I think you can go from .410 up to 10 and anything in between if you match gauge, shell and load to whatever conditions you hunt under. Half the fun is thinking what to bring and then finding out you made the right choice or better yet conditions are not what you thought they would be and have to adjust on the fly. You groove equipment for Skeet, Trap or Sporting Clays. You adjust equipment for hunting as you learn a little more each trip out.

This Fall I am going Dove hunting the first seven days. Each day I am going to take a different gun, most days a different gauge. Day one will be my late uncles Crescent .410. He was a fellow who enjoyed small game hunting with a gun he bought for less than fifty dollars. Lord knows how many quail, bunnies, squirrels, dove and snipe have fallen to that simple double. Sometimes you get to connect to the past by using guns you'd keep in the back of the closet and never use given other "better" choices.