Action preference for different species...

[Little Buck]

What action shotgun do you prefer for each species you hunt?

Turkey - Over the past three years, I've retired my Mossberg 935 autoloader in favor of an Encore with a turkey barrel. However, if I had to pick just one action for turkeys it would have to be a pump.

Squirrels - Single shot 12, 16, or 20 with full choke

Rabbits - I grew up hunting rabbits. Everyone in my family carried a pump, and I think that would be a great choice, but my preference would be for a light, fast handling SxS with double triggers choked IC and Mod (or IM). Instant choice of a different choke would be great.

Grouse - I don't grouse hunt much, but when I do, I can't think of a better choice than a SxS or O/U. IC and Mod. My preference would be a SxS with single trigger.

Doves - Unfortunately, I do have any areas to dove hunt where there is a great deal of shooting. If I did, I think I would prefer an auto. here. But since I don't, I'd have to say its a toss up between a double of some sort or a pump.

That's about all the shotgunning I get to do. Unfortunately, we have no waterfowl hunting here except for the short early season. I guess if I did duck or goose hunt, my pick would be a pump just for the reliability and that third shot (I usually need as many as I can get).

LB

[Bayrat]

I started out about age 6 with my Grandfather's Daisy model 25 pump. When my brother started teaching me bird shooting in my early teens, he had two old Marlin pumps from the 1920's. as a result, it's been second nature to me using a pump.

So, a pump for just about everything except...

A Winchester model 77 .22lr for squirrels. One of the guns I learned to shoot with as a kid and still a favorite.

A bolt Savage .223 for woodchuck.

Bayrat.

[Justin Time]

Grouse/Quail/Rabbit: 28 gauge 870 Light enough to carry all day, and a box of shells fits easily in one pocket. 3/4 oz is all you need.

Ducks: Pump 870 works for me.

Geese: Here, I'd go with an autoloader because of the layout shooting we do. A semiauto seems to give me 30-40 degrees more swing because I don't have to shuck shells manually.

Turkey: A 3" pump with sights. Lately though have been thinking of looking for a cheap O/U with a tight full choke in one barrel and an IC choke for those shots in close. It'd also have a shorter overall length because of the action.

Deer: Pump with cantilvered rifled barrel & Scope. A Encore or H&R would work too.

Squirrels: Never think of a shotgun for squirrels. It's a .22 rifle proposition for me.

[dave-t.]

I use my 870 12g 3" for turkey and the rare waterfowl hunts that I am invited to. I have been known to carry grandad's old single shot 3" 12g HR from time to time when cover is tight and shots will be close, but just for nostalgia.

Regular wing shooting, bird hunting and small game, SxS 20g 3" Stoeger Uplander, double triggers, with a variety of chokes. This gun is is great for me and I'd have a hard time not picking it even for pheasants. The right barrel shoots to the right and the left one to the left (build in lead ;) ), but for some reason it just plain works for me, better than it should at times. It is murder on rabbits.

When dove hunting with the 870 I'd run through 2+ boxes of shells pretty easily, with the 20g double, I can usually limit in a box +/- a couple shells.

I usually choke it either IC/M or IC/Full. I have to keep an open choke in that left barrel, because it shoots pretty far left, with the IC the bead is just barely on the right edge of the pattern. Even with all of its shortcommings, I can really shoot this gun.

[ncboman]

I generally prefer a SxS for everything but deer and quail. Having the instant choke option is nice and double barrels always shoulder nice for me.

ncboman

[LampLighter]

Turkey - Over the past three years, I've retired my Mossberg 935 autoloader in favor of an Encore with a turkey barrel.

If you didn't already, flip over to the turkey board and look at my Encore under "my 09 gobbler." I chose to buy the 26 inch vent rib barrel rather than the ready made barrel dubbed "turkey barrel." I then added a Comp-N-Choke turkey choke, and a B Square scope mount, then a Tru Glo red dot scope. It shoots Win #5 , 3 inch HV ( the black ones). Absolutely ground meat devastating out to 37 yards. 40 yds is max. At 55 yds on paper, it suggests that it can kill, but I won't do that.

