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I must eat crow

I'm all for jumping on the 20 bandwagon. But I'm going to wait until things settle down (hopefully that happens) in the supply/demand side of things
 
Turkey taste better than crow .
we got a 20 for dad in his late 70s and a friend hand loaded some tss. After seeing what kind of patterns he had achieved and how much more enjoyable packing a 20 on run abd gun was , I went to one 5 yrs ago , no chance of me packing a sbe over these hills again .
m2 is a killer and no I don't shoot past 40 -50 yds.
sure is amazing how things have changed over 45 years of chasing these birds .
 

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budro2 said:
Turkey taste better than crow .
we got a 20 for dad in his late 70s and a friend hand loaded some tss. After seeing what kind of patterns he had achieved and how much more enjoyable packing a 20 on run abd gun was , I went to one 5 yrs ago , no chance of me packing a sbe over these hills again .
m2 is a killer and no I don't shoot past 40 -50 yds.
sure is amazing how things have changed over 45 years of chasing these birds .
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What is tss and sbe???
 
muddyboots said:
When I started down the tss road Andy along with several others said do 20 gauge. I could not wrap my head around it. So I spent 2 years shooting 12 gauge which is awesome. But today I bought a 20 gauge. I decided the extra weight was not worth what it gained. This 20 gauge is like toting a toy. So I admit it boys - yawl were right! Lol. Now if my wife don't take it away from me.
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Back 21 years ago . When I started turkey hunting ,seriously . Let my buddy use my twelve and i used my wife's twenty . Took my first coupe or three birds with it . My twelve is light and there is no way I will ever give it up by choice for the twenty . That is just me . To each his own .
 
As to the 20 vs. the 12, it's not JUST a gun weight issue.

The 20 has a smaller "footprint", allowing it to be carried "easier" even if it happened to weigh the same as a particular 12 ga. For those familiar with carrying a crossbow, it's like the difference in carrying a crossbow with very wide limbs vs. one with very narrow limbs. Rotational torque issue.

Next, the 20 ga shells are about half the weight of 12 ga shells even when using 1 1/2 oz loads in the 20. You shave off another 1/2 lb or so in your pockets just by carrying 20 rather than 12 ga extra shells.

And if you weigh guns fully loaded, you will find the weight difference loaded is more significant than unloaded, i.e. approximately another 1/4 lb shaved off with the 20 vs the 12.

Last but not least, I've found the 20 ga, despite being a lighter gun, actually has less recoil with 1 1/2 oz loads than my 12's typically have with 1 1/2 oz loads. This may not make "sense", so I welcome others' thoughts on this.

Not knocking the 12, which will always be ballistically superior to a 20 when both are using TSS.
But a 20 using TSS ballistically outperforms a 12 using copper-plated lead loads.
 
Regarding recoil, with 1-5/8 oz loads I can definitely tell when the lil'20 goes off...it's sharp. Might be somewhat softer in autos though.
 
Boll Weevil said:
Regarding recoil, with 1-5/8 oz loads I can definitely tell when the lil'20 goes off...it's sharp. Might be somewhat softer in autos though.
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Definitely softer with the semi auto, neither is bad but there is a difference. My first 20 was a youth pump. My semi autos definitely take some recoil out of the equation.
 
Boll Weevil said:
Regarding recoil, with 1-5/8 oz loads I can definitely tell when the lil'20 goes off...it's sharp. Might be somewhat softer in autos though.
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Significantly less recoil with autoloader vs. over/under, side-by-side, or pump action.
My Weatherby autoloader seems little more than a .22 when shooting some 1 1/8 oz "reduced" turkey loads, and has less recoil with 1 1/2 oz than using 1 1/4 oz with an O/U I have.

No matter what you're shooting, 12 or 20, whenever you go up 1/8 oz on payload, usually increases "felt" recoil significantly. In a 12, the difference between 1 3/4 oz and 2 1/4 oz has to be experienced to be believed!
 
Levee Jumper said:
I'm all about saving that 2 lbs. However it seems as if those that jump up and down about the weight likely carry 2 lbs. of crap in their vest they don't need like a combination of (decoys, a chair, extra bottle of water, extra thick cushion, more shells then fit in their guns, or a box call lol.

Don't get me wrong sub gages are cool as hell I've killed them with a .410 but the "you don't need a 12 gauge" crowd is killin me with the 1- 1/2 oz. TSS loads.....BTW that is a 12 gauge load.
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This is my thoughts as well. I have a 20 with TSS. But still use a 12 lead about half the time. My Franchi Affinity 12 ain't even heavy.
 

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