Ultimate Shotgun: Upland Birds

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First let me say that I absolutely love upland hunting!

Believe it or not my primary upland gun is a Benelli SBE. I actually use it for hunting everything, and I mean eveything for goose to dove. I actually believe its the one of the most verstile guns out there.

With that being said, I think Benelli offers some great upland guns! The Legacy, M1 and M2 field, Cordoba, Ultralight, and the Montefeltro all would be great choices.

I also love to hunt with a SxS. My dad has a Beretta 471 that is absolutely awesome!
 
Living in southeast colorado and not being a waterfowler , i find my needs well served by my citori superlight ( its like the upland special pictured elsewere with the straight english style grip except with longer tubes )
 
Last weekend I went to Naubinway in the UP of Michigan to do alittle grouse and woodcock hunting for the first time. I don't own a shotgun, so one of the guys in the group let me use his AYA 20 ga. I really liked it, so when I got home I looked up the price of the gun... WOW... The shotgun runs around $4000. I want to buy a shotgun for around $300 new or used.

I have looked at the 870, Remington double berrel, and the Remington over under. Why do most people upland bird hunt with a doulbe berrel, rather than a pump action? Which one is better, and are any of them in my price range? Thanks for your help!

Chris
 
Dr. Rob...This thread feels like a vacation! I'm "new" to the upland/clays/shotgun game, after a 30 year break from shotgunning. One of the things that drew me back was the sheer beauty of the well made shotgun!

I have a Beretta Silver Pigeon III that feels like a body part it fits me so well. I'm actually learning to shoot the dang thing better and do it a little justice, too! Strange how cleaning this O/U never seems like a chore, it's more a Zen thing I guess...

Boze, I've got to say that the second Purdey SL in your picture has some beautiful wood that just jumps out at you...what a collection of fine guns!

Florida Boy, you'll hear from some very experienced people about the why's and wherefore's of using doubles for upland [although not everyone does] but one thing I think I can tell you even as a relative newbie...you probably won't have much luck finding a "decent" O/U for your stated budget...and even so, some will disagree with that statement, but I found it to be true as I hunted around for my re-entry to the shotgun world gun. I remember a recent topic right here on the forum discussing this, just can't seem to find it right now.
 
I was able to get a Beretta AL300 for $300 last fall. Very nice gun. I then got a Wal-Mart 870 on sale to use as a second gun whan my boys come home on leave. I was looking for a barrel for an old 870 I have, but I was able to get teh whole gun on sale forjust a few bucks more. They want to try sporting clays. I have taken it to the range several times and for some reason I actually prefer the pump to the semi auto. I miss equal amounts of clays with both, but it is just more fun to hit, or miss, with the pump. I have shot some rounds with some guys with some real impressive hardware and none of them makes fun of my 870. If fact a few want to try it just to see if they can score with it too. It's amazing how polite people are when everyone is carrying a shotgun. :D

As to the tactical stuff, it's a shot gun for goodness sakes. 5 pounds of add-ons aren't going to change the patterning any. Aim at target, pull trigger, get mop. I think the best piece of gear to have if you are going to shoot it in the house is earplugs. I did get me a Winchester Camp Defender earlier this year. It was on sale new for a great price and the wood is really nice on it. That's about as tactical as I get. I've also shot clays with it. Didn't do too bad either but I think my hat is going to be safe for a long time.

To paraphrase an old saying, a bad day shootiing clays is better than a good day at work.
 
ought to be cheap

I don't know about you guys, but my bird gun takes a lot of abuse. It gets taken into heavy cover, scratched, rained on, frozen, baked in the sun, slobbered on by the dog, bled on, and, more times than I care to admit, dropped on rocks or gravel. I wouldn't dream of taking an expensive, high-grade double hunting!

Right now I use a browning bps upland special in 20 gauge. It's light enough to carry all day, quick to get on target (22 inch barrel), and not so fancy that I baby it. In my youth I used a hardware-store-special double 12, made by stevens on a subcontract. Paid all of $125 for it, used.
 
I wouldn't dream of taking an expensive, high-grade double hunting!
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There was a time when I was new to shotgunning when I choked at spending a little under $800 for a new autoloader. I took it hunting, and shot it a bunch... and moved on to other guns.

