Why not more shotgun talk?

[tjen]

Besides reloading for center fire rifles I shoot clays twice a week for fun in the warm months. I reload shotgun ammo for target and hunting. Seems like there should be more guys that also shoot shotguns and reload for them. Maybe I should share some of my loads in the future?

20ga/28ga/410bore for Grouse/woodcock/quail and an ocational preserve pheasant.

 

[salmonchaser]

Always wondered that myself, love interesting rifles, rather hunt elk then anything else. There is nothing quite as beautiful as a well made shotgun.

 

[Guy Miner]

Well, let's chatter about them a bit then!

I don't reload shotgun shells. I do love a well-made shotgun. I do love upland game hunting.

You can keep that cold, dark and nasty duck and goose hunting... I go once every 5 years or so... :grin:

Guy

 

[Elkman]

What's a "shotgun" ? 8)

 

[Vince]

What's a "shotgun" ? 8)

A device that one uses at handgun distances to clear a room. Is also accompanied by a loud boom.


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[Anonymous]

I love upland hunting. Oddly enough, as much as I love it...I'm just not passionate about it like I am big game hunting. I'm pretty sure that I'll end my hunting career bird hunting. Hopefully as a very,very old man.

I did go on a proper duck hunt this year- love it. Probably never be an avid duck hunter but I really enjoyed it.

 

[Guy Miner]

Few things are better than pheasant hunting with good friends or family. Watching the dog work. Walking with a good shotgun. Mmmmm. Yes!

Love it.

Dad still does well with it at 88 years of age. He doesn't walk much anymore, mostly just "holds" at the end of the field. And rarely does a bird make it past his shotgun.

Guy

 

[Anonymous]

I bought a pretty nice Benelli M2 a few years back when Sportsmans had them marked way down during their financial crisis. I'd always had utility pumps until then, but I really like the M2 and do OK with it.

I looked very hard at that company's 828 this year- I'd really like a nice O/U but have to shake the piggy bank pretty hard... I'll just keep saving but an O/U is next on the list if I ever quit buying hunting rifles....

 

[salmonchaser]

I think Molly Damitt and I are at 80 days of pheasant hunting this fall/winter. I think I've shot a dozen roosters, she has retrieved something like a thousand. She is to the point where she'll run A 100 yards past good looking cover and not even slow down. I just hustle the clients along telling them to believe the dog, she is rarely wrong.
In any event I seen all manner of shotguns, a few that take your breath away including several best quality British guns. Those are unbelievable. The craftsmanship, well when you hold one it's almost like it has a pulse.
I love hunting pheasant chukar and quail, really like it when Molly is having a great day. Elk hunting, now that's my passion but I only spent 12 days, including those spent helping folks get their cows elk hunting.

 

[tjen]

It took 25 years of working to get ahead enough to buy my first U/O. I am hooked they are works of art. Mine are field grade and sub-gauge because I hunt mainly grouse, woodcock, and quail with shots from 10 to 35 yards most of the time.

Guy seen your post on pheasant & chukar well done.

My toys are: Berretta SP3-28 gauge Absolut favorite, SP1-410 suprisingly effective out to 35 yards, and a SP3-20 for when I need 1 oz of shot and larger shot size than #7.5. Still have a couplr of 870's a cammo and Wing masters. Firsts 870 bought back in the mid 1970's.

 

[HTDUCK]

Shotguns.
Honestly shoot more shotgun ammo in the course of a year than anything else.
The first Saturday of the month it's 5 Stand at our club.
The first Sunday it's 5 Stand at a neighboring club.
The next Saturday is Sporting Clays.
Not uncommon for our crew to go to the club on a Sunday and shoot a few rounds of skeet, then go shoot four or five rounds on the 5 Stand field.
Go get lunch and then go shoot the Sporting Clays course.

Doves are my favorite bird to hunt because of the shooting aspect of it.
A trip to Argentina is a dream hunt for me.

Quail and pheasants don't exist in our area.
We have to drive 6 hours to get into upland birds. I've been to Ks quite a few times.
If I lived in an area where I could hunt upland birds I'd sell every piece of waterfowl gear I owned.
Upland hunting is much less work than waterfowl hunting.


How many of you have ever hunted Sandhill cranes ?
We make a point of booking a crane hunt w a guide every year.

 

[Elkman]

salmonchaser "Elk hunting, now that's my passion but I only spent 12 days, including those spent helping folks get their cows elk hunting" .

Tags in other states can cure that malady.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I should really hunt upland much more then I do, and I use to quite a bit. My current dog is gun shy and the wife said no new dogs until this one is gone. So I have a few more years before I can get a hunting dog. I hunt ducks just as many days (or more) as big game but that is only because the season is so much longer. If they had 3 month long big game seasons and 7 animals per day I'd probably never pick up a shotgun during that time. I also hunt doves the first couple days of the season. The spot I hunt burnt last year so it's not nearly as good as it use to be but I still limited open day this year.

I primarily use a 12ga Benelli SBEII but have used and still own many shotguns including 870's, BPS's, 1100's, 11-87's, Beretta autos, SP10, and a Versamax. One of these days I'll pick up a nice O/U. I shot a old Winchester 101 my dad had when I was a kid and still remember the feel of that heavy sucker. I've owned a few cheaper O/U's over the years but I'd like to have a nice Beretta one of these days. As a kid I won a registered lab puppy at a DU shoot the trap club had with my dads Browning BT-99.

