The versatile gauges?

[ZVP]

Over the past decade, the 410, 16 and 28 Gauge have become very popular again!
The 20 ga covered a very broad spectrum of possible uses for years and with current production ammo, the spread of versality overlaps with the 20 ga over many uses!
What shooters have today is the formation of exact preformance areas and the spread of uses within each Gauge really allow the shooters to buy one GP gun and maybe only one "specialty" gun.
A 3" chambered 20 ga could keep up with the "needs" of a 12 ga shooter also provide the opening of possibilitys of 2 3/4" light upland and close range loads.
Other than for reasons of shooting specific gauges for "old Times Sake" as they were meant to be shot, I really can't see the need to buy a 410, 16ga and 28Ga.
I know in the past recoil was a very necessary reason for choosing a ga, but with todays buffers and technologies the control of recoil is much broader than ever before!
Yes I am a gun freak and I DO understand the reasons to just own different guns! I'm not saying don't buy, just reying to keep costs down...
Since I finally got a 3",20 Ga SxS along with my 12 ga riot gun, I have become aware of just how much a 20 can do!
The main problem is locating a source for shells of various loadings. The Net is the best source to quickly locate different loads. Mervhandisers are careful to list most of the various loads and manufacturers s'pecs to aid you in locating just what you need!
The little 20 can spreqad from dust to buckshot and most loads are available.
I wish that years ago, I'd have had a 20! I started out with a 30" F/C Pump and adjusted loads to suit my wants. I am proposing the same with the 20 over the 3 gauges I'd mentioned.
Back when I was 17 in the 1960s noone seemed to use this line of thought and I came out looking pretty good in the field! It was relatively easy to use #4 Phesant loads on Jacks at long range and just use light target Low Base loads within 15 yards. You had a low base very dense (small Shot) load and send a cloud of shot covering the jack well. At long range, full chok and big Shot centered the body of a rangy Jack exactlly! 40 yard, High Base, #4 bunches up great! Another bonus, the heavy #4'scarry on in a clump to well beyond 50 yards if you have a tight choke. It can make you look like a Wizard when you smack a 50 yarder!
The hardest targets were Pest birds like Black birds and Bluejays @ 30 yards because the shot string was so tight that you only had maybe a 4" pattern so clos in. Accuracy on a moving bird was really hard!
I suppose it proves that only one gun and load might be detrimental to a good days shooting! You need to carry broad enough shell loads and try to outguess Mother Nature ( yea, RIGHT!).
Essentially, what i am saying is that you need to get a 20 ga and try all sorts of loads on the pattern board and out in a dirt field, where you can literally "See" the spreads!
I htink that you'll find a 410 tucked somewhere in the 20 Ga as well as a nice fat loaded 16 ga too!
I quit shogunning back in '72 and got off into other shooting sports and let all these advances pass me up.
Now at 65 I'm really starting over the search for a "do it all gun", thank goodness it with a 20 and not a 3" 12!
ZVP

 

[oneounceload]

Personally, the 3" 20 went after, (and almost killed off) the 16.

IF all I did was upland hunting, I would own a 16 and a 28 - that covers big birds and small ones fine enough and adds a touch of panache to it all.

Oh yes, they would both be SxS with DT, SF, preferably 28"+ barrels and choked 1/4 & 3/4

 

[Jason_W]

I like the .410 as a foraging gun. There's also a nostalgia factor.

My first shotgun when I was learning to hunt was a break action .410. I knocked down a lot of woodcock with that gun much to the chagrin of my dad who consistently missed them with his 12 ga. Wingmaster.

When I turned 11, I was upgraded to an 870 Express in 20 ga. I don't think I hit another woodcock in my life, which is honestly just as well given that I hate how they taste.

 

[jmr40]

I settled on the 12. It can be had in loads that duplicate anything a 20 will do both in performance and recoil. In fact with the same light weight loads a 12 will usually give better patterns than a 20. I rarely shoot heavy loads for anything but turkey, but when I do I can easily eclipse 20ga loads. Once again with better patterns, and less cost.

The only real advantage is that there are lighter, trimmer guns available in 20 ga. But 12's can be had at about 7 lbs or a little less. That is light and trim enough for me. A 6 lb 20ga, even with light loads, is going to kick a lot more than a 7 lb 12ga.

 

[earlthegoat2]

My first shotgun as a boy was the ubiquitous H&R single in 20 ga. I shot so many rabbits and squirrels and carried that gun so much on the back 40 that I became a shotgun person first in guns and solidified my love of the 20 ga.

