Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
This one was a 60s Beretta, 20 gauge O/U, and looked absolutely delicious. I met it and the owner at PGC, where he was shooting a bit of trap last weekend.
A Euro styled shotgun, this had stunning wood, two triggers like a field gun should,sling swivels(The Continentals have some realistic ideas about shotgunning, too bad their world view doesn't match) and 2 3/4" chambers. It looked new. It also had a leather "Leg of Mutton" case.
Asking permission, I checked the chambers,hefted it and noted it weighed less than Son's little NEF, around 5 1/2 lbs. The owner smiled like a used car salesman and said it was for sale. The price he named was about a grand too low, IMO.
Still, I didn't jump on it. Money's tight, but I've great plastic. The plain fact was I didn't need it. And the unspoken reason the guy was selling it was he didn't need it either.
Superlights are often touted as great upland guns by grouse and woodcock hunters, and those who find the hills steeper now than a few decades back. These carry very nicely. But, after toting the thing over hill and dale all day, one still has to SHOOT the thing, and I'd prefer something I'm more likely to HIT with.
With no barrel metal to create inertia, stopping the swing is as easy as giving away free beer. And the lighter weight means that 7/8 oz loads will kick like 1 oz loads do in a standard weight 20 gauge and 1 oz loads will kick too hard for comfort. This one was padless, and adding a pad would shift the weight further back, and it was muzzle light already.
Now some brush shotgunning is called poke and hope for a good reason, grouse hunters and others often operate in very short time frames on shot opportunities. Swing doesn't matter, just getting the shot cloud to the bird does.
Don't get me wrong,I had a friend that was deadly on preserve birds with a 28 gauge Superlight. The fact that he had great dogs that worked close helped. He freely admitted that he shot the little gun best when it was all he shot, lots of practice(there's that word again!) got him where he could take advantage of his dogs' style and get his shots within 25 yards. And some other folks I know shoot the miniatures and do OK. They all shoot a lot with the little things. Not that not all sub gauges are light, the Hull Elf's Ruger 28 s closer to 7 lbs than 6.
So, what's something like this good for?
It's a bit expensive for a kid's gun, but it'd work, assuming good fit and lighter loads.
For birds, anytime when lots of carrying and minimal shooting are SOP,and the quarry can be humanely taken with the lighter charges of shot. IOW, good for quail and grouse, not so great for waterhole doves.
For pixies, adults of small stature and build.
For oldsters that do not mind giving up some range, spread and effect. The smaller shot loads mean one uses tighter chokes than on a 12 gauge.
And for a toy. These things are lots of fun, though I recommend using them on clays first before trying them on anything that will suffer after a bad/light hit. The lighter weight affects timing as well as swing....
A Euro styled shotgun, this had stunning wood, two triggers like a field gun should,sling swivels(The Continentals have some realistic ideas about shotgunning, too bad their world view doesn't match) and 2 3/4" chambers. It looked new. It also had a leather "Leg of Mutton" case.
Asking permission, I checked the chambers,hefted it and noted it weighed less than Son's little NEF, around 5 1/2 lbs. The owner smiled like a used car salesman and said it was for sale. The price he named was about a grand too low, IMO.
Still, I didn't jump on it. Money's tight, but I've great plastic. The plain fact was I didn't need it. And the unspoken reason the guy was selling it was he didn't need it either.
Superlights are often touted as great upland guns by grouse and woodcock hunters, and those who find the hills steeper now than a few decades back. These carry very nicely. But, after toting the thing over hill and dale all day, one still has to SHOOT the thing, and I'd prefer something I'm more likely to HIT with.
With no barrel metal to create inertia, stopping the swing is as easy as giving away free beer. And the lighter weight means that 7/8 oz loads will kick like 1 oz loads do in a standard weight 20 gauge and 1 oz loads will kick too hard for comfort. This one was padless, and adding a pad would shift the weight further back, and it was muzzle light already.
Now some brush shotgunning is called poke and hope for a good reason, grouse hunters and others often operate in very short time frames on shot opportunities. Swing doesn't matter, just getting the shot cloud to the bird does.
Don't get me wrong,I had a friend that was deadly on preserve birds with a 28 gauge Superlight. The fact that he had great dogs that worked close helped. He freely admitted that he shot the little gun best when it was all he shot, lots of practice(there's that word again!) got him where he could take advantage of his dogs' style and get his shots within 25 yards. And some other folks I know shoot the miniatures and do OK. They all shoot a lot with the little things. Not that not all sub gauges are light, the Hull Elf's Ruger 28 s closer to 7 lbs than 6.
So, what's something like this good for?
It's a bit expensive for a kid's gun, but it'd work, assuming good fit and lighter loads.
For birds, anytime when lots of carrying and minimal shooting are SOP,and the quarry can be humanely taken with the lighter charges of shot. IOW, good for quail and grouse, not so great for waterhole doves.
For pixies, adults of small stature and build.
For oldsters that do not mind giving up some range, spread and effect. The smaller shot loads mean one uses tighter chokes than on a 12 gauge.
And for a toy. These things are lots of fun, though I recommend using them on clays first before trying them on anything that will suffer after a bad/light hit. The lighter weight affects timing as well as swing....