[Smokey]

I like the 870 and SxS for most everything. I use them interchangeably depending on how I feel that day. When my sons and I hunt rabbits or squirrel when the leaves are still on the trees we use old single shot 20 or 12 guage guns.

[Bushman]

Good question. For pheasants I like a 12 ga. o/u with it's choice of choke tubes. Guess I'd use my M101 Win. here.

Ducks and geese get very peppy 12 ga. loads so I will want the recoil reduction of a semi-auto. I shot a lot of waterfowl with an old M1100 and that worked well, but now I'd probably go with a Benelli.

Partridge usually get my M12 20 gauge because it points as easily as my finger and with a rib and that Poly-Choke there isn't a flush that is too close or too far that I can't dial in. I'm thinking about a Beretta o/u here too, but it is hard to think that it would work better than that old M12.

Deer get my M870 with the iron sighted slug barrel. I did gun an 8 point with my old M1100 with the fourth shot once because he did not know where the shots were coming from and with a manual action that would not have happened. I do like the lighter weight of the pumps though.

Doves are a song bird here in WI., but if I was shooting at a bunch of them I would use a Beretta semi-auto.

Turkeys would get a camo 3" M870 12 ga. with a screw in turkey choke.

Squirrels get watched, not shot, but when I was reducing the red squirrel population so that we would have some song birds, it is hard to think that anything would work much better than my old M37 single shot 20 gauge with a full choke load of high base 6's.

Rabbits get my M24 Savage with a .22 magnum top barrel and a 20 ga. lower barrel. That way I'm ready for a sitting rifle shot or a running shotgun shot.

I never shot quail, but it sure looks like unless you show up with a 20 or 28 gauge side by side, you just are not in the elite circle. Personally I never had much use for the 28 gauge around here. Way weaker than a 20 with shells more expensive than a 12.

Skeet, trap and sporting clays would get a high end o/u with screw in chokes. I picked up a couple of birds on my trap shooting average by going back to my old M870 because the high comb on my M101 was punching my cheek bone so to each his own. I could probably do well with a Beretta semi-auto, but flinging hot empties into the guy to my right on the trap line is not a good thing.

[BILL K]

Rather than buy a different gun for each species, I prefer to stick with the same gun and to just buy different ammo.
So far my 12 gauge sxs has done me well with fifty years of taking things from the size of quail to deer, bears, and boar.

[Bushman]

Bill, you and the wife would have gotten along famously. That was exactly her line of reasoning too. No, Honey they are like golf clubs, all specialized tools. Having a boy kid was a perfect excuse to start looking for even more. Now about all those different pairs of shoes in your closet...:)

[Sabre]

Anymore I use my old 16 gauge Stevens model 311A SxS for 99% of my shotgunning chores. The chokes have been opened up to I/C and Mod. for upland use and it's murder on rabbit, pheasant and grouse. I even use it for the occasional turkey but I've shot so many of those feathered rats I really don't care if I ever get another or not.

[snake river rufus]

It depends more on my mood that day rather than the game being hunted.

[Phil T]

With my back and arthritic shoulders, it's a matter of weight. I still have a heavy S&W Super Twelve that gets used only for waterfowling.
I shoot my Remington 11-96 better than any other gun I own. It gets used if there's not a lot of walking forseen, and on the trap range.
My wife let me buy a Beretta SxS a few years ago. It's the choice for lots of walking/little shooting.
I still have my late uncle's 1949 vintage Ithaca M37. It could be the only shotgun I need, should I give up goose hunting. I weighs little more than the Beretta, and I've shot trap with it. I has been my turkey gun, because of its tight choke.
All are 12 gauge.

[GF.]

JMO - gimme a double every time there is wingshooting involved. If I were a rich enough man I might say O/U for pass shooting and SXS for jump shooting, but that's some pretty idle speculation on my part..... :D

Turkey are a different matter entirely; may as well set up a turkey gun as you would any other scoped firearm, and given the payloads on most of the dedicated turkey loads, I'd say some kind of semi-auto, just to take the edge off....

[DaveHawk]

I prefer this old sweet 16 with a 32" barrel