My dad was such a nice guy and offered to let me use his 12 ga double when I got older. It was a Stevens Model 311. It made a lot more noise and pushed my shoulder a bit more and it left more lead in my rabbits, squirrels, crows, and pheasant. I realized, for what I was doing, that single shot 20 was better for me. It was lighter, handier, and killed the game just as well.

Once again, my dad was a nice guy and when I was old enough to hunt deer he offered to get me a slug gun since we lived in a shotgun only area. He used a 12 ga Rem 870 so I figured I needed a 12 ga to shoot deer. I knew about 20 ga slugs and did not think they were so much smaller than a 12 slug to drop deer and they were much bigger than the 30-30 rifle he had too so I asked if a 20 ga would kill the deer pretty good. He said my grandfather had used a 20 ga for deer all of his life and did well. Granddad had died only a few years prior and he had shot a nice buck back in the day that we had the antlers from hanging on the wall in the basement. Dad said he had shot that buck with a 20 ga.

So I said I wanted a 20 ga for deer shooting. Dad disappeared for a minute and came back with a Rem 870 Wingmaster 20 ga with a Weaver 2.5x scope on it. My grandfathers shotgun he used for all of the latter part of his life.

Yeah, Im hooked to the 20 ga too. As the years have past I have only grown to love it more. You can reload for it less expensively than a 12 but only marginally. If the gun is based on a dedicated 20 ga receiver then it is usually handier and faster than a comparable 12 though balance has a lot to do with that. In the world of shotguns in general though, I will take a 20 every time. Sometimes a 20 will pattern better, sometimes not. It depends on the gun and the particular load. My current Browning BPS with a factory full choke tube will put about 20 pellets of 3" Remington Premier No. 6 shot into the head of a turkey at 30 yds. Not bad. I had a Benelli Nova that could not do that with 3 1/2" No 6 shot of several different makes with a Carlson XFull choke tube. Other than that though, the Benelli Nova is a great pump shotgun. I should get another one one day.....in 20 ga.

 

[TomADC]

Most versatile if you reload is 12 ga there just about are zero limits as to what you can do with it.
Even off the shelf I'd still vote 12 ga.

 

[MCgunner]

I like my 20 gauge for the woods and for doves over mojos or over a tank. However, I hunt waterfowl. No 20 gauge 3 inch steel shot load can HOPE to pattern as well as a 12 2 3/4 or 3" steel shot load and I don't need the lighter gun with heavy steel shot loads. Steel shot keeps me shooting the 12s and I own 4 of 'em, only one 20. 12 will also do geese with heavy T shot out of 3.5" rounds if you're man enough, however I prefer the 10 for snow goose hunting, heavier gun, much lighter on my shoulder. The 10 also patterns much better just like the 12 out patterns the 3" 20. The 3" 20 adds versatility to the 20, but it cannot match the 12's patterns, especially with steel shot loads. And, one of my 12s will handle 3.5" which I'd use on geese had I no 10 gauge. 12s will kill doves, too, killed MANY of 'em, just have to change up my strategy and back off from the mojos for longer shots so I have that little more time to get on 'em with the heavier gun.

To each his own, but steel shot laws keep the 12 the most versatile of gauges, IMHO. Even without steel shot laws, I'd sooner shoot a 3" 12 BB lead on geese than anything from a 20 gauge. Before the steel shot laws, I did kill a lot of ducks quite dead with 2 3/4" number five lead shot loads from a 20 gauge, though. But, I have NOT been impressed with steel from a 3" 20, not at all.

 

[oneounceload]

IMO, that would depend on what you are doing - trudging up a shale slopes after chukar, packing a 7-8# 12 will wear you out compared to a 6# 20, and really offer no difference

 

[urbaneruralite]

IF you are willing to spend the money for tungsten based shot, the 20 will do everything the 12 will. So, the question is can you really load a 12 down as light as a 20 and get equivalent performance? And can you do it with a 12 that is close enough in the svelte department to be insignificantly different?

 

[MCgunner]

The 20 cannot shoot snows down at 60 yards like a 12, no way, no how, just can't get enough big shot in that 2 3/4" hull and the 3" hull just don't pattern good enough. I really don't care if you're spending 4 bucks a shot on tungsten, just ain't gonna happen. I'd think you'd want the 12 for turkeys, too, but for snows, you will not find a 20 gauge in most groups hunting the spreads around Eagle Lake/Garwood, Texas. You'll find 12s and some 10s, but you'll look long and hard to find a 20. There's a reason for that.

