Pics if you have them, please.

I would answer my own question, but I have never been upland bird hunting.

I know that my grandfather was a big upland bird hunter. He was also a gun collector, but his collection was pilfered by relatives of mine after he died. My stepgrandmother managed to hold aside two of his guns for my father, including an old Remington 16 auto...not sure if he hunted with it though.

My dad hunted quail a lot right up until I was a small child, at which point they had pretty much disappeared. Don't know what gun he used. He had an ithica 12 gauge that he turkey hunted with. Also a Browning over under 20 gauge that my granfather gave him around 1950. My dad died 13 years ago, so I can no longer pick his brain about these things.

Anyway, just curious to know/see what you all hunt with.

Turkey...

Pheasant- this one is my 16 guage Ithaca 37. Also like using its twin sister 20 guage.


Brother in law here with his Beretta 391. When I get serious about killing roosters, I pull mine out as well.


Wild quail with the 16 guage Ithaca



20 guage Ithaca

Pheasant...

Bob White quail - Browning Superposed Pigeon Gd 20 26" choked M/IC.

Blue (scaled) quail and pheasant- Beretta SP IV 12 28" screw chokes. Usually IM/IC for blues. For pheasant, I try to match chokes to the hunt.

Turkey - usually an 870 with a full choke tube.

Preserve hunts - either a Benelli Monterfeltro 20 with open choke tube or a Winchester 42 choked Mod. Thinking of adding a 28 ga.

I'm getting a little old to chase Chukar and the other open prairie species.

I would add that I used the 42 for opening day doves last year. I haven't had so much fun with dove in a long time. Just take the closer shots. I used 8.5 shot target loads. Worked great.

Jack

Some Pheasants but Grouse are my favorite.
I use a Merkel 20ga.

Favorite is my Benelli Legacy 28 gauge. A good pointing Lab also helps....

Webley side by side 2 1/2 inch...

Ithaca/SKB 200 20ga Pheasants & grouse

Ithaca/SKB 385 28ga grouse, when I feel like being more sporting.

Browning Gold 20 gauge with straight stock

CZ Upland Special 12 gauge

Blue Grouse, 410 commie gun...

Top to bottom, Beretta 470 12 ga.; 471 in 20 ga.; and an AyA 28 ga. Use them all about equally on pheasants but the just the 28 on doves.

The AyA 4/53 "dove gun" (but can't tell it from the 20 on pheasants.

Also occasionally use a Beretta Xplor A400 for the big birds when I feel the need for an extra shell in the tube.

I'm a lefty but like many auto's and pumps, the A400 has a reversible safety; that way, resell or trade is easier for me should I want to and I have never ever noticed the ejected shell flying past my face.

How do you like that 4/53? Been looking at 16's in it and other in the price range +/-.

Very much. Fairly plain but tight wood to metal, lock-up, and high quality nevertheless the plain sister look. And even with 28" tubes a dream to swing at 5.5 lbs.

In fact, had I not gone with Beretta's first, and had to start over I just might have gone all AyAs.

Grouse and Quail my favorite of all my shotguns is the V Bernardelli Premier Gamecock.

Most of my bird hunting has been from my camp in VT that I have had for half a century. The bear season also used to open there in the spring and continued till it froze up.

My Sauer drilling was best there however in other states like CT it was not allowed cause of it's rifle barrel.

I prefer side by side doubles for that. I used a 20ga Bernadelli Gamecock the longest and now I have a 20 ga Ugartechea I want to try.



Since CT has deer hunting where shotgun slugs are ok but not rifles I have an Ithaca pump that's a combination gun for me as well because of it's irons and scope mount.

I have two that I prefer.

12 ga Browning 425 American Hunter


16 ga Browning 525 Sporting


Can't wait get the guns out with my new bird hunting machine

Benelli M2 20 guage.

A5 20.

Stevens model 94 16g.