Along the line, I switched to a Browning 425, which I got a great deal on and still spent more than I could imagine at the time. At first, I babied it. Shot it a lot, but cleaned it often and tried to keep it looking good. Eventually, as I started buying flats of shells in quantities which were measured by the interior space of my vehicles and the gross vehicle weights, the gun got scratches, dings and I worked on the stock to make it fit.

Now, it's approaching "beater" status. I was grouse hunting with it this past Monday and Tuesday for hours each day in a steady rain. Never gave it a second thought.

For competition, it's been replaced by a gun which almost literally makes me sick when I think about the cost. It's not only mechanically stellar, but beautiful... handmade with full-coverage, deep-relief engraving and gorgeous wood. However, my view on guns has changed in the intervening years, and I fully intend to shoot this new gun until it falls apart and has to be rebuilt... several times. The second time out with it, I shot a flat in the driving rain. I've had it under 2 months and have a just shy of a couple thousand shells through it.

I think the only thing worse than taking a beautiful gun out and hunting hard (or busting clays) with it is not taking it out and using it.
 
Upland bird hunting should be done as the Europeans do it.....gentlemen wearing tweeds, tie, and using fine break action shotguns.

My preference would be John Moses Brownings finest creation....an engraved Superposed. "Pardon me....do you have any Grey Poupon?"

Liegeset5.gif
 
I wouldn't dream of taking an expensive, high-grade double hunting!
Click to expand...
I don't dream of it either. I do it. My guns go where I go and if the conditions are too rough for the gun then they are too rough for me.

Sure they gets some scratches and and a ding here and there. My guns wear them with pride because they tell the world that these are not prissy little safe queens that you need white gloves to handle. If a gun's condition offends my eye, I'll have it refurbished. If the condition offends my heirs then that is their problem.
 
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Call me simple but I would use a Remington 870 Wingmaster 3" 20ga.

Of course it should be professionally altered to fit me and the action would need a good bit of breaking in to feel right.

Something I'm used to and nice enough, but not too nice to get dinged up in the brush.
 
Hi PJH...

LOLOLOL! Yep. That's the Truth. And I learned long ago I can hunt with my gun an entire season and it will pick up fewer "character marks" than it does if I let someone else use it for half a day.:mad:

Hi 648E... Thumbs Up, Dude!!!! I've walked a thousand miles of cornfield and fencerows carrying an 870 Wingmaster or a Browning BPS.
 
I'm easy....just a nice O/U 20 gauge, for me please (I've never owned one, but shot quite a few). I hunted small game/birds for many years with an old field grade Mossberg 500 20 gauge, and if I did my part at all, the birds dropped right there, every time. Sadly, the pheasant (my favorite) population around here is all but gone, plus I can't walk any distance anymore, due to multiple disabilities.

But, I always liked the light weight of a 20, over the range of a 12.
 
Right now I am thinking that the little Ithica 20 double I bought last year might be the best thing for birds. This little double was made in 1938, and is a wonderfully light, fast pointing shotgun. Last year, I cleaned house on quail with it.

img1323.jpg
 
I love side by sides, but I also appreciate a good O/U. At the risk of sounding like an echo, I like the Browning Citori, too. :D I do have a Mossberg budget...:banghead: ...but that doesn't keep me from appreciating truly fine shotguns. I like the choice of first shot choke selection with a double for flushing game, open for the first shot, tighter for the desperation shot. LOL! There is no need for more than two shots on flushing game. And, I'd prefer mine in 20 gauge.

We're talkin' upland gun here and I have no problem with taking a nice gun upland hunting. The salt marsh and ducks, uh, maybe not, but upland hunting, sure!

Yeah, I get a little sick of the tacticool M590 threads, too.:barf: Shotguns, for me, have always been about elegance. Well, okay, if I could afford an elegant shotgun. But, I love doubles!
 
Shotgunning has always been a secondary interest with me, so I haven't had much experience with different models. It does amaze me how shotgunners love fancy wood and engraving. My upland gun is my ONLY shotgun, found after many years of waiting: a plain but beautiful Remington 1100 Special Field, 12 ga., Rem-Choke, 23", straight grip, made in 1991. Beautiful dark wood and nice blue. All you need in a Maine uplander, and not too valuable to take hunting in the puckabrush.
 
