Part V. SHOTGUNS: EQUIPMENT, CARE AND CLEANING

Chapter 12. Shotguns for Small Game Shooting

It has been said that rifle shooting is a science, shotgun shooting an art.

A hunter can have no quarrel with that, I suppose. But like all generalizations it is subject to qualification. AH great game shots are more artist than scientist. They all have the subjective viewpoint of the artist, both in the selection of firearms, and in their use. I have never known any outstanding field shots who didn't have individual peculiarities of shooting and stalking which affected their choice of calibers and gauges. This, in large measure, accounts for the diversity of opinion on proper field guns.

What is the best shotgun for ruffed grouse, squirrel and rabbit shooting—the best degree of choke and shot size? Ever toss that question into an evening discussion around an autumn camp? It is surprising the difference of opinion, and it is surpris­ing the number of hunters behind those opinions who make them pay off, autumn after autumn on upland birds and small game.

They use different tools, as it were, but basically the skills they bring to field shooting are the same. Usually they are good all around field shots, both with shotguns and rifles. Then-upland shooting with shotguns is only a segment of their whole pattern of field shooting. They are equally at home with a rifle in their hands, hunting the heavy cover when deer season rolls around.

Such general, over-all shooting modifies shotgun use some­what. It also loosens up a hunter's rifle shooting technique. It modifies  shotgun  selection,  too,  but not as much as  would appear at first glance. Obviously there is no logic in going to a bolt action shotgun because you use a bolt action rifle for deer. It is good practice, however, to use a pump action shot­gun, if you are using a slide action rifle. Modification, though, should be more in stocking, trigger pull, weight to some ex­tent, and recoil. In short, those modifications should be such, that in going from your deer and small game rifles to a shot­gun for squirrel, rabbit or ruffed grouse, you get that, "I believe we have met before,” feeling when you snap your shotgun to your shoulder.

Subconscious shooting habits take over in game shooting. When a ruffed grouse explodes out of a hazel thicket in front of your hard working springer, twisting and turning through the multi-colored cover, you are not going to consciously lead it, consciously cheek your gun in a certain way. All those de­tails, win, lose or draw, have already been decided. Some by the stocking of your shotgun, some by the amount of ruffed grouse you have shot, more by the type of hunter you are—your per­sonality. You make the shot, or you miss. And that also goes into the sum total of your experience, a contribution which will be totaled on your next try.

With this in mind, let's consider the more tangible assets of shotguns and loads for small game and bird shooting. First, though, let's examine some of the factors which bring rifle and shotgun shooting closer together.

A good shotgun for small game shooting must be fast handling. It must have just sufficient weight to swing steadily and absorb recoil. This adds up to a gun weighing from 6 to 71/2 pounds. These qualifications also add up to a very nice deer rifle for snapshooting, with the exception of the one item of weight. Deer rifles of fairly heavy recoil could use a bit more weight than this.

Shotgun fit means that the pattern is nicely entered on your target when you snap your gun to your shoulder. Essential fit, with either rifle or shotgun, means that a hunter should find it extremely awkward to avoid looking down the sights when the piece is mounted.

His trigger hand should seem awkward in any place except at the grip of the stock, the fore-finger on the trigger. Any­thing less than this, with either rifle or shotgun, means that the hunter is adapting himself to the gun, rather than the gun being adapted to him.

Just recently I had a custom stocking job done on a Model 71, .348 Winchester. The finished job weighed 81/2 pounds. But with the nicely fitted stock and the superb balance of the rifle, it seems at least a pound lighter.

My big game shooting with this rifle is very similar to that of upland shotgunners taking ruffed grouse, except that my game with this rifle requires that I often make a precision shot on squirrel, as well as fast moving snapshots at deer and elk.

Let's examine the stocking of this rifle to see if there is any essential difference between such rifles and a shotgun stocked for upland bird shooting. Length of pull 131/4 inches, drop at comb 1⅝drop at heel 21/4, drop at heel of the Monte Carlo 1¾and downward pitch 31/4 inches. In comparison, my Reming­ton 20 guage pump has the following stock dimensions: length of pull 13⅞ inches, drop at comb 1¾, drop at heel 21/2 and pitch 1½.

The only essential difference between these stockings is in the stock length and downward pitch. The shorter stock of the rifle is made necessary by the fact that when the deer season rolls around it is colder, and one wears more clothing. A gun designed for snapshooting under the circumstances must have a shorter stock to handle properly. The difference in pitch is accounted for by the nature of the targets. Ruffed grouse always rise to the shot. A pitch of more than 11/2inches gives a shotgun a tendency to shoot low, nicking the game with the ragged edge of the pattern because the two factors of gun mounting and flushing birds are at cross purposes.

