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Downsizer Forum Index -> Shooting and Trapping for the Pot

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Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 06 6:19 pm Post subject:

Gervase wrote:

A 20 will be fine for just about anything other than stratospheric geese on the foreshore. For pheasants, no problem. For clays, likewise. It's a good all-rounder, really.

I rest my case...

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 06 7:11 pm Post subject:
Aren't shells for a 20 bore more expensive than for a 12 bore ? They always use to be.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 06 8:14 pm Post subject:

You can get bulk buys of 12-bore cartridges (by the 1,000) for slightly less than the 20, but unless you're doing competitive clay shooting, the cost of the ammunition isn't really a factor.
The last season on the shoot I used to belong to in Oxfordshire, I think I got through less than three boxes of cartridges all season. I bought a job lot of 1,000 paper-cased, fibre wad No.6s five years ago, and I've hardly made a dent in it yet!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 06 8:17 pm Post subject:
Do you ever get problems with swelling? I can remember borrowing some for flighting one rainy evening years ago and had terrible problems with them getting stuck.

bimini

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 156

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 06 9:02 pm Post subject:
News update.... I've just borrowed a 12 bore with the idea that I may buy it. It has 26.5 inch o/u barrels, cylinder and 1/4 choke. It is described as a skeet gun. I took it to the local clay range and did well on closeish targets but less well at further distance (probably me rather than the gun!). Would any of you consider it at all useful as a game gun?

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 06 9:53 pm Post subject:

If you can get to the point where you're smoking clays at skeet ranges, then you'll be a useful game shot.
My only misgiving is that skeet guns tend to have very 'open' chokes, which limits their range as a game gun. With live quarry you tend to need to guarantee to get more pellets into a given area than when breaking clays, hence the fact that most game guns have a tighter choke.
As such, the gun you've borrowed is best suited to closer-range shooting (which is what skeet shooting, when done well, is all about). However, if it's shooting well and you're comfortable with it, to the point where you're accurate at 30 yards, then go for it.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 06 9:56 pm Post subject:

Sorry, just seen the 'swelling' post (and I'll refrain from being smutty, even though the dragon has gone to her lair). Can't say I've ever had a problem, other than with one box of Eley game cartridges, which had been kept for a whole winter in a very damp shed. They needed a bit of a shove to get them into the chambers and, in a non-ejector gun, needed the use of one of those fancy cartridge extractors that goes on your middle finger to get the empty cases back out. I tried them in an ejector, and they were shoved out enough to extract manually, althoug they didn't fly out of the chambers.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 06 11:20 pm Post subject:
volvo is best for pheasants

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Wed Oct 25, 06 7:50 am Post subject:

dpack wrote:

volvo is best for pheasants

12 or 20 bore?

quixote

Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 198

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 1:43 pm Post subject:

First of all 'Hi' to everyone as I'm a new poster here

bimini wrote:

It has 26.5 inch o/u barrels, cylinder and 1/4 choke. Would any of you consider it at all useful as a game gun?

Certainly not with barrels as short as 26 1/2 inches! You'll probably find that it's far too easy to 'poke' at targets rather than to get a fluid swing. My own preference is for 28" barrels for game & 30" for clays. Multichokes would be a definate advantage too, especially if you want to shoot game AND clays. I use 1/4 & half for most live quarry, & change them to suit whichever discipline takes my fancy at the clays. It gives you a greater degree of flexibility. As to your choice of gun....that's a very subjective choice, but as long as it fits you properly (your dealer can help a great deal here) & has that indefinable 'right' feeling about it, you should be fine. I use a Beretta 687 which cost around �600 8 years ago, but you'll find there's a hug choice available. I'd expect that around �400 would get you a pretty respectable tool these days, and I'd be inclined to plump for the 12-bore due to it's versatility (20-bores are lovely guns, but I find they do require a slightly higher degree of accuracy due to the lighter shot load)

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 3:09 pm Post subject:
Nice to see you over here Q. We need a few hunter gatherers

quixote

Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 198

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 4:34 pm Post subject:
Hi Bodger, We miss you over on RC How you doing? Not spotted any more cats recently, but did get a fright when my neighbour's black lab decided to wander into the house to say hello the other night

bimini

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 156

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 6:38 pm Post subject:

Gervase wrote:

As such, the gun you've borrowed is best suited to closer-range shooting

Quixote wrote:

Certainly not with barrels as short as 26 1/2 inches!

Thanks for your advice... it has helped solidify my ideas and I think that I'll turn this gun down and make a trip to the gunsmith for another look.

Welcome to Downsizer to Quixote... I may not be the most prolific poster but I've always found everyone here to be friendly and helpful.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 6:50 pm Post subject:

WElcome on board Quixote - good to have another shot on the forum.

Quixote wrote:

First of all 'Hi' to everyone as I'm a new poster here

bimini wrote:

It has 26.5 inch o/u barrels, cylinder and 1/4 choke. Would any of you consider it at all useful as a game gun?

Certainly not with barrels as short as 26 1/2 inches!

Oo-er, try telling that to Messrs Churchill - they'd have your nads for paperweights with such talk! 25-inch barrels (just an inch above the legal minimum) were their stock in trade for decades, and used by many fine shots.

I take the point about the 'swingability' of more metal in front of the fore-end, but a few hours good tuition on clays at the start would hopefully iron out any tendency to 'poke'.

30-inch barrels were great in the days of the old-style Hymax fowling loads which carried on burning up the barrel, and for black powder, but such a length does add a significant amount of weight and length to the gun, and doesn't make shooting pigeons from a hide any easier.

One thing we haven't asked Bimini is build - 30-inch barrels are great if you're over six foot and built like a prop-forward, but 26-inchers are fine for most people. I'm 6ft 2in and hardly a sylph, and I can only boast 28 on my fowling piece and 26 on the shared Beretta, while the others are somewhere in between. There's an old hammer gun in the cabinet with 30, but that never gets used, while the .410 is darned near illegal

bimini

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 156

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 06 7:16 pm Post subject:
It really does seem that personal opinion is everything! For the record I'm just over the six foot mark and until recently been quite slim... my middle age is spreading all around me!

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