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What is your favorite gauge shotgun for upland hunting & why?

12 gauge
7 (77.8%)
16 gauge
1 (11.1%)
20 gauge
1 (11.1%)
28 gauge
0 (0%)
.410
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Author Topic: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting  (Read 5693 times)

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Offline cudakidd53

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Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« on: May 05, 2015, 05:59:48 PM »
What's your favorite gauge shotgun for carrying and shooting effectively for a long weekend of upland hunting?  Not sitting on your duff having game driven or called to you, but following dogs, spot and stalk or group driving after upland birds, rabbits or squirrels?  You can add what action/style you prefer as well, in your reply and explain your rational as well.  ::)
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Offline Flyin6

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2015, 06:34:51 PM »
12

I like the range and power

Like a 10 for geese and ducks
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Offline KensAuto

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2015, 06:50:25 PM »
I spend quite a bit of time quail hunting in the desert (the only bird from the desert that tastes good imo), and carry an old browning A5 from the 60's. She's very finicky (will only shoot high base), but I love the clank of the barrel as it slams rearward every pull of the trigger.
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Offline JR

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2015, 08:44:02 PM »
Have a nice Winchester XTR auto I scored a long time ago. No chokes but shoots 2 3/4-3 inch just fine.
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Offline cudakidd53

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2015, 09:49:14 PM »
Mine is 20g if I could only pick one gauge.  I've got a sweet Franchi 48 that weighs sub 6lbs. and I shoot it with cylinder choke - only takes 2 3/4 inch shells and has beautiful wood.  With the wide variety of quality loads, I can kill any upland game , including late season pheasant in SD making some ridiculous shots using Federal's "Wing-shock" which is lethal!

I really enjoy my 28g on quail, but finding shells for it, in Missouri late in December wasn't so easy, suppose if I'd gone to Bass Pro maybe.

Why NOT 12g?  I tore up too much meat with it, even using cylinder choke, which I hate. 
I will go to it for late season in SD as last week December pheasant don't give you too many close shots, and with multiple birds in the air, no plug makes for some wild shooting. 

Honestly, I like them all and have owned them all; .410 is more of an exhibition gauge and not a "gotta put meat in the pot" option.
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Offline TexasRedNeck

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2015, 11:52:25 PM »
Ruger Red Label O/U in 12
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Offline cruizng

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2015, 07:36:23 PM »
Browning Citori 12 o/u. I need all of the bb's hoping one will hit home.


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Offline EL TATE

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2015, 12:17:43 PM »
I use the 870 express 12 for waterfowl and the Beretta for upland, also 12 w/ modified and improved cylinders. Used the 870 for everything when I was younger, but the Beretta is just lighter and easier to shoot on warm eastern Washington fall days. Early fall pheasant over here are great for the lab since they hold pretty tight. I like 3" mag bb or T for the high flying Canadians. #8 for quail #6 for ducks and pheasant. I'm pretty durn good with the haydel's dr-85 and my teal whistle, so I really don't need to reach out too far to get the duckies.
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OldKooT

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #8 on: July 26, 2015, 12:34:03 AM »
If sitting in the bed of my truck shooting geese I use the Mossberg 500 12ga

If sitting on the porch shooting Turkey I use the Mossberg 500 12ga

If relaxing on a chaise lounge reading a good book and shooting ducks, I use the Mossberg500 12ga

Same with Pheasant and most anything that has feathers. I do usually shoot crows with the .22 to keep it sporting.

The Mossberg is always in the back window of the pickup ready to go. I am kinda a simple guy, I don't need the confusion of multiple sized bb tossers. But some day I may buy a 20ga for the crows.


Offline Flyin6

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #9 on: July 26, 2015, 09:24:58 AM »
FYI, I shot crows with a Mossberg 12 gage, worked fine, just sayin...
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OldKooT

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2015, 10:00:46 AM »
LoL Yeah Don the 12ga does handle crows well. Problem is they like to sit in our Cedars and raise hell. When ya shoot them it makes holes in the cedars. Or it could be the 00 I usually have loaded.... The crows like to pick on the wife's Peacocks, so when one needs to be shot, I have just used the .22 and found that's quite effective.