Well, I like looking at a beautiful shotgun, no excuses or regrets. There's just something about a fine double that doesn't do it for me in a pump or even an auto. I'm an old waterfowler and I love the tradition of the twice pipe. Okay, maybe I'm a shotgun snob who has champaign tastes and a beer pocket book. But, I have a pump and an auto in addition to my old, beat up side by side. I really don't do much upland. My version of upland is dove hunting and my Winchester M1400 does that really well. I would STILL just LOVE to be able to own something classy like a fine English side-by-side or at least a Browning, if not a Superposed, then a Citori. I still sorta want a 20 in that Turkish O/U Academy sells for $385, by all accounts a nice shotgun, but I'm having problems justifying the purchase. :banghead: I just don't think I'd ever use the thing except maybe for an occasional country doubles match out at the range. It'd be great for that, but it ain't like it's the Olympics or something. :rolleyes: :D I think that little gun would be fantastic on quail if I hunted quail, but I don't. It'd likely be a little whippy, too quick handling, for passing birds like dove. After I got used to my Mossberg pump on ducks, I took my light side-by-side out one morning to shoot ducks and couldn't hit squat because it was so whippy compared to that pump.:banghead: I keep thinking I'd be better off trying to refinish that old Spanish double than buying something new. I'd take that O/U dove hunting out of lack of anything else to hunt with it, but there's nothing wrong with my Winchester autochucker for that duty and I just love how easy that gun is on my shoulder.

But, I sure love lookin' at and admiring all the beautiful pictures here!:D

Oh, my double looks a little like that one on the fence, only a little more beat up. It's choked mod/full with 28 inch barrels. It's a little too choked for upland stuff, but I guess just let 'em get out there a little farther. It is KILLER on scaled quail out in West Texas, though. :D I suppose it'd be a better gun for quail than my M1400. If I got a quail hunt to go on, I'd be tempted to take it. It's light and points very quickly.
 
Florida Boy,

Side by sides are popular for upland hunting, especially in heavy cover, for the following reasons:

1) Weight/balance - side by sides, and over/unders, are about 4" or so shorter than a pump or an autoloader given the same barrel length. This is because of the space required in a magazine fed gun for the action to chamber a round. This results is a more balanced gun with the weight more rearward. The lack of auto or pump's action, and magazine tube, make the overall weight less in a double, even given it's extra barrel. A nice SxS upland bird gun in 20 gauge will go about 6-1/4 lbs. An easy to carry, fast handling gun is important in upland bird hunting, where you're walking in heavy cover as opposed to sitting and waiting.

2) Wide sighting plane - the side by side's horizontal barrels make are easy to pick up when snap shooting in heavy cover. If you've hunted grouse and woodcock, you know what I mean about snap shooting.

3) Safety - doubles are easy to make safe just by opening the action. I'll often open my action when climbing over a log, or crossing a stump pile, or sitting to take a break.

4) Two chokes - Doubles usually have the first barrel choked more open than the second barrel, because the target will usually (if missed) be farther away on the second shot.

5) Double triggers - A side by side with two triggers (like its supposed to be) offers an instant choice of barrels/chokes.

6) Style - a well made, English stocked side-by-side is a thing of beauty. Aesthetically, pumps and autoloaders just can't compare.

Watch out for real cheap double guns. A lot of the cost of a good gun is in barrel regulation, that is, getting both barrels to shoot to the same point of aim.

Take a look a this CZ Bobwhite. I handled one a few weeks ago. It looked real nice for about $620. I think it's made by Huglu in Turkey.

http://www.cz-usa.com/product_detail.php?id=60
 
My Huglu 12ga works fine for me. It may be a bit heavier, and the terrain around here can be a bit steeper, but I seem to do okay. 12ga is just more versatile.


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How about a Perazzi... I think that's it. That is the same brand the VP Dick Cheney uses. They are suppossed to be near flawless, rugged, and reliable. However, you will pay a pretty penny.
 
Heh. I saw a set of four Perazzi shotguns at the Grand Amercian trap shoot a few years ago. The price was $75,000.

I've been saving up ever since. Only $74,967 to go.
 
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