Who shoots a 28 gauge?

D

D. Hinton

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Anyone here shoot one? My lady is wanting a Christmas list and I’ve been thinking of adding one.
What loads are you shooting? Any drawbacks?
My 12 behaves just fine and this is more of want than need . Flip side I’m having a hard time letting go of my old 12

Thanks
 
For duck hunting, correct? I've shot quite a few with the 28. What kind of $ are you willing to spend? The Browning Citori Hunter can be had for about 2,000 new. If you want to keep it under $1000, the Stevens 555 is good but barely 5 lbs. Even with the 28 you can feel it. In heavy duck clothes, probably not a concern. If I was buying an automatic it would be a Remington 1100. Might be tough to find new, lots of used on GunBroker. If a pump is desired, find a Browning Model 12 repro used on GB.

The standard 2 3/4" 28 shines with 3/4 Oz loads, don't fall for " magnum" 7/8 Oz or 3" crap. If magnum is the goal buy a 20 gauge. Since Boss is out of the Bismuth business, your options are limited. I'd suggest picking up a bag of Bismuth from Ballistic Products and reloading. That's what I do for rail and have done for ducks. The various Tungsten brews are primarily heavy payload, high velocity loads. Kills ducks great, but adds recoil. The beauty of the 28 is low recoil in a small frame, light, lively gun.

And theres no reason to say goodbye to your old 12. He just needs a little brother.
 
The sub-gauges are in for a tough road ahead. With no more bismuth or tungsten, a decent load really does not exist. Boss is working on a solid copper, I hope they can do it. Others have tried copper and could not get it to hold pattern. Steel just doesn't have enough payload in the bigger shot sizes. If you could buy up several hundred remaining bismuth shells to last you a couple years to see what happens in the future.
 
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Winchester, federal make 28 ga steel. I've shot ducks a few times and it's pretty deadly. Want to try the goose pit with the 28. I liked the copper coated steel by federal, but it was dis continued. I shoot sporting and fitasc in 28 and break out to 50 yards. Finding available ammo might be tough, buy them when you see them. I use steel 7's for shooting cripples, deadly
 
my decoy carving jest payed off traded some mallards for a 28ga ZC g2 bobwhite. took a year for it to come through.
 
The past 4 or 5 seasons I have carried the 28 gauge more than any other gun. I have a Beretta A400 xplor.

I have a side gig loading custom shotshells and doing load development. I've developed some really good 28ga loads that are a duplex of Steel and TSS. It turns the little 28 into quite the duck machine.

My favorite load is 3/4oz total payload split evenly by weight. 164 grains of Steel 3's and 164 grains of TSS 9's. That gives you a total pellet count of 195 pellets. It's a load that will easily bag mallards and big ducks but also has the pellet count to take down teal and woodies.

Unfortunately, with the price hike on TSS this season, I am scaling back from the sub gauges and going back to the larger bores with steel shot. The TSS that I do have on hand will be saved for turkeys.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with 5/8oz of Steel 6's out of your 28ga. It's a very effective decoying duck load and I will still shoot it quite a bit at wood ducks and smaller birds.
 
D. Hinton said:
Anyone here shoot one? My lady is wanting a Christmas list and I’ve been thinking of adding one.
What loads are you shooting? Any drawbacks?
My 12 behaves just fine and this is more of want than need . Flip side I’m having a hard time letting go of my old 12

Thanks
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I shoot an SBE 3 28 ga. The BOSS 3" #4 - #6 work really well.
 
I don't shoot 28 ga, but my goto partridge, woodcock and rail gun is a Franchi Instinct SL in 20. Very light and quick, easy to carry. I'd probably want something heavier for ducks.
 
The 28 is plenty of gun. When I could only take one gun to California to shoot ducks, it's what I chose. It's on my lap here after bagging a nice Cinnamon teal.

IMG_9334.JPG
 
Noah Shaver said:
The 28 is plenty of gun. When I could only take one gun to California to shoot ducks, it's what I chose. It's on my lap here after bagging a nice Cinnamon teal.

View attachment 68303
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Noah,
What a beautiful bird! Never have seen one before. Ever since reading Bob Brister's book, Shotgunning: The Art and the Science" I have heard how 28 gauges punch beyond their weight class. I'll have to take yours and their word about it because a novice shotgunner like myself needs a 12 bore. Happy hunting, RM
 
Rogers has 28 shells on sale:
Image of Winchester 28 Gauge 3 7/8oz 1550FPS Last Call TSS 18 Waterfowl Loads, Case of 100

Winchester 28 Gauge 3" 7/8oz 1550FPS Last Call TSS 18 Waterfowl Loads, Case of 100
$428.99 $479.99
$378.99/CASE AFTER REBATE!
​
 
Douglas Petro said:
The sub-gauges are in for a tough road ahead. With no more bismuth or tungsten, a decent load really does not exist. Boss is working on a solid copper, I hope they can do it. Others have tried copper and could not get it to hold pattern. Steel just doesn't have enough payload in the bigger shot sizes. If you could buy up several hundred remaining bismuth shells to last you a couple years to see what happens in the future.
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Tungsten is still available and being imported. Bought some from my supplier.

Also BPI has American made tss shot now. Same gairiffe high price they normally charge but it's available.

I either use a 1 oz duplex load of 8 tss and 4 steel or a straight 3/4 oz load of number 8 tss. Both in a 2 3/4 length hull.

I have two 28 gauges semi autos.

First is a TriStar viper g2 pro silver and a Beretta a400 upland.

Both have been great, super reliable, soft shooting and beautiful swinging duck guns.

I pick up the TriStar 9/10 over the Beretta when I take the 28 bore. Just not impressed with the Beretta and I'm a admittedly huge Beretta snob.

Wish Beretta would bring out a 28 bore in the a300 ultima line.

Can't speak to the over under or side by side guns. As I find them not to be of interest to me for hunting.

Above mentioned loads in my TriStar with either a Carlson's extended non ported cylinder choke or a skeet/IC choke will flat get it done.

With the 3/4 oz load of either 8's or 7's and a cylinder choke in good too 55 yards with the 28 bore TriStar.

Hope this helps OP.
 
Not a 28ga but on the subject of bismuth. I recently acquired a 1956 Stevens 16Ga SxS that i was pretty fired up to use for both pheasants and ducks this year. I need non toxic for pheasants where I hunt and I don't want to shoot steel out of it. Was planning on adding a box of bismuth loads with my annual order and they were all gone when I went to buy... Unless I get out for chucker or grouse it will probably never leave the safe unless something changes.
 
Neal Haarberg said:
Not a 28ga but on the subject of bismuth. I recently acquired a 1956 Stevens 16Ga SxS that i was pretty fired up to use for both pheasants and ducks this year. I need non toxic for pheasants where I hunt and I don't want to shoot steel out of it. Was planning on adding a box of bismuth loads with my annual order and they were all gone when I went to buy... Unless I get out for chucker or grouse it will probably never leave the safe unless something changes.
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Check Boss shotshells website. They were supposed to be reworking their loads with a custom made all copper pellet.

Not sure if they have it up and going yet.
 
I have an old 28g Browning Superposed. Love that gun for dove and quail, haven't used it duck hunting because I prefer a gun that can double as a paddle or anchor when on the water and still come up ready to fire (old 870 pump). 😂
 
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