Shotgunning is fun but short of a Argentina dove/duck hunt or maybe a flooded timber duck I can't imagine it really comparing to big game hunting and being in the mountains with a rifle or muzzleloader (or bow for that matter). Outwitting a bird doesn't compare to doing the same with a elk or big mulie buck. Turkeys are smart but they also fall short of the intelligence of most big game animals. I think testing yourself against the animals is what drives most people to hunt. Birds are like a test in high school compared to the college level testing of big game.

I made up a bucket list and shared it with a couple friends recently. A Argentina hunt, a flooded timber duck hunt, and a midwest pheasant hunt were on the list but they went to the 10+ years down the road thing. I can do those when I can't big game hunt anymore. I would much rather do a few Alaska DIY hunts, a New Zealand DIY hunt, or out of state deer and elk hunts with some speed goats mixed in while I'm physically still able to. My dad is getting up there in age and mentioned he would like to do a Argentina hunt recently so I might have to bend a bit to spend time with my dad banging some birds. I really hoped he would sign on to the Kodiak Island hunt we are planning but he didn't like the idea of all the bears.

 

[5shot]

My shotgun reloading is limited to Buckshot loads for coyotes. They give nice patterns out of my Benelli. Since you can't really tinker with Shotshell Data, once you find a load, you're pretty much done.

 

[maverick2]

I grew up shooting Trap with my Dad and brother -- started as soon as we were strong enough to mount the gun for a full round of 25. As an adult, it seems like it's one of those sports that drop off my radar screen when "life" gets too busy, but ALWAYS comes back around. (I think a big attraction to Trap for me is it's the only shooting sport I'm involved with that has a social aspect to it, as for the most part, I'm a pretty solitary hunter and shooter).

I learned to shoot Trap with a Remington 1100, but always loved the classic look of the over-unders, so when I finally had enough disposable income "upgraded" to the first of a couple different OUs I've owned. Unfortunately, I've never been able to shoot any of the OUs as well as the original 1100 I had, so after 43 years of on-again off-again trap shooting, I'm back to an 1100 (and again shooting side-by-side with my brother). We added my daughter into the trapshooting mix this past summer, and I've getting to re-live the enjoyment my Dad had when he started us out. I ended up shooting far more 12-ga shells this past year than anything else, and I'm sure will do the same in 2016.

 

[Guy Miner]

Ya, I'm a little disturbed with myself - I shoot my big, ugly, black Beretta semi-auto better than any shotgun I've ever used.

Love the looks and feel of a beautiful over & under or side by side, but... I shoot this danged Beretta better!

Which isn't really saying much - I have far more skill with a rifle than I do with a shotgun. But "Big Ugly" shoots so well for me... It's disturbing!

Guy

 

[HTDUCK]

When Creedmore got me back into shotguns I was shooting a Benelli SBE or a Beretta Pintail as a duck gun.

As the itch grew I bought a Beretta 391 Sporting with 30 inch barrel.
Shot this ugly thing for about two years.



Ended up I had three of them.
2 12s and a 20.
Would shoot clays with it year round and completely strip it sown and clean it once a year, wether it needed it or not. :lol:
These guns run great w very little maintenance.

Like the rest of you I got the O/U itch so I bought a Beretta 686 Onyx Sporting w 32 inch barrels in Apr 2014.
It's an ugly thing too



I've shot this gun pretty much exclusively at clays since then.
My performance w it was great on a trap field or any climbing target but not consistent.
One day Creed told me, go shoot that thing at a pattern board, it shoots higher than where you're looking.
Sure enough, it did. It patterned just like a trap gun, bottom of the shot string was above where I was looking.
I made an appt with an English gunsmith in Southlake, Tx and had him " fit " the gun to me.
Had to be lengthened, more drop, a lot more cast off and toe out.
That was last August.
Since having the gun fitted it's a lot more enjoyable to shoot.
Felt recoil has been diminished and it now crushes clay targets ( when I do my part ) rather than just breaking them.
I dove hunted with it this past fall and saw my bird to shell ratio come closer together.

Shotguns are a different animal.
They have to shoot where you are looking or they are pretty much useless.

 

[maverick2]

Ya, I'm a little disturbed with myself - I shoot my big, ugly, black Beretta semi-auto better than any shotgun I've ever used.

Guy

Yeah, that used to bug me (enough such that I bought and sold a couple different OUs trying to find the one that would work for me). In the end though, I've chalked it up as a blessing, as I figure I've saved quite a bit of money by keeping a good semi-auto in the gunsafe rather than one of its more expensive OU cousins. (I still find myself admiring and drooling over some of the classic OUs out there though...)

 

[beerbucksducks]

I've been running the same Remington 1187 12 ga for the past 12 years for upland, waterfowl, turkeys and skeet. I will shoot my grandpas red label or citori now and then but I always seem to come back to the old beat up 1187.


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[tjen]

The Rem 870's 12 & 20 gauge fit me perfect, and so does the Berretta's. When shoudered aim looking strait down the barrel. They hit where I point them its just the brain to trigger finger that requires practice. Also the CZ410 SxS seem to fit great too. I aim lucky there though I have shouldered some fine guns that do not fit me at all.