by Phil Bourjaily
All of a sudden, 28-gauges are appearing everywhere, as the rest of the shotgunning world learns what plenty of grouse and woodcock hunters have known all along: the 28-gauge is a joy. After decades as wingshooting’s best-kept secret, the 28-gauge is showing up not just in the grouse woods – where it belongs – but also in turkey camps, duck blinds and wide-open spaces for prairie birds. What Gene Hill called “the thinking man’s 20-gauge” is the latest must-have toy for hunters of all kinds.
New ammunition definitely makes the 28-gauge a more capable performer outside its original close cover/dove field/skeet range habitat. Even so, the little gun remains at its best for hunting in the brush, especially the kind of cover where every ounce counts, and you often carry your gun in one hand while fending off brush with the other. You shouldn’t pick a 28-gauge because it’s trendy – you should try one because it’s a great choice for the grouse woods.
What is the 28-Gauge?
The 28-gauge probably needs no introduction here, but still … it’s a .550 bore gun best suited to shooting 3/4 ounces of lead shot – although it can be more heavily loaded with payloads up to an ounce – and, now, there are even 3-inch 28-gauge guns and ammunition.
The 28-gauge dates to the pinfire era of the 1860s. Gunmaker W.W. Greener made 28-gauge guns in England in the 1880s; there may have been others. In the first part of the 20th century, a few other U.S. makers offered 28-gauges – Parker often gets credit for making the first American version around 1900. In the 1930s, the game of skeet assured the 28-gauge’s long-term survival by including it among the four gauges shot in tournaments.
One early adopter was William Harnden Foster, sporting artist, writer, grouse hunter and the inventor of skeet. Foster carried a Parker that he called “the little gun.” It was a DHE built (mid-level, hammerless, with ejectors) on Parker’s diminutive OO frame (the smallest .28 frame available by Parker) and it weighed 5 3/4 pounds with 28-inch barrels.
In his book “New England Grouse Hunting,” Foster made the case for his light grouse gun: “If, at the end of a long day, the shooter can with one hand slap his gun into shooting position, he need not worry about being over-burdened, but if he cannot do this he is carrying too much gun …”
That, in essence, is the appeal of the 28-gauge. It can be built quite light – for an all-day, one-handed carry – yet, unlike the .410, it’s potent enough to kill cleanly past 30 yards. The ¾-ounce load doesn’t generate a lot of recoil even in a very light gun. While anyone can appreciate a 28-gauge, the little gun also helps older hunters stay in the field. George Bird Evans switched to a 28-gauge AyA shotgun as age and shoulder injuries made it too difficult for him to shoot his beloved 12-gauge Purdey.
28-Gauge Ballistics
The 28-gauge enjoys a reputation as a magical ballistic outlier that performs better than it should due to the ideal balance between its .550 bore and a 3/4-ounce load of shot. Pattern tests tell a different story. There’s no fairy dust inside 28-gauge cartridges. Some believe the 28-gauge has a very short shot string, which may be true. But shot string hardly matters in the woods, where most shots are taken at close cover ranges and payloads haven’t had a chance to string out as they do at longer distances.
You don’t get magic when you pick up a 28-gauge, but you don’t get that much less, either. Take a look at skeet averages where all the shots come inside 25 yards. Among AAA shooters – the very best – there’s only half a target per hundred difference in averages between the 12-gauge and the 28-gauge. B class shooters, who are perhaps more relatable to shooters like most of us, carry averages of 2.3 birds per hundred lower with the 28-gauge than with the 12-gauge. That’s not a big difference at the distances you’ll do most of your shooting in the woods.
Now, a super-light gun is harder to shoot than a heavier one, but shotgunning is about tradeoffs and, when most of us dive into thick cover, we’ll gladly carry a gun that’s a little harder to shoot and easier on our arms. With a light 28-gauge you realize Foster’s ideal of a gun that can be carried one-handed and leave you fresher when it’s time to put it into action. You don’t get kicked much by a 28-gauge 3/4-ounce load, either, even though the gun doesn’t have a lot of weight to absorb recoil. Beyond those advantages, some people simply enjoy the trim lines of a 28-gauge gun. If you like a gun, you might shoot it better. As someone posted on an internet bulletin board, “The 28-gauge isn’t magic, but it sure casts a spell.” There’s no better way to put it than that, and there are much worse spells to fall under than the allure of a dainty smallbore grouse gun.