Partridge and an Ithaca/SKB 100,

Partridge and a Belgian Browning Sweet 16,

and when you have the right dog the gun doesn't much matter.

Pheasant, Ruffed Grouse, and Chuckar with a Sauer SXS 12ga





Quail and Blue Grouse with a French 16ga SXS

Pheasant and chuckar with a 20ga single shot Savage 220...about 59-60 years ago...

Those dogs look happy...

20 gauge 870 26 inch I/C barrel purchased in 1968.



12 gauge 870 Express Magnum.


Oops, you said upland, here you go.

12 gauge Red Label I/C and Mod.

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20 gauge Chief's Grade Trade Gun, flintlock, cylinder bore.




I enjoy each one but the flintlock is the most fun.

My shotguns of choice since the mid 70's have been 870 Rem.
I had number of pumps before that and have had many doubles both o/u and s/s.. But pumps are my choice for upland hunting.. Much of my hunting here in the west is very open shooting compared to other sections of the country..

My all time favorite is an old 870 mag. 12, it has killed everything from bobwhite quail to turkey and geese.. Also a couple coyote. Some years ago, I bought a special field 12 for ruffed grouse and desert quail.. A bit later, my wife took up gunning the uplands, and I bought a pair of 20's.. Got the pair because everytime we went out her first question was, where are my shells.. If I carried a 20 also, we both had ammo.. Not pictured is a 28 ga. 870 that got lots of use shooting forest grouse and some sage grouse.. Need to use it more..

One of my greatest "gun regrets" is the circa early '60's, 870 Wingmaster, mod choke, 12 ga. I sent down the road. I took countless upland and waterfowl game with it. That's one I'm truly nostalgic about...now.

Even I could field strip, clean it, reassemble, and get back at it.

Still have the 870 12-gauge I ordered new from the J.C. Penney store in Missoula, Montana back in the 1970's, and yeah, they carried guns back then. Ordered it with two barrels, a 26" IC and a 30" Full, because screw-in chokes were almost unknown then, especially on factory guns, but eventually replaced them both with a 26" screw-in model. Ran into a buddy while picking up the gun in September and he said, "Well, shoot, let's go hunting," or something like that. We drove up a canyon just outside of town and got out of the vehicle with my black Lab. A ruffed grouse flushed and I killed it with the first shot I ever fired from that gun. Since then it has taken all 10 upland birds available in Montana, plus a bunch of waterfowl from teal to geese, and also been to Argentina where it killed a bunch of other ducks and over a thousand doves and pigeons.

The 870 still works fine, but these days I do most of my upland hunting with three other guns, a Fausti DEA SL 28-gauge side-by-side, an old Sauer Model 60 12-gauge side-by-side, and a Sauer drilling in 16x16/6.5x57R purchased from luv2safari a few years ago. But the 870 is going to Alberta next month to shoot some ducks and geese.

Mule Deer, those wingmasters are hard to beat for a field gun.
My 20 came with a 28 inch full choke barrel. I purchased the 26 inch improved cylinder when I started hunting quail because I could not stand the look of those poly-chokes.

Sure am happy I went that route with non- ribbed barrels.

My goto upland gun is a late 1800's Westley Richards receiver with W.Richards barrels fitted ( long before I got it!)
I have also killed geese ad ducks over decoys with it using Bismuth and Nice Shot.
I normally use only black powder in it, but since the chambers were lengthened to 2 3/4" some years ago, I have a set of Briley inserts fr it as well and sometimes shoot skeet using the 20 and 28 tubes and target loads.
Barrels were cut from factory ad are now 26" and CYL/CYL.
I have killed more upland birds with this gun than any other have ever owned, mostly because it's the only one I have reached for for many years!
Cat

Love seeing those Belgian Auto Fives...

Very neat shotgun Cat-.

