If you have experience hunting wild quail, what would be the specifications that you would want in your perfect quail gun? Also, what load would you use?

Thanks, RS

I like the same guns as I do for pheasants, prairie grouse, Huns, and the like. Those have mostly been O/U shotguns in 12, 16, and 20 ga. with 28" barrels. I used a Citori Upland Special for many years but later realized I shot longer barrels better. My most preferred are fixed choke or standard Invector/Mobil choke guns as the barrels are lighter. Whether Citori, 68x, older Miroku, Vamet, etc. I liked them.

For just bobwhites I preferred an ounce of 7.5 regardless of bore. I tried 8s but they produced more cripples than I liked as ranges opened up. It is my preference for Mearns quail too.

Gambel's and blue quail I move to heavier shot charges and often larger shot as the birds can flush at longer distances. An once and an eighth of 7.5 is a minimum and these birds are one of the places I'll think 6s have a serious place.

The little I've hunted California quail I would lean toward the loads for Gambel's and blues but bobwhite loads would probably do well too. The two years I chased them were after poor hatches so what I found were older and wiser than normal. I probably wasn't in the best habitat either which can make a difference in how well they will hold for a point.

Soft shooting, fast swinging, gas-operated auto.

My favorite quail gun is a Perazzi MX28-B, 30” barrels choked .010”/.018” and stocked to my specs, weighs 6#. I use 3/4 oz #7.5, used almost exclusively on valley quail. It also works better than it should on wild pheasants with 3/4 oz #6.

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They're pretty much nonexistent in my part of Virginia now but if they weren't my Remington Special field 20 gauge 1100 would be pretty good. Improved cylinder or even a skeet choke. 28 gauge 870 Wingmaster with the skeet barrel would work well too.

Bobwhites in front of a good pointing dog??

Either a 20 or 28. 3/4 Oz of 7.5.

A little Citori White Lightning, 26" barrels.

Them days are long gone around here though. Too many predators and too little suitable cover.

My 1931 LC Smith 20 gauge. Came from the factory bored IC/Mod. Ivory bead that just seems to glow in the ambient light. She’s a sweetie. I shoot RST shells in her. RST makes excellent ammo for vintage guns.

My second string gun of choice is a Charles Daley 28 gauge O/U bored SK/SK.

Third string gun is my Superposed 20 ga SK/SK inherited from my uncle. It was his gun of choice for his skeet shooting. It seems to shoot a tad high and that might be on purpose, as it was a dedicated skeet gun. I don’t know….

Mines a .20ga SKB 100,carries like a switch and shoots well for me.

Nothing beats a light fast-pointing double like this French Robust No. 4 16 gauge with 25" barrels I/C 7 Mod. It was my late Ms. Scarlet's favorite gun. When I got it out she knew she'd be into quail soon.



It's a great blue grouse killer, too.

Nothing fancy for me. I just use my old rem 1100 20ga or 12ga skeet guns with some 7.5 or 8 shot. They have worked fine for me for over 50 years. Not many Quail around my parts left to hunt anymore any way. Although I did jump a nice covey last week when deer hunting.

Nothing like finding coveys behind your own dogs….A 20 is hard to beat, though a 28 is just as good.

Nice!!!!

👍🏻👍🏻

Have had the privilege to hunt Wild Bobs in Georgia with a wide variety of shotguns. Most anything is fine for the first shot. Staying in the gun for a second shot is were the thinking comes in.

I like the beautiful O/U’s and SxS’s, but the one that brought the most down was a borrowed REM 1100 20 gauge. Although the rule was only 2 shells. And I’m far from a fan of the 1100

And 6’s for the 2nd shot was an eye opener for having them stay in one place when they went down.

Wild Bobs have a tenacity to squirt on the ground that goes beyond their size.

They also had a squirt of a Lab to do the retrieving. His nose was amazing. A wounded Quail would run into a piece of cover to hide. That little runt Lab would hit scent and turn himself inside out on the turn.

