Same Gun for Clays and Hunting?

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bsbllman19

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I shoot clays and I've never been hunting (a travesty I know) but I was wondering if I would be successful in the field with a sporting model shotgun. There are so many variables in choosing a gun, chokes, load, etc. and it's a little overwhelming for someone who is relatively new.
 
Would not having a 3" chamber for the field be a drawback for birds like duck and geese? The Sporting model i'm looking at only has teh 2 3/4" chamber. Just curious and I know with all your years of experience you could help out a noob.
 
from what i found, if you can "kill" clays you can kill birds. I would just use my "sporting gun" for hunting, you will probably shoot better with you clay gun than a new one becaus you are use to the way it fits. As for the shell you can use for hunting birds "witch i also only do about twice every two years" i use winchester superx.
 
Sporting guns typically make great bird guns. 2 3/4" guns are plenty for anything that needs done if you can use lead shot. If you have to use non-toxic shot they can still be used with some of the better alternative shot on the market but hevi-shot and the like is very expensive. To that end it really depends on how much you hunt. A casual hunter can buy a couple boxes of hevi for the season , a dedicated hunting nut might