the Benelli is lighter to carry which is great for an Upland Gun; the Beretta is heavier and thus has less noticeable recoil. I guess its really up to what you're hunting; I use my Beretta A400 on waterfowl with 3" shells and I'll bump down to a 20 gauge Beretta 391 Urika which is lighter than some .410s for Dove & Quail.
Which Shotgun to Take on Quail Hunt?
- Thread starter slowr1der
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Turkeytider
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Never was a problem for me. Essentially all the quail hunting I did with my 12 gauge was wild birds. They are up and out pretty quick, plus an open choke like IC shooting 9`s or 8`s is going to spread out. I`ve only hunted put birds once. That was enough. Other than enjoying watching the dogs, it was like shooting small chickens, especially compared to a wild bird cover rise. One guy actually beat a bird to death with his cap! it simply would not flush. Having said all that, I fully understand that in many locales that`s the only way you can hunt northern bob white quail now ( which could be the subject of a whole separate thread! ).
Walking up behind a brace of bird dogs on point, one honoring the other, on a covey of wild quail is one of the prettiest things in the shooting sports IMHO. If that doesn`t elevate one`s pulse rate, then you`ve probably been dead a while!
GooseGestapo
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I once hunted with a buddy that was a South Georgia state Trooper. He grew up on Nilo plantation where his dad was a farm hand.
He hunted with a 1930’s Fox SxS that had been damaged and the barrels were cut off at about 20” making it a “coach gun”. With 1-1/4oz of #8’s, he could practically take down an entire covey with a double blast. He’d hunted wild birds for years and would reflexively shoot at the sound of wings beating.
I had to shoot down the stragglers! If any. That gun was beat all to crap, but still did the job!
He hunted with a 1930’s Fox SxS that had been damaged and the barrels were cut off at about 20” making it a “coach gun”. With 1-1/4oz of #8’s, he could practically take down an entire covey with a double blast. He’d hunted wild birds for years and would reflexively shoot at the sound of wings beating.
I had to shoot down the stragglers! If any. That gun was beat all to crap, but still did the job!
I used a 12 ga. for everything also, and my old Winchester semiauto was bought new when WInchokes were an option, not standard and I ordered all 4 of those available. I used an improved cylinder when hunting smaller birds like quail, and still let them get out a ways before pulling the trigger. My loads were 1 oz. with #7.5 shot, and did a good job if I gave them some distance.
I've never hunted anywhere with "tame birds", so all my hunting was wild birds. Lots of pheasant, chukar, grouse, quail, and some doves. The #7.5 shot and the right choke worked great for chukar, quail, grouse and doves. Pheasant of course took tighter choke and larger shot. All my loads were shells I loaded using nothing but Win. AA Trap hulls. I found those hulls would give me far more reloads than any others.
Lo-Profile
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My bird gun is a 20 gauge Beretta Over Under
1KPerDay
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Take whatever is lighter. And as far as the heirloom, use it. That’s what guns are for.
I grew up in sandy eggo withs lots of very good Quail hunting.... always used my Rem 870 12ga. with 28" modified 7.5 shot very effective... dont remember that any birds were overly tore up, but mostly just dead... or shortly to be dead and bagged...
My wife only shoots trap 2-3 times a year so that is kind of a secondary use. She won a Beneli Nova last year at the PF banquet that she struggles to shoot because it is too big for her. I thought the 101 would be easier for her to handle for the few times she goes out. She can't get any worse, last round of trap she shot 3 of 25 but she still had fun.
The 101 is in excellent shape and I don't think I would want to put tubes on it. I am leaning towards the skeet/skeet gun. There is also an Ithica SKB 600 Mod/Imp that my ant wants me to look at. She said it was one of my uncles favorite guns. More choices are making it hard for me to choose.
Maybe I will have to see if she will let me take them to the range and see which one I shoot best. I have never hunted Quail so I am not sure on what the usual shot distance is. What shooting game most closely resembles quail hunting? I usually shoot trap as I find it similar to pheasant hunting with pointing dogs.
The 101 is in excellent shape and I don't think I would want to put tubes on it. I am leaning towards the skeet/skeet gun. There is also an Ithica SKB 600 Mod/Imp that my ant wants me to look at. She said it was one of my uncles favorite guns. More choices are making it hard for me to choose.
Maybe I will have to see if she will let me take them to the range and see which one I shoot best. I have never hunted Quail so I am not sure on what the usual shot distance is. What shooting game most closely resembles quail hunting? I usually shoot trap as I find it similar to pheasant hunting with pointing dogs.
Turkeytider
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Just a suggestion if you`ve never hunted quail over a dog. When you walk up behind the dog on point, don`t be looking down at the dog. Be scanning the horizon above the dog. That`s where the birds will be and you can get on target more quickly. When I learned that, my successful shots went WAY up. Then again, I was hunting wild birds, so every millisecond advantage you can get at the flush is needed IMO. Wild birds are like little brown rockets, particularly tough if flying through cover. Put birds might only fly 20-30 yards sometimes, and fairly slowly compared to wild birds, so be careful you don`t shoot the dog!
If you ever are near a club or range that has a Crazy Quail target launcher, give that a try. My HuntSafe team shot over one at the end of a field day one year, and we couldn't stop laughing long enough to reload.
https://crazyquail.com/videos/2022-promo-video-2
entropy
Member
Helice, also called ZZ birds, is by far the closest clays game to quail hunting, although they only throw one bird at a time. It is also a very expensive game. The next closest is 5 stand, and they do throw pairs, both report and true.
Buy that Ithaca 600. You can thank me later. Kind of on the the tight choke side for quail, but fire the Mod. barrel first, and it'll work. Fantastic pheasant gun. It will also work well for all the other clays games except possibly Skeet, a bit over choked for it.
Weflyfast
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Quail are quick little darters- a shorter action like a SxS is faster to action and typically swings better on quail- I have taken them with 410 28 20 and 12 gauge - open chokes will work the best-
Don't worry about a scratch or a ding....use the gun and enjoy it-
A word of caution- quail are not known to be high flyers.....be very mindful of the dogs.... especially if you are running flushers - or a combo pointer/flusher-
Nothing puts a wet blanket on a hunt like a BB in a dog-
Have fun and good luck-
Don't worry about a scratch or a ding....use the gun and enjoy it-
A word of caution- quail are not known to be high flyers.....be very mindful of the dogs.... especially if you are running flushers - or a combo pointer/flusher-
Nothing puts a wet blanket on a hunt like a BB in a dog-
Have fun and good luck-
eastbank
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me two favorite small game shotguns are a older browning citori upland special in 20 ga with 26" barrels with invecta tubes and a older yet browning BSS sporter 20 ga with 28" non tubed barrels. both are well used and have fired thousands of rounds over the years with no problems at all, other than cleaning.
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luv2safari
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Yep...
If someone had been afraid to use this light points-itself 16 of mine it would never had been the quail and grouse machine it has been for 50 years. Take the 20 SXS.
It's had some use.