Wounded or dead, you about can't spot those little guys once they're down. Truly amazing natural camo, and as you mentioned, they'll often slip down into things that allow them to completely disappear, such as a hole from an old tree stump. Finding quail without a good dog takes way more luck than I regularly enjoy. Some places bring along labs or english cockers for such a task, but I have poor man's bird dogs in that they'll point and retrieve (though the latter still needs some fine tuning). Few things like hunting wild bobs, especially when you've worked all year to manage the habitat that encourages it.

Best quail hunter I've ever known was an old guy that used a Belgian Browning Auto Five Sweet Sixteen with a 26" plain matte ribbed barrel choked IC. He was a stone cold killer and could kill a double out of a covey rise with ease. When showing off three birds were often possible for him. If the shotgun didn't have a plug I'd bet he might have picked off a fourth bird occasionally. The old guy seldom shot more than one, occasionally two from a covey but if you got snotty with him he'd try his best to piss you off even more.

No longer have a dog and quail were not that common when I did. But down here in the SW they are the target of choice. I have an old French 16ga sxs that is light as a feather that I drag along when coyote hunting in case I come across a flock of quail. IC & IM 3/4oz 8's in a 2.5" hull.

I've got safes full of fine doubles... they are NOT the perfect quail gun. It is a Remington 1100 Upland Special with a 21 inch barrel. I have two of them and they are better that most of all the "fancy" guns we all like to drool over.

Most any load of 8's will work... here in SC.

Shot a lot of them with a Sweet Sixteen, but since we went to non-toxic shot, my favorite is a Benelli Montefeltro in 20.

I shoot a 3-in duplex 1-oz handload of #7 steel spiked with a pinch of #9 or #10 tungsten, but that's only because of our restrictions. Otherwise, I'd happily shoot 7/8-oz of lead #8's for early season and switch to #7.5's as they got spooky ...

The Monte is light, quick-handling, fits me well ... a perfect quail gun.

Churchill 28 gauge with 23" barrels for everything.

I was stationed at Ft. Benning in Columbus Georgia back in the late 70's. I had a really good English Pointer then. We had a lot of fun Hunting wild quail on that Base.. For me, I considered those the good old days. Things are a lot different now.

A quick swinging 20 gauge gives you a chance with the speed and chaos of a wild bird covey rise….

I've hunted quail with more shotguns than I can remember.

My favorite is a Winchester Model 12 16 gauge 28" modified. I've shot more quail than any other with this combo. They're the right weight for me (6 5/8 pounds or so for a field gun with plain barrel) and with normal, lead loads, have the same range as a 12 gauge in my experience.

Honorable mentions include the wonderful Benelli Montefeltro 20 gauge. I killed a ton of black throated bobs down in Mexico one trip with one of those and have hunted with them in the US also. I also have done really well with a Benelli M2 12 gauge with 26" barrel that I hunted for 15 years or so. I have a really clean, older Winchester 101 20 gauge I want to try. It's lightweight with 28" M/F barrels and handles perfectly. I think it may work really well. I've hunted with various side by sides over the years but always migrated back to pumps, semi-autos and O/Us. I love the thought of a nice SxS but seem to shoot better with other guns.

I've primarily hunted wild flushing blues with the occasional covey of bobs thrown in and mostly on public land. Most of this hunting has been done without a dog so the birds can be hard to find. I found long ago that when I switched to modified chokes with quality 6 shot loads, I considerably increased my odds of finding downed birds.

Boss makes some good 16 gauge bismuth loads if you ever want to put the Browning back in the field.

Browning citori 410. Mod and full.

Nowadays, a Benelli Montefeltro Silver 20 ga with 24” barrel and a Briley Extended skeet choke.

When I was in HS, I had an old Ithaca Model 37 Police Riot Gun that worked very well.
We had a ton of quail on the Ranch back then, 40 something years ago. Once got 5 birds on a rise.
Not near as fast with a pump gun as I was back then. 😬

1) Winchester 101 20ga.