One favored ruffed grouse cover of mine is a series of warm south-lying slopes. I work this time after time during the autumn shooting. The ruffed grouse spiral up through the trees to gain elevation, then plane across the brush to drop into the cover again. Here is tricky snapshooting. I must make a play for one of those comparatively open spots in the alders, get on my game as it rockets through, making the shot the instant the butt of my gun touches my shoulder. There are two leads with which to contend, forward and upward. The forward lead is made as my gun comes to my shoulder. The thunderous  upward  spiraling of my flushed  grouse is taken care of by having just enough pitch in the stocking to throw patterns a trifle high.

Later in the season, when I am catfooting along, these same alder slopes with my .348 Winchester, deer on my mind, the targets are essentially the same. Of course there is no necessity for any stock compensation to make my rifle shoot high. Those old gray faced bucks are not going out through the tops of the alder when I jump them, though it would seem as if they were when a big old buster comes crashing out of his bed. A down­ward pitch of 3 inches places my front sight on exactly the spot I want to hit, when my rifle is snapped to my shoulder.

With the exception of these two deviations, my rifle and shotgun are essentially the same. Is there any difference in handling them? Do you sight a rifle and point a shotgun, as is often explained by any number of clever writers on the subject? Thirty years of hunting makes me very doubtful. Of course it depends on what these experts mean by sighting.

If a hunter spends any appreciable length of time "draw­ing a bead," and "centering the crosshairs" on his target rifle shooting, one thing is indicated. He simply has a rifle which doesn’t fit him properly.

As rifle and shotgun stocking is brought closer together, snapshooting techniques are very closely wedded. That rifle bullet, after all, merely represents the exact center of your killing pattern. Of course, you glance through your rifle sights as your gun touches your shoulder—proper stocking takes care of that. For long field shots you are more precise in your align­ment. You may even use one of the more stable shooting posi­tions to give you a bit more accuracy. But within the range limits of heavy cover, snapshooting with a rifle or shotgun, the shooting techniques tend to merge. If that merger is encouraged by careful stocking, it is surprising how much of your ruffed grouse shooting skills rub off on your big game shooting, once you are committed to the autumn deer coverts, a big buck in mind.

Best barrel lengths for upland shotgun are 26 to 29 inches, depending on the action. A pump or auto loading shotgun, with their longer receivers, are best with 26 inch barrels. A double, or over and under, should carry 28 inch tubes for most effective handling. It depends a lot on balance. I have seen trim 20 guage doubles with 30 inch barrels which handled fast, and pointed out extremely well because they were properly stocked. I have also handled other shotguns with much shorter barrels, which were so totally lacking in balance, nothing short of a complete rebuilding could have corrected the faults.

The heart of an upland shotgun is in the choke. Other factors of shotgun shooting may be compromised and a fair amount of hits still obtained. But the choke must be right for the average range, the touch and go of ruffed grouse, rabbit and squirrel shooting, or all the other gilt edge qualifications, such as proper balance, barrel length, weight and trigger pull, are ineffective.

A full choke pattern will give you about 70 per cent of the shot charge in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards. An improved modi­fied about 55 to 65 per cent. A modified choke about 45 to 55, while an improved cylinder throws 40 per cent. If it is con­ceded that it takes 70 per cent patterns for effective killing, then it follows that an improved modified or modified choke is the more versatile selection for average upland ranges. And field experience bears this out, too. For at the average ruffed grouse range of 30 yards, you are throwing about 84 per cent patterns with an improved modified choke, 75 per cent with a modified. When the range is extended to 35 yards, you throw about 73 per cent pattern with an improved modified, 65 per cent with the modified.

Many gunners try to make choke overcome unskilled gun pointing and poor stocking and balance, by going to more open borings than this. Frankly, I cannot see any place for skeet boring, or improved cylinder except on the skeet field. In heavy cover, leaves and branches are constantly thinning out other­wise acceptable killing densities of patterns. To overcome this there must be more shot in the original appropriation than one expects to deliver to a twisting and turning ruffed grouse or a cottontail with the throttle pulled back.

Best ruffed grouse shotgun, pattern wise, which I have ever had in my hands, is a Marlin over and under. This gun has 28 inch barrels, the top barrel was originally full choked, bot­tom modified. The top barrel was relieved enough to make it an improved modified. This shotgun is equipped with a non-selective single trigger, firing the bottom barrel, with its modi­fied choke, first. The top barrel with its improved modified choke made a splendid second barrel.

Factory stocking is as follows: 14½, 1⅝, and 2¼. Weight is 6½pounds.

This shotgun is so close to the ideal requirements for upland shotguns, its qualifications stand as my recommendation for all upland shooting, for gauge, patterns, stocking and weight.

