Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Are 28 gauge autoloaders a no-no ?

I did some of my very best wing shooting with a Remington 870 pump in 28 ga. I would have no problem with a Franchi so chambered. Thou I would really like to have a Parker Repo so chambered with two sets of barrels beaver fore end and a English grip. But I can afford one now even If I could find one.

I love my mod. 1100 28 ga. I wouldn't sell it or trade anything for it. I would really like to have a nice little 28 ga. sxs though. CZ makes a nice one that doesn't break the bank to own. I've even killed a couple mallards with mine and you can get a 1 oz. 28 ga. load now.

This is complete crap as theories go. An auto-loader still only throws them out one at a time, but my sxs has ejectors that throw em out two at a time. Eeefen Ole n Sven kin figur diss out. Oofdah.

And even old Sven, old as he is, can probably put his hand over the breech when opening a SxS or an O/U, and catch BOTH of those empties, without letting them hit the ground.

Not even in his younger, quicker days though could Sven reach around in front of the ejection port on that autoloader and catch the empties flying out.

Hard-core 28-gauge shooters don't buy doubles with ejectors.

Most of the hard core 28 gauge shooters I know don't leave the skeet field.

Dink

Derr iss at leeest vun! ;-{>

By the way, you been a good enough boy to get that Ugartechea from the jolly ol elf?

Still working on it....

I shot trap and skeet when I was a teen, and spent every Saturday and Sunday for years as the "grounds keeper" or trap boy for a rod and gun club. I will tell you that many of the best skeet shooters used Remington 1100 28 gauge shotguns. For the reduction of weight and recoil, the 28 breaks clays more like a twelve gauge than a twenty. It has a longer shot column than a 20 and has an advantage when swinging on birds.

For ruffed grouse, I still shoot my Franchi 28ga auto-loader the best. That said, if there is ever a 391 Beretta in 28ga........

Picking nits here-especially since the use of wads have become common-but a shorter shot column is an advantage in a shotgun due to the fact that less pellets are subjected to being in contact with the barrel and therefore less pellets are being deformed. Deformed pellets tend to fly away from the main string. The result is a decrease in pattern uniformity.

3/4oz in a 28, 7/8oz in a 20, 1oz in a 16, 1 or 1 1/8oz in a 12. The 12 always wins in the long haul when it comes to pattern efficiency.

If not so, the 12 would not be the gauge of choice for trap.

I love my break open 28's, the lesser recoil, and the fact that I don't have to bend over and pick up the hulls. There is no doubt everything else, except the 410, throws more lead.

A properly weighted and balanced 28 is a Ruffed Grouse, Quail and Dove hunters nirvana.

Most however screw it up by going to light along with barrels to short.

Addition: Get your hands on a Perazzi MX28 with 30in barrels to go directly to nirvana. Next go to your bank to arrange a loan.

Correction: The Perazzi MX28 will most likely be 29.5in barrels.

The longer shot column deal was always explained to me as to be an advantage. You swing the gun through the birds and spread the shot column out. Longer column, longer spread, which is what you want for skeet and pass shooting birds. Right or wrong, I heard it over and over again.

And like a lot of things you hear, it's BS.

One of the advantages of the 28-gauge is that with the 3/4 oz. load most of the shot arrives at pretty much the same time, putting more shot into the bird, whether clay or feathered.

A very long shot column (like that in the .410) tends to result in a very long shot swarm. On crossing shots, this puts less shot into the target.

All of this is why skeet scores with the 28 are so close to those shot with larger gauges.

If you want confirmation of this, buy a copy of Bob Brister's SHOTGUNNING, THE ART AND SCIENCE. It was published several decades ago but is still in print--and is still the best reference on what actually happens in shotgunning.

But JB, in skeet all you have to do is detect a "hit" on the bird, whereas in the field you have to put it down.

And I ain't arguing with you, I'm just saying there is a difference between skeet and bird shooting.

Skeet shooters are keeping the 28 gauge "Cult" alive. At my skeet / sporting clay club there are 5 mans skeet squads you have to shoot a 28 gauge just to join the group. Most shoot the 12 gauge Beretta with tubes and an occasional Rem 870.

Doc

One very nice shotgun and one I have never had the pleasure of owning but hopefully will rectify that error soon.

It works the same. The 28 puts more shot into a crossing game bird than it "should," because the shot arrive pretty much the same time.