The other advantage to the .22 is our lab doesn't associate it with hunting birds, and this stops us from having him get all worked up and start dragging anything with feathers to our feet. He is one seriously confused Dog as it is.

I once shot a duck flying fast and it went down near our pond. Well the Lab goes off after the duck, I toss my shot gun back into the gun rack and begin a discussion with the sled dog about why he never does anything useful. At that moment the lab returns with one seriously pissed off Canadian goose......

Offline Flyin6

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #11 on: July 26, 2015, 10:04:59 AM »
Gotta tell a story here

So when I was in my non governmental, non-Safety Nazi oversight youth where, pray-tell, I used to get an occasional cut that was never seen by doctors in some trauma ward... Well back then I'd hunt everything...I mean everything.

I discovered back then just how tasty a good woodpecker is. Tastes like pheasant! Well someone told me if you want to hunt crows, then get a cat and tie it up and stake the rope in the ground.

I know, sounds like animal cruelty, well, thinking about it, I guess it was, but the story continues. I think our children ought to know what being a real kid was like before thirty three commissions took oversight over children's fun.

So anyway first I got a burlap bag from the shed, then off to a big old woodpile where I know there's plenty of cats. It was a chore but I scored one, a nasty critter with plenty of fight, a characteristic that would benefit me later on, during the hunt.

I managed to squeeze his (or her??) head out of the bag without adding to the stripping the cat had applied to my arms and tied a good choker knot around his neck, then back into the bag. Nearby was a dairy farm where the owners allowed me to kill groundhogs. I selected a open spot on a fence line where I tied the end of about 10 feet of rope to a fence post, which was near a clump of briars.

I let the demon possessed cat loose and it started acting like, a demon possessed cat. I crawled into that briar patch and made my crow calls which I can do pretty well sounding pretty much like the black critters. Wasn't long at all before a flock of them descended on that cat.

I tell ya what, that technique works! I mean crows are not liking cats. They will make pass after pass and the second the cat doesn't defend itself, it gets a beak in the head! I could have shot, but I was amazed at the crazed intent by those black devils, but finally up I stood and snapped off 5 quick ones killing as many crows.

Now somewhat sorry for what that cat had just gone through I released it from the knot and it just stayed there...shock I think, but it's a cat so who cares!

I inspected the crows, yep, got five of em' but one was now upright and standing on a single leg. Seems a pellet had partially shot away one leg. He was hit in the wing as well, but not too badly. So, while loading another shell to dispatch him into crow heaven I got compassion. He was squared off against me, black eyes boring holes into me and holding his wobbly ground.

Then I was struck with my second thought. Make him a pet! Yep, no one had a pet crow, so I'd be the first. I already had a per turtle, Crawdad, and a deer, so why not a crow? So I captured him in that burlap sack and took him home. I took him downstairs where I hid him in a makeshift cage I built from rabbit fence wire.

For the first few days things were going OK, he would just stand there against the side and stare at me. On the third day I took some scissors and selected a spot just north of where that broken leg was hanging and made the squeeze. That dammed thing let out a series of crow calls the likes of which the world had NEVER seen and just like that, the "Cat" was out of the bag. Dad, then Mon, then my brother were downstairs looking upon the scene.

"Donald, is that a crow?" my mother asked of my father. the former anger in his expression had changed to a smile. "Sure is." "Don, mind telling us how you got this crow?" "Well, dad, I shot him and a bunch of his buddies, and he didn't die so I made him my pet."

And so it came to be. And what an interesting pet he became. On about the fifth day he started eating corn off the cob. Then after maybe 10 days to two weeks he started his "Hop and pop" training where he'd glide to the floor.

I tied him to a length of string, to his remaining foot, then took him outside where he took off and flew over to the cherry tree. He flared to land and grabbed the branch, but the coefficient of grabbis was all wrong and he pivoted over and around that branch and came to a position hanging upside down like some cave bat. He didn't like that much and let go then tangled all my string, so back to the basement for him.

