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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
For years over a close pointer, I used an AYA 28 with 28” barrels, choked IC/M. 3/4 oz, size 7 1/2. Gun weight just under 6 lbs. Presently, I have three I’d put in your category: a 6 1/4 lb Rizzini 20 with 28” barrels. Choked IC/IM. 1 oz 6’s. A 6 lb Citori Superlight Feather 16 ga, 24” barrels with 1 1/8 oz 6’s, and a Benelli Ultalight 20, 5 3/4 lbs, 24” barrels, 1 oz 6’s The difference? What I feel like that day. This pic is with a Dickinson 16 ga. Which is a quality shotgun but at 6 3/4 lb is a little too heavy for ga. IMO. I like light shotguns. George, Nice gun and dog! I have hunted wild roosters quite a bit, but more often with a flushing rather than pointing dogs--though most of the flushers tended to work more carefully as they became more experienced--and older and hence slower! Have used a bunch of shotguns in gauges from 28 to 12, usually pretty light for gauge--and like you tend to pick which one I feel like that day. My favorite 12 is a Sauer boxlock side-by-side made in 1940, which weighs 6-1/4 pounds even with it's 28" barrels, but have also had fine results with many others, including a Fausti 28 SxS which is a pound lighter, and recently an older "Birmingham" boxlock, an R. Lisle SxS 12 which weighs 6-1/2 pounds even with 30" barrels. It has become a favorite later in the season, due to being choked IC and Full, a not uncommon combo in British guns. But I recently picked up an older Browning Citori 20, and plan to use it it some this fall! Have used a variety of shot sizes, but in the past few years it's often hard #7s--the British #6 popular for driven birds. Hope we can get together again sometime, maybe even to hunt birds! Best, John For years over a close pointer, I used an AYA 28 with 28” barrels, choked IC/M. 3/4 oz, size 7 1/2. Gun weight just under 6 lbs. Presently, I have three I’d put in your category: a 6 1/4 lb Rizzini 20 with 28” barrels. Choked IC/IM. 1 oz 6’s. A 6 lb Citori Superlight Feather 16 ga, 24” barrels with 1 1/8 oz 6’s, and a Benelli Ultalight 20, 5 3/4 lbs, 24” barrels, 1 oz 6’s The difference? What I feel like that day. This pic is with a Dickinson 16 ga. Which is a quality shotgun but at 6 3/4 lb is a little too heavy for ga. IMO. I like light shotguns. George, Nice gun and dog! I have hunted wild roosters quite a bit, but more often with a flushing rather than pointing dogs--though most of the flushers tended to work more carefully as they became more experienced--and older and hence slower! Have used a bunch of shotguns in gauges from 28 to 12, usually pretty light for gauge--and like you tend to pick which one I feel like that day. My favorite 12 is a Sauer boxlock side-by-side made in 1940, which weighs 6-1/4 pounds even with it's 28" barrels, but have also had fine results with many others, including a Fausti 28 SxS which is a pound lighter, and recently an older "Birmingham" boxlock, an R. Lisle SxS 12 which weighs 6-1/2 pounds even with 30" barrels. It has become a favorite later in the season, due to being choked IC and Full, a not uncommon combo in British guns. But I recently picked up an older Browning Citori 20, and plan to use it it some this fall! Have used a variety of shot sizes, but in the past few years it's often hard #7s--the British #6 popular for driven birds. Hope we can get together again sometime, maybe even to hunt birds! Best, John 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.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,153 Likes: 13
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,153 Likes: 13 |
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.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,812
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,812 |
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.
Last edited by battue; 04/23/23.
laissez les bons temps rouler
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
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.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
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.
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,559
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,559 |
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.
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control
& Proverbs 21:19
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
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.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
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. 😉
Last edited by George_De_Vries_3rd; 04/25/23.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 484
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 484 |
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.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,153 Likes: 13
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,153 Likes: 13 |
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. 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
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 193
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 193 |
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.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,119 Likes: 2 |
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.
Last edited by George_De_Vries_3rd; 04/25/23.
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Posts: 525
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 525 |
Winchester 101 12ga over my GSPs.
Texas bred and born
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Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 3,624 Likes: 1
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 3,624 Likes: 1 |
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.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,826
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,826 |
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.
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin.'"
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 28,172
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 28,172 |
1 oz. 6's IC & IM same for all gauges (12, 16, 20) and barrel lengths, sxs or o/u but haven't shot an o/u in 15 yrs.. Bernardelli Elos 12ga 5 lb 15 oz B&P High Pheasant 2.5" 1 oz. 6's, Montana wild pheasants I covet your Bernardelli!
Hunt with Class and Classics
Religion: A founder of The Church of Spray and Pray
Acquit v. t. To render a judgment in a murder case in San Francisco... EQUAL, adj. As bad as something else. Ambrose Bierce “The Devil's Dictionary”
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Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 8,911 Likes: 2
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 8,911 Likes: 2 |
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
" Cheapest velocity in the world comes from a long barrel and I sure do like them. MB "
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,812
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,812 |
Read it again.....he shoots more Pheasants in a couple years than most will shoot in a couple decades. Some in a lifetime. 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.
Last edited by battue; 07/08/23.
laissez les bons temps rouler
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,838
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,838 |
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.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,826
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,826 |
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.
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin.'"
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