With a 12 to 16 gauge shotgun, using the same shot size, obviously you are going to throw more shot at your birds than you can with a 20 gauge, but at the expense of other upland shotgun requirements. The average 12 gauge, unless it is specially built, is usually heavier and slower than a light 20 gauge. You must take your birds a few yards farther from your gun. Those extra yards cancel out the extra weight of the 12 gauge shot charge, to say nothing of the many shots you get in heavy cover, where you must take your birds within 30 yards, or loose it in the brush.

However, I once handled a light 12 gauge Powell, made in England, which was just as fast in heavy cover as any 20 gauge I ever had in my hands. And it might be added, it used the same 1 ounce loading as a 20 gauge.

The trend in upland shotguns is toward the smaller gauges. And to me this seems a healthy tendency. There is much more satisfaction in working grouse cover with a 20 or 28 gauge than there is in using something larger. With the 28 gauge, throwing ¾ ounces of shot, you are obviously taking on a field obligation to not exceed its range limits which are around 30 yards. But you are going to have the supreme satisfaction of watching an occasional ruffed grouse get up just enough out of range to cause you to hold your fire, and that, when you are mulling over the day's hunt in front of the evening fire, will be one of your best memories, cherished even more than the red letter day you made a double on ruffed grouse—a not too common occur­rence.

As you drop down in gauges, there must also be a cor­responding drop in shot sizes in order to maintain a practical pattern density comparable to that thrown by the larger gauges with their heavier shot charges.

A 12 gauge throwing 70 per cent patterns of number 6 shot puts 179 pellets in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards. The 20 gauge, using the same size shot, put about 157 shot in the same circle, with a 70 per cent pattern. By dropping down to 7½ shot, the 20 gauge 70 per cent pattern, will put 245 shot in this same 30 inch circle.

A 28 gauge, using 71/2 size shot, throws 183 shots in a 30 inch circle with a 70 per cent pattern. But using the larger, number 6 shot, this same 28 gauge will throw only 118 shot in a 30 inch circle with a 70 per cent pattern.

How about the most effective shot sizes for upland game? Most hunters consider shot sizes from 6 to 7½just the ticket for ruffed grouse. My own preference is for the smaller sized 7½ for this type shooting. Quail shooters usually prefer 7½ to 8's, while squirrel and rabbit hunters are partial to size 6.

The 12 gauge has a bit of edge on the smaller gauges on rabbit and squirrel, handling number 6 shot in more effective patterns. However, size 7½ shot in 20 gauge has worked well for me on rabbit, especially jump shooting bunnies without the aid of dogs. And for that matter, a close shooting 20 gauge throwing an ounce of size 6 shot makes a very effective load for both squirrel and rabbit.

One qualification to any arbitrary selection for shot size for specific game lies in the peculiarities of shotguns themselves. Some guns will handle only one or two shot sizes well. Others may have a versatility which enables a hunter to use several shot sizes and get good dense, uniform killing patterns. If your shotgun patterns best with 7½ size shot, and your quarry is rab­bit, stick to that close shooting pattern, even though you con­sider them a bit small for your game. A ragged pattern of 6's doesn't have the killing potential of an even, dense pattern of 71/2 shot, all paper ballistics to the contrary.

Of course, if you are using a single barrel pump or auto­loading shotgun, the addition of one of several choking devices presently available will give a greater selectivity of pattern. You may discover just the right degree of choke to handle those heavier shot sizes, when they are called for.

But even with a choke device, such as the splendid Polly Choke, you must still match the obtainable pattern with the degree of choke. You cannot arbitrarily say you want 70 per cent patterns at 25 yards with some special shot size, set your chok­ing device for modified pattern, and know you are getting the desired results. You may be getting only 45 per cent patterns or better than 70 per cent. It is only after long sessions at a pattern board that you really know, in terms of field effectiveness, the degree of choke setting which gives you what you want with some certain shot size.

Shotgun preferences for upland gunning are more subjective than deer rifle preferences, if that is possible.

When anyone arbitrarily tells you this is your best gun for ruffed grouse, without qualification, question his field ex­perience. The more time an autumn gunner spends in upland cover, the more mellow he becomes. He knows there are many right answers to proper shotgun selection for him to be arbitrary about it.

There is nothing more beautiful than a well made double gun. There is nothing more practical and efficient in ruffed grouse cover, or for tumbling a bunny in front of a frantic beagle, knocking a squirrel out of a beechnut. But, cannot the same things be said about our better grade pump action shot­guns, an over and under, an autoloading shotgun?

The whole problem of shotgun selection, even use, simmers down to personal preferences. I have merely traced a few of the pathways you will travel toward that ultimate shotgun which you will eventually own, and swear by—after several autumns of upland gunning.