My brother recently inherited a Winchester 1300 HD with 18" barrel. We tried it out shooting clay pigeons--had a blast!
I was calling around town asking about getting another barrel for it, something longer and with screw-in chokes. One of the local 'smiths asked if we wanted to just put screw-in chokes in the short barrel. Cost is much less than a new barrel. Got me thinking...with a modified or full choke tube in the short barrel, we'd get tighter patterns than we get now, of course. Velocity of the shot would be reduced...
But I can't see any reason why we couldn't hunt with it. The sort length makes it swing easy, and we were breaking lots of clays with it. Maybe its the shotgun equivalent of Marlin & Winchester Guide Guns. Short, light, easy to pack, but still usable. Maybe it would be good for smaller birds--quail? Maybe velocity loss would hamper us on bigger birds & longer shots--chuckar, pheasant & ducks?
So I have two questions:
1) Anybody evre hunt with an 18" barrel shotgun before?
2) Any reason NOT to hunt with an 18" barrel, with choke tube? Would Fish & Game hassle us because of the short barrel?
I was calling around town asking about getting another barrel for it, something longer and with screw-in chokes. One of the local 'smiths asked if we wanted to just put screw-in chokes in the short barrel. Cost is much less than a new barrel. Got me thinking...with a modified or full choke tube in the short barrel, we'd get tighter patterns than we get now, of course. Velocity of the shot would be reduced...
But I can't see any reason why we couldn't hunt with it. The sort length makes it swing easy, and we were breaking lots of clays with it. Maybe its the shotgun equivalent of Marlin & Winchester Guide Guns. Short, light, easy to pack, but still usable. Maybe it would be good for smaller birds--quail? Maybe velocity loss would hamper us on bigger birds & longer shots--chuckar, pheasant & ducks?
So I have two questions:
1) Anybody evre hunt with an 18" barrel shotgun before?
2) Any reason NOT to hunt with an 18" barrel, with choke tube? Would Fish & Game hassle us because of the short barrel?