney store in Missoula, Montana--with two barrels, since at that time screw-in chokes were a rarity--and unknown in Remingtons. Both barrels had 3" chambers and ventilated ribs, one a 26" IC and the other a 30" full. Picked it up at the store around noon, and met a friend out on the street while carrying the box to my old Ford Bronco. It was mid-September and he suggested we go grouse hunting.

So we did, in one of the local creek drainages just outside of town which held ruffed grouse, and occasionally blues. Stopped at a likely spot, and my first Labrador Gillis started acting birdy. I hadn't even fired the gun yet, just attached the IC barrel and grabbed some shells.

When I sent Gillis into the brush he flushed a grouse--and I pointed the 870 at the only reasonably open spot in the cover. When the bird flew through the opening I shot. The bird dropped, and Gillis retrieved it.

Still have that 870, and have killed a bunch of birds with it from doves in Argentina to geese in Alberta, but the two fixed-choke barrels were replaced a while back with a 28" Remington barrel with screw-in chokes, and a 21" rifled slug barrel. It's taken a bunch more birds--but also some deer and my biggest black bear, and Eileen also used it on a young cow moose.

It ain't "classy" but it works! And I ain't selling it....

John

I'm very lucky to have a pointing lab with an excellent noise. A SKB 505 O/U 12GA, 26" barrels, IC & MOD Carlson Cremator tubes, my handloads with 1.25oz buffered bismuth #5 at about 1275fps. All the above has made for a very successful combination resulting in some very memorable hunting.

John,

I ordered mine and received it in ‘69 I believe. By that time I had read enough to reject “the full choke, 30” barrel” mantra for pheasants at the time common here in NW Iowa. It was probably spread by once-a-year hunters who didn’t shoot very well and thought more barrel and tighter chokes were needed. I ordered it with a 26” barrel with a M choke (fixed) — unheard of. But the local barber-gun dealer, himself an astute outdoorsman (and a patient one) said “sure, that will work fine.”

I still have fond memories of it and regret selling it even though I’ve seemed to have moved away from the 12 ga. for most purposes. Many birds, with many friends, on many occasions fell and made me seem a better shot than most likely I am. Fit, utility, balance and all that.

Mechanically, I’m a southern cousin to Red Green, but I actually stripped the trigger mechanism and bolt out while prone in a muddy cornfield field once while sneaking up on some mallards. By that time I carried a little punch and the pins were easy to push out. With the mud wiped out of the action, twenty yards more, and two big green heads were down.

I always was a trade-it-in guy for the next thing, and now there’s a modest list of those I’d like to hold again. Yet, in a way, you never lose them.

Edit: oh yeah, and that plunger safety was easily reversible for a lefty.

Winchester 101 12ga over my GSPs.

I’m pondering going with a group to hit ND/SD/IA this fall, for mainly pheasants but maybe some ducks. Can’t decide on which one or two guns to take from my ‘59 Sweet 16 (26”/Cyl…may go to Briley for tubes), my Gold 20ga with #4 bismuth, and/or a newer Auto 5 12ga (which is my lighter weight duck gun). Also have a Savage/Fox BSE 20ga, and some others. I might take a decently trained lab for its first pheasant work….otherwise it’s walking them up.

Any of them will work and by all means take your dog. Almost any dog is better than no dog. Almost, anyways.

Seriously, tho. I shoot a couple of pheasants every now and then. Some present shots that are less than ten yards, some are 20 yards and some are more than 30, every time I go out. You can't pick a choke combo that will "do it all" on any particular walk even, let alone any particular day. Pick a gun that you shoot well and go forth. Light modified is a good choice but I've shot alot of pheasants with cylinder in the bottom barrel of a Citori 16. A lot.

I covet your Bernardelli!

Have shot a pile of roosters with various guns pretty hard for me to fault a modified choked barrel. Carry both older vintage ammo with no shot protection and newer stuff with plastic wads that have shot cups. If their sitting tight use the old vintage for more open patterns if they are getting up out there use the newer ammo..one barrel gun gets old in the chamber and backed by the newer stuff. 2 barrel guns get old in the open choke and newer ammo in the tight choke.. it's a simple concept but works. I have many different shotguns and have shot enough that any of them will work never going to be a guy who allways uses just 1 gun. By choice my Belgian A-5 Sweet 16 vr mod choked gets carried alot. I like the way she feels and she is never the wrong answer for questions not yet asked..mb

Read it again.....he shoots more Pheasants in a couple years than most will shoot in a couple decades. Some in a lifetime.

One choke? Make it a full.
You can always let them fly a bit farther, hard to make them fly closer.
Luckily we have 100 year old guns with two chokes to choose from.

Don't over think shot size and choke. Over think this: Find a shotgun that you shoot well and is reliable.

For me its Brownings in general and Auto-5's in particular. YMMV.

Put good quality sixes in it and go forth. Winchester Super-x, Remington Express, Federal Hi-Brass. No need for large shot and high velocity, they aren't making tiny kevlar vests for the birds.

And most of you can't shoot well enough at the ranges where fours would make a difference. You'll kill more pheasants with the additional shot in sixes than you will at long range with fours. That's a fact.