Anyone using a 28 bore on pigeons?

[Red-dot]

All the tall pheasants i've downed with my 28 agree they hit as hard as my way too clumsy 12.

Toffs and Royals have been on 28's for years now but they can shoot since birth....

Some say shooting is luck but i find the more i practice the luckier i get 😇

[ChrisPCarter]

Using a 410 or 28b teaches field craft (you have to get closer), shot discipline (you got to wait for the right shot) and range estimation (you got to be sure as your effectiveness drops off a cliff past 35 to 40 yards).

 

Learning on a small bore, has a number of advantages as long as the right combination of loading, shot size and choke are understood, unfortunately due to ignorance, prejudice and hand me down anecdotes far too many people try to learn with 12g no5 and full choke or similar and that is where the problem and the bad reputation lies.

 

Commercial cartrige makers could help a lot by not loading 410 cartridges in anything bigger than a 7.5 for anything less than 19g.

This is all precisely why I wouldn't have wanted to learn on a small bore though.

You probably don't have much (if any) field craft, shot discipline or range estimation skills - I still struggle with range after many years shooting.

I don't think anyone new to guns has any kind of understanding of loads, shot size, chokes and general ballistics, you tend to just go with the common things that shops sell you which tends to be shot size 5 or 6 in every gauge or 7.5 for clays.

Another issue is a large number of 410 guns come with fixed full choke and many 28's are tight around 3/4 or more so you are not getting those same patterns as you would with the average 12 bore which is likely to be 1/4 and 1/2 or even more open with multi chokes.

All this takes years of experience to learn when you can just pick up a 12 gauge and get on with it.

I agree shooting a small gauge from the start is going to make you more accurate in the long run but it would be a pretty depressing few years working it all out and would probably put many people off continuing.

You need to be hitting stuff when you start, to gain confidence.

As with everything in shotgun shooting, there's lots of ways of looking at it!

Edited March 21, 2017 by ChrisPCarter

[Esca]

I use a Lincoln prem 28bore and to be honest I absolutly love it. I use it for game and vermin.Nice to carry all day, easy to manouver and pleasant to shoot. I started shooting with a single barrel 28 hammer did the whole 12 bore thing and 30 plus years later gone back to the 28. My prefered cartridge is RC 21grms. I have used 28gram loads with no problems.

 

This year I was out on a bought day, and as the 28 came out there was the normal comments about it not being man enough for the job etc etc all good joshing, however by the end of the day the doudters had to grudgingly admit prehaps they surprised. I have found that the only thing that holds someone back from shooting to there full potential, is what is in there head. all said and done 28gram is 28grams whether it is pushed out of a barrel of 12,20 or 28.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Esca

[Red-dot]

I was told years ago that it's not the choke that kills it's the bloke that kills....

[Milo]

I was told years ago that it's not the choke that kills it's the bloke that kills....

 

Tru dat. Every time I contemplate getting tied up in chokes and loads I look back to the time I shot everything from snipe to geese with a 20 bore with Eley grand prix 25 gram 6 shot. No worries.

[Esca]

I was told years ago that it's not the choke that kills it's the bloke that kills....

[JBS]

Hmmm looks like I'll be starting a wanted thread! There's a nice browning 425 elite on guntrader, the engraving is a bit dull but nice woodwork, only problem is it's a lefty, is it hard/expensive to change the cast?

[ChrisPCarter]

I think it would be quite a job and risky to bend it over from left to right.

 

When I got my 525L Hunter Light Classic 28b a couple of months ago at Malmo Guns they had a few others in stock, 28" and 30", fixed and multi choke.

They were ex showroom demo ones he had bought in from Browning at a good price and he was doing a deal on them.

They were all meant to be very slightly marked in some way but mine just had a slight ding in the rib which we straightened out there and then in 5 minutes and it looked perfect.

I think the RRP is about £1995 and most places seem to sell them around £1850.

I paid £1250 for it after a bit of haggling but he was asking £1400 for them originally.

Might be worth a call if your budget stretches that far, it's a beautiful gun.

[figgy]

When I had my 28bore I liked using it but never hit as many as I would with a 12 using the same loads. Think the figures are a 100% more accurate with a 28 than a 12 bore.

 

There is a very good reason the 12 is so popular, it works with light loads and heavey loads. Cheaper to buy carts for, but if you have an itch scratch it.