John, my 870 was a 28" mod (fixed) and I ordered it that way contrary to conventional Iowa cornfield wisdom that dictated a 30" full choke tubes. I may be slow but I'm not fast. However, I was "quick" enough to realize about age sixteen that you didn't need all that pipe and that a modified choke would work maybe better across the spectrum including closer flushes and the advent of plastic shot cups. I was never disappointed. Pheasants, ducks, and my first whitetail fell to that gun. It would even put Fosters onto a paper plate at ~ 90 yards with that about 8" long very malleable, stick-on sight, the name of which escapes me now.

But then I'm nostalgic when it comes to 60's music and my high school days too.

Now, my birding is done with a 28 AyA SxS, a 20 ga Beretta 471 SxS, and a Beretta 12 470 SxS. If I feel the need for a shell shucker, it's a Betetta A400. Used a bunch of Benelli's too.

Drooling over the SxS's here

For Ruffed Grouse, I like my 26" Red Label 20 ga .
Most often with Skeet over IC choke tubes in the early season.

I'd like this RL 20 even more if it was a pound lighter,
or if I had a 16 Ga barrel set for it.

As the season advances, I also carry a 12 Ga 870 w/ a 21" VR Barrel.
Chokes are SK, IC, or LM tubes depending on terrain, remaining leaf cover, wind, mood etc.

For Sharptails or Pheasant I like a longer sighting plane, and Modified, or LM/Mod in an O/U

I haven't had much opportunity ( or success ) with Huns, so maybe I need a SxS 20 for that, hmmm

Cat, even though I own only one double now, my grandfather's Fox.. I enjoy looking at them.. Those old hammer guns sure are awesome.. One of my earliest memories of the uplands was a frosty Thanksgiving morning, my grandfather and I were out for birds.. We ran into an old guy who had a hammer double in 10 ga. He noticed me eyeing it and showed it to me.. I am sure it was for the 2 7/8 loads.. Now I am not sure of the make.. I am sure it was not a fine one like you have.. It may have been a Davis..
Thanks for the photos..

You are quite welcome Wyo, I love my hammer doubles!
This one is my 10 gauge Westley Richards bar in wood- I have only seen one other bar in wood gun, a Pape.
This Westley is going pheasant hunting this fall with 1 1/8 oz loads and black powder.

My current fav's, the two Westley Richards and my Pedersoli Lla Bohemienne hammer gun, featuring browned barrels that are steel proofed, with screw in chokes.

Quite the line up in this rack, Parkers, Westley Richards, Ugartechea, Galeizi, Claybourugh and Johnson, quite a cross section!

Cat

Cat, the Only time I can justify wealth redistribution is when I see your double guns. 😄

Been downsizing lately George - it's tougher than quitting booze!
Cat

Awesome!!

The 220 Savage got passed on to my grandson.




And the dogs are happy about that!

Sure thing........

Grouse/Timberdoodles Up North

Vincenzio Bernardelli Roma 4 20 GA C/M

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Out West

BUL 12 /w various choke tubes depending....

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Nice photos !! Happy dogs make the day seem brighter!!
Thanks for the photos..

Thanks WCH.

It was interesting to me that out of this tiny sample of bird hunters, three of us are shooting Vincenzio Bernardelli S/S's. V. Bernardelli made arms for over 250 years in Gardone, Italy but, sadly went out of business 15-20 years ago. There are other mfgs with the name "Bernardelli" still active, but the V.Bernies were the "pick of the litter" in terms of quality. They are not well known, and somewhat under appreciated.

I have been looking for a V. Bernie S/S 16 Ga for a long time. So if anyone knows of one, pls give me a heads up.

NB

A Beretta 686 Sporting in a 20 gauge with 29 1/2 barrels with a custom finished and fitted stock is my go to gun. An older pre-war 16 gauge Ithaca 37 is backup gun on rainy days.

After that there are too many others vying to a day afield.

Here's the B-gun:

I'm going to take out my Model 21 - it hasn't been afield in a few years.

Word

12 gauge a400 extreme for me.

I usually use a Browning Citori white lightning 16 ga 28"



I like its versatility on mixed bag hunts like I normally do around home. That's also why I hunt with a versatile dog.