A 20 with tungsten will work on ducks, but as much as I've hunted ducks in the past, I'd spend up my IRA retirement in a few years on the stuff. Fast steel from a 12 works great even from 2 3/4" hulls on ducks, thank you very much.

The biggest advantage in the 20 over the 12 is the lighter gun handles quicker. I like my 20 for that, big advantage in some situations, but I ain't going to argue it's more versatile than one of my 12s, just ain't.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I agree about waterfowling. I don't do any of it though. Steel shot is the reason 3 1/2 12 gauges and 10 gauges exist. It is the only real way to shoot geese with steel shot. The odd turkey I tackle, I just let get close enough for my 20. Maybe a heathen to say it but I am not buying another gun to hunt the every other year turkey I go after.

The 20 will handle deer and hogs and even bigger game like elk too. (but why would you use a shotgun for that?) I don't even use it for deer anymore. Mostly busting clays. My 20 does NOT outshoot any of the 12s I shoot against. Not even close. I do alright though. After shooting the same shotgun for six or eight years you get pretty good with it.

 

[Virginian]

There is a hard core cadre of 16 lovers, but they are getting older, and 16 sales are not up. Most 16 lovers state that lack of a new nice scaled SxS is why the breed languishes, but Dickinson made up some of their nice SxSs in 16 and were a long time selling them. The 12s didn't fly off the shelves either, but the 20s and 28s sure did. Most 16 gauge repeaters are built on a 12 sized receiver, thus eliminating some benefits, too.
28 sales are up a little as more people have found what it can do, and the snob appeal is unbeatable. It is a good gun for dove and Bobwhite and mandatory for all gauge skeet. It is useful on a lot of Sporting courses as well. Ammo costs make reloading almost mandatory.
The 20, specifically the 3" capable 20, is hard to argue against for a man or woman on a budget who does want a smaller gauge gun but not a safe full of guns. It will do about anything you could want outside of waterfowl and do it well. In fact I got my last 20 so I could still shoot lead for a while after steel came along, and it did very well on the ducks with 1-1/4 ounce lead loads. That LT-20 is now probably my most used gun; I can't remember the last time I shot clay pigeons with a 12 and I don't do trap.

 

[gp911]

I love my .410s, but I agree the 20 has really come into its own. I think the 16 found itself in the overlap portion of the 20/12 Venn diagram and the lack of modern loads has relegated it to niche status. In its sweet spot I'm sure it's great though. I'm thankful for all the variety. Shotgunning is never boring to me. I have guns in all the aforementioned gauges and love them all.

 

[oneounceload]

IF you are willing to spend the money for tungsten based shot, the 20 will do everything the 12 will. So, the question is can you really load a 12 down as light as a 20 and get equivalent performance? And can you do it with a 12 that is close enough in the svelte department to be insignificantly different?

I reload both 12 and 20 down to 28 level (3/4oz), so that can be easily done. As to svelte, most of the Spanish boxlocks from AyA and Ugartechea, etc. can be found in the 6.5# range, which is close - if not equal to - many 20 SxS guns, so it is possible.

 

[bannockburn]

First shotgun I ever hunted with was a old 20 gauge, Ithaca Model 37. Had a plain 28" barrel with a Modified choke. I just loved how light and easy it was to bring it on target and then swing through with it. Used it mostly on upland birds.

 

[Pyzon]

Way back as a young punk with lots of energy, my go to (and only) shotgun was my dad's Ithaca 37 with high brass loads of #6. I killed a lot of rabbits and grouse, messed up a lot of meat and chomped down on a lot of lead.

Now as a wise and really old old fart, I tote a really light Model 37 in 20, low brass field loads, and thanks to a couple of fine beagles I shoot a lot of rabbits in the head and haven't eaten lead shot in quite a while.

 

[urbaneruralite]

There's 90 BBs in a 1.25 ounce load. There's 160 18g/cc tungsten #7s in a 3/4 ounce load. I don't know anyone actually spending the money to do that for geese, but the potential exists.

 

[MCgunner]

It takes BB or BBB hevishot or lead to bring down snows from the altitudes they fly mid to late season on a blue bird day even over a good spread in the right spot with a good call. It must pattern well. If you have a 20 that patterns BB hevishot well, go for it, but I'll stick with my 10 gauge or 12 and shoot steel T shot which is a lot more affordable than hevishot.

If one took a poll around here of the goose hunters and guides in this area, I bet there'd be less than 1 percent of hunters would try using a 20. 90 percent would be using a 12 and 10 percent the 10 gauge...would be my guess. I'm more likely wrong about the 10 and the 12, but I'd toss money I don't have on that 20 gauge figure.