Sometimes I wonder if the 3" 20 bashers have ever hunted with one. The secret, folks, is to not overchoke. Interchangeable chokes are a big plus for figuring this out of course. Any gun with the necessary heft to shoot a 3" 20 is stout enough to have screw chokes anyway...

I use a Beretta 687L at 6.25lbs. With 3" XX or GP loads through the SK and IC tubes it ices pheasants. The patterns are plenty tight with buffered plated shot, and I'm not giving up a thing not lugging a 12.

Anything lighter requires finesse I personally don't have. A gun needs 'feel' which means it needs to have SOME mass. The lower limit for me is 6.25lbs.


"The price of good shotgunnery is constant practice" - Fred Kimble