I also sometimes use my Merkel 16.

I was looking exceptionally good that day.



Travis

I don't believe that is you. That guy looks like a tourist. All the homies wear blue jeans.

I use a 1950's vintage Marlin Model 90 O/U in 16ga that was my first shotgun. I love the shotgun and can hunt with it all day long. Ammo sometimes hard to get but lately Cabelas has been stocking 16 ga pheasant loads down by me in Indy.

u b trippin'




Dave

CastnBlast - nice 16ga Browning shotgun and gun dog - what is the breed? Odessa

I use a CR Redhead 20 gauge for most everything, even the occasional brain lapse I have when I decide to hunt waterfowl. There isn't a legal upland bird species in Montana, Wyoming or Idaho that shotgun hasn't killed.










On occasion, I break out my old Win 1300 12 gauge, and will again here in a few weeks for Himalayan Snowcock.

Thanks! He is a Pudelpointer. A somewhat rare German Versatile breed.

Thank you; I started reading a bit about the Pudelpointer - very interesting breed.

Rates a BIG Two-Cool!

We hunted for many years with griffons and took many mixed bags. I was pleased to see a couple of Wilson's snipe in one bag and your sweet 16ga shotguns.

My mom's neighbor has the twin to your dog.

I use a Benelli SBE for pheasants, turkey, and whaterfowl, or anywhere I have to use steel.

My favorite and primary upland gun for pheasant and smaller birds is a 12ga. Antonio Zoli, 3 inch barrel; IC and Mod. chokes if I can use lead shot. Use 2 3/4 inch 1 1/4 5's for pheasants; 1-1 1/8 loads of 7 1/2 for grouse or similar size birds.

About 5 yrs. ago I bought a 20 ga CZ Ringneck that I've been using for Rough Grouse with 1 oz. of 7 1/2.

16 gauge Winchester Model 12



Browning Superposed 20 gauge

Another shot of my treasured Westley Richards and my first 2015 ruffy.
We have been experimenting with shot this summer, and are using some wheel weight shot fro clays , and last weekend my buddy shot some pheasants and chukkers with it as well.
Works great!
These are low pressure smokeless loads with 700X and 7/8oz of shot.
No recoil at all i the old guns and the pressure is down around 6,000PSI or less.
Cat

Love those hammer guns.. Beautiful!!

Churchill 28 gauge SxS

Now there's something I can relate to!

Pretty sight ain't it?

Browning Superposed superlight 20ga

With the new Dogs 5&6 Birds. Custom stock work and if I could be 100% positive of duplicating it in wood I would have it done. I can't, so I'll just leave it perfect. Mod choke and I need a 16Ga IC barrel if any out there wants to part with one.

I have a soft spot for Ithaca M37, either 12 ga or 20 ga because that is what I grew up using!

Basiclly if it will handle 3/4 oz of shot up to about 1 1/8 oz of shot it will work fine. Most upland game is killed at ranges under 35 yds so chokes wise IC or modified are plenty. If you hunt extremely heavy cover you may want to go more open than IC but generally the IC or modified rule will keep you in the game. I tend to let the shot payload influence my choke selection with the 3/4 oz I choose mod with 1 1/8 oz IC. Get the nod most frequently.
Shot size I use mostly 6 and 7.5 depending on the size of the bird, 6s for pheasents and sm game 7.5 for everything else. Speed s/b 1150 fps to 1300 fps and I tend to stick with 1150-1200 fps loads.
So if you have a 20,16 or 12 that fits you and is choked appropriately you s/b good to go. Gun type is largely irrevelant as long as you like it. I have repeaterswell as break action guns and they all work fine. Just remember on repeaters that many places require you to limit the magazine capacity to two and one in the chamber so remember your magazine plug. Also watch your rules regarding non toxic /lead shot in the area you hunt.

Current favorites a couple of brownings. A m12 and a sweet sixteen