Ditto every word that 2-piper wrote. Even Bob Brister, in his very good shotgun book, admitted that while he loved the 28 ga., in a quail hunt competition, he would use his full grown Perazzi 12 guage. The "ballistically efficient" and "square load" is about as meaningless as a dude in a gun store, handling maybe the second(or first) shotgun he's ever had in his hands, tell the clerk "it has a rilly good balance"! Or "nice and light", usually followed by a thoughtful look through the bore, like he's going to see something he recognizes in there.
I also agree with IM's own answer to his question.
I do love the 28 gauge. Currently own two of them both SxS. IMO, they are great on doves, not as good as a 12 on western quail but a lot of fun to shoot at clay target games. In direct response to TT's proposal as to which of the gauges(16,20, or 28) is redundant, my vote would go to the 16. It has no place in skeet, is hard to find components for, seldom on sale and every load usable in the 16 can be produced in a 12 ga., with the infinite variety of wads available. Likewise, the 20 can be loaded up, at least to equal the lighter 16 ga. loads.