I built a couple CLZ's (Crow landing zones) for him to practice on and he became stronger and better with the passing days. Wasn't long before that critter would stand anywhere, including on my 14 year old forearm. And then he started taking things. Anything with glitter or sparkle was his. He'd take them and collect them in this makeshift nest in that chicken wire cage.

This went on all summer up to the end of those blessed days, and the coming of another school year. Dad convinced me to let him go. We did, on the very farm where he was made captive for a summer, a summer where each very different species learned from the other...my one legged crow!
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OldKooT

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2015, 01:46:47 PM »
Don, that is a very cool story. Very cool experience as well. Some kids these days miss so much... so much.

Offline cudakidd53

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2015, 03:32:45 PM »
Unbelievable- I also had a pet crow that I initial attempted to dispatch with a slingshot (suburban equivalent of shotgun) to no avail.  He learned to bark like a dog from the Lab next door and I taught him "hello"- will follow up with photo next week when I get home.  Great verbal visual on the "bat" hanging in the branch!
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Offline Flyin6

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2015, 09:08:11 PM »
That upside down crow was funny for sure!
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Offline JR

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2015, 01:48:31 AM »
Talk about memories,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I love my mossbergs, been looking at a new one with 2 barrels, just $300. Don't know why just because. Nothing wrong with my old 500, but she has been modded a tad and looks nothin like a regular shotgun at all now.

Then the crow, had one to around that age. Never brought it home but had a nice box for it. Fed it, let it fly around then just let it go one day. Later when I lived in Winchester, Ca, used to just shoot em for fun. Darn noisy things flying over in big flocks like raiders. Just seemed the thing to do at 18 years old.
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Offline cudakidd53

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2015, 03:21:27 PM »
Okay- home now and can verify proof of pet crow......didn't want to be John Lovitz character from Saturday Nite Live......"yeah, my wife!, Morgan Fairchild, yeah, yeah; whom I've seen.....naked!"

As Don would say, "and here we have young Mikey with the crow he couldn't make the shot on using a sling-shot so he did his pentance by feeding it for two years"
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Offline Flyin6

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2015, 04:00:16 PM »
Yup, that's proof!
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Offline Sammconn

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #18 on: July 31, 2015, 04:58:30 PM »
That's pretty cool proof!
I just don't want to wind up missing a digit or limb.  I can sometimes get in a hurry to get results.
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Offline Nate

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #19 on: July 31, 2015, 07:18:52 PM »
both of those are pretty cool stories
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Offline husker77c

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2015, 11:36:36 AM »
I have a Hawthorne (I think) 20ga my dad gave me.  It's a cheap bare bones bolt action shotgun.  I saw one like it a gun show and it was selling for a whopping $75.  I've killed so many pheasants with that thing I've lost count.   It's actually the only shotgun I own.  I've thought about buying an 870 12ga  but knowing me I would want to bolt all manner of tactical things to it and pretty much ruin it for a hunting gun. 

I've never hunted duck or geese so can't say about those.  I really don't like duck and have never tried a goose so not much chance of me hunting those.   

But if I were ever on death row my last meal would be fried pheasant and mashed potatoes with pheasant gravy.

Offline EL TATE

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #21 on: August 11, 2015, 11:39:48 AM »
You ought to kill you a Canadian goose or two. light smoke on the breast with skin/fat on, smoke on low for a few hours until you hit about 145 internal temp. cool it with the skin on and then when it's cold pull that stuff off, slice it thin like Chinese bar-b-q pork and eat like the same with some hot mustard and sesame seeds. That right there is some darn good duck blind snacks. While you're at it, crock pot the legs and thighs with some beef stock, a little red vino, onions carrots and potatoes and thyme and enjoy some of the best pot roast that a bird has ever provided.

Roasted pheasant and quail come in at a close second though! 8)
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OldKooT

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Re: Favorite Shotgun Gauge for Upland Hunting
« Reply #22 on: August 21, 2015, 06:47:23 AM »
Tate ya made me hungry man LoL  Not good when you consider the Canadian Geese are overhead about 24/7 right now.

 

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