“Small-caliber philosophy” for shotguns?

[Weldor]

LOP has always been a problem for me. 6'4 and long arms. I can't justify a custom stock for the amount of use. I look for 14" plus LOP on stock guns.

 

[ianpadron]

LOP has always been a problem for me. 6'4 and long arms. I can't justify a custom stock for the amount of use. I look for 14" plus LOP on stock guns.

Even 14" is way short for ya. I'm 6'2 with a 6'5" wingspan and I need a 14.5 at the bare minimum, 15" being ideal.

 

[yfarm]

It also depends on what you intend to hunt. If you’re sitting in a duck blind, a 12 gauge with a long nice swinging barrel isn’t an issue because it’s resting in your lap most of the time. Having more pellets in the air increases your odds. This helps when you misread the distance or the lead.

If you’re going to be doing mostly upland, which is what I do, a 20 sure carries nice. After 30 years of doing it, I still like a 28” over under or 26” auto loader for this task.

I’d recommend a 20 or 12 to a new shooter/hunter to give you the advantage of more pellets in the air. Also, these calibers are the most affordable and easiest to find. If you’re in the woods and forget your ammo, it’s harder to find the load you want at a gas station or Walmart in a 16, 28, 410. Been there and it sucks.

If you get into loading, the world is your oyster. For instance, I currently mostly shoot a 3/4 ounce loaded 20 gauge, which is in essence a 28 gauge load. I have old shoulders, so this load in a heavier 20 vs a lighter 28 gauge gun, helps keep recoil at a minimum. But, that’s another rabbit hole….

You realize that 26” auto corresponds in length to a 34” o/u. Not too many people using 34” barrel o/u except dedicated trap shooters.
As Macintosh pointed out in a previous post the weight of an O/U is spread more uniformly along the overall length vs an auto is concentrated centrally given the receiver, magazine tube and ammunition which may explain why users feel the longer barrel auto swing better. For me weight and instinctive shooting biases my choice towards the shorter barrel. I do own a Citori White Lightning Upland with 24” barrels as well as a Citori 20 lightning 26” which shoots better.

 

[Macintosh]

LOP has always been a problem for me. 6'4 and long arms. I can't justify a custom stock for the amount of use. I look for 14" plus LOP on stock guns.

Even 14" is way short for ya. I'm 6'2 with a 6'5" wingspan and I need a 14.5 at the bare minimum, 15" being ideal.

Me too. Its off topic but its sort of on topic for someone shotgun shopping, but a gun with stock shims and with different thickness recoil pads available that allows a “custom” fit from an off the shelf gun is worth its weight in gold. Best shotgunning invention in the last 30 years imo. I would highly encourage anyone looking for their first gun to go this route, and use part of their lesson getting it fit to you, the instructions never cover it sufficiently.

 

[ianpadron]

Me too. Its off topic but its sort of on topic for someone shotgun shopping, but a gun with stock shims and with different thickness recoil pads available that allows a “custom” fit from an off the shelf gun is worth its weight in gold. Best shotgunning invention in the last 30 years imo. I would highly encourage anyone looking for their first gun to go this route, and use part of their lesson getting it fit to you, the instructions never cover it sufficiently.

Definitely on topic, especially with how much recoil has come up in the thread.

Proper stock fit is crucial, and guys think they need a 13.5 or 14" LOP like their rifles all the time!

First time I shot a Montefeltro compact (20 g) I damn near broke my cheek bone, added 1.5" to the LOP and never thought about it again.

Just like stock design in making small caliber rifles more shootable, a proper fitting stock on a bird gun will soak up recoil and make a fella a much better shot.

 

[Macintosh]

yep you're right of course, I was thinking more on the terminal part, but with recoil central to the topic that's 100% true.

 

[JFK]

Even 14" is way short for ya. I'm 6'2 with a 6'5" wingspan and I need a 14.5 at the bare minimum, 15" being ideal.

About the same for me. I’m 6’3”, long arms. Once I got my LOP setup to 15” everything just got so much better. Guns come from the factory for an adult male that’s about 5’10”. If that’s not you, then your LOP is not correct. I tried my gun out at 15.25” and thought it felt a little too stretched out but honestly it was still way better than factory LOP.

 

[JackButler]

My first shotgun was a remington 1100 20ga, and while I've owned other guns, honestly the 20 has done everything just fine. And I've killed a lot of pheasants, 8 turkey, and 10 red and grey fox with it. To be honest, I can't speak to waterfowl because I just never got into duck/goose hunting. I will say I was at my brothers house years ago, and there were about 20 of us shooting skeet with various shotguns, some of us were pretty decent. One guy (a pro skeet shooter) smoked 25/25 with his $3000 12ga. People started saying "well yeah, with that super expensive gun, of course". So he said, OK I'll try any gun you want. So my brother went into his closet and pulled out his $49 Kmart special single shot .410. and you guessed it, the pro got 25/25. and he didn't just hit them, at least 20 he smoked.

 

[AndrewMT34]

I picked up a A400 in 28 gauge last year. It's an absolute pleasure to shoot and carry. I'm using Boss #6's and have been knocking down pheasants, chukar, and huns with no issues.

Now my 12ga and 20ga are basically safe queens.

 

[Rich M]

Asked in another way, I’m reading you’re looking for a couple inches of pellet penetration into the waterfowl, but penetration into what part exactly? Just all over and hope it does enough damage, or something more specific?

You can't choose exactly where the pellets fall, that's why you want as many pellets as possible, and large enough pellets to do damage.

In a perfect world you are trying to head/neck shoot birds, ducks and geese.

When we shoot and someone says - can't believe missed, or took feathers off - we watch the bird fly for as long as we can see it. Often enough the duck/goose will fly 300-400 yards and then fall stone dead outta the sky. Mark it best you can. Then someone gotta go get it - was always me. Take a line and stay on it. Had very good success finding them without a dog. Found a drake pintail once by spotting the pin feathers sticking out of the mud - rest of duck was under mud...