2) Benelli Super 90

3) Benelli Montefeltro 20ga

I used a Browning A-500 with 26” barrels, improved cylinder choke. I used hard #9 shot loaded to the max. I hunted them hard for 25 years with English pointers

Close to my list but mine is just a little different
1) Beretta A400 in 28 ga
2) Winchester 101 20 ga
3)Benelli Montefeltro 20 ga
4) Browning Cynergy 20 ga

Yeah I am scrambling for a new 16 ga bismuth load, since the Rem Sp16 wad is now unobtainium. Good info on the BOSS.

I made it out this morning, we got A half dozen Gambles.
My buddy used an 1100 in 12ga, I shot my 20 ga Montefeltro.

For me depends on early in the season or late.
Early Benelli Monetefeltro 20 gauge / 26 in barrel
Ithicha 200e 20 guage / 25 in barrels
Late. Browning Citori 12 guage / 26 in barrels Hasbeen

More of a grouse guy but I do make it out for quail
a few times a year.

Im in the SXS 20ga crowd. Straight stock, splinter forend, and double triggers are a must. Oh and pointing dogs. Preferably a stylish setter.

I hunted bob whites in the Red River area of North Texas for several decades. I trained my own English pointers and Brittany spaniels. Lots of birds in those days before the fire ant invasion. My favorite shotgun for it was a 20 gauge 870 from 1964. 26 inch non ribbed barrel with I/C choke. I preferred one ounce loads of #9 shot. I also used a Remington 1100 and Ruger Red Label but that 870 was lighter and fit me better. It was fairly common to kill 5 birds out of the covey rise with that shotgun.

Winchester model 59

Kudos on the choice of a Win-Lite. JB here offered one at a good price, and I jumped it. It's one of my favorite chuckar guns. They're light and fast pointing.

My friends and I use the 20 gauge Benelli Montefeltro. Scaled and Gambels with improved and 1 oz of #7 1/2s. Mearns cylinder and 1 oz of #8s.

Many doubles taken on Scaled and Gambels covey rise. Quite a few triples, a few quadruples, and one quintuple taken on a mearns covey rise with this combination.

Note the two Benelli 20 gauge shotguns:

Quntuble each with a single shot, and all on the initial covey rise...none getting up late.....is impressive.

1957 round knob Belgium browning sweet sixteen with 26 inch matte rib ic choked. The classic southern bobwhite gun

Great thread! I’ve not hunted nor had the opportunity to hunt quail, but enjoy the posts, the good guns either by description or pictures. Dogs too.

Real Campfire stuff. 👍🏼

I cannot imagine anyone getting five gambels or scaled quail but mearns are slow flyers. Often they will fly in the same direction very close to one another. I had heard of another guy getting five mearns on the rise so if it presented itself I was going to try. I still remember where it was. In Gardner canyon, East side of the Santa Rita Mts, just under the ranch at the Y in the road. Thor and Abbey were the dogs.

Don't want to do it again. It was a pita to find them even with two dogs. These days I am happy with a double. Best year of mearns hunting was over a decade ago. Found four coveys got a double on each covey rise and was done in 65 minutes. Took me longer to drive home!

Here in S. Georgia when I was growing up, it would be a Remington Sportsman 58, 16ga. Imp. Cyl. or Winchester Model 12, 20 gauge Imp. Cyl.- Remington Extra Long Range 7.5 shot.

Since I only own 2 shotguns, out of 3 safes full of rifles, my ideal quail gun would be the Beretta AL-2 20ga i/c

Current is a 12ga SxS. 28” bbls imp/mod. 1oz loads of 6 or 7 1/2’s.
Ideal? Man….drop it down to a 20ga and launch the same payload. I like the 28”bbls. Have another sxs in 16 with 26” bbls and I seem to do better with the 28”er. Just swings a bit better.
A 28ga o/u would be fun to play with.

I’m stoked to hit a double.
Quintuple? Lol. Not sure reloading, twice, is gonna happen. The quail would have to go into a holding pattern😂

I hunted bobs and scaled for years. I used a Ruger Red Label o/u 28 ga. or a Ithaca SKB 20 ga. sxs. The Ruger had screw in chokes and I usually went with ic and im in the 28" barrels. The Ithaca was bored by a gunsmith to Sk 1 and Sk 2. Both worked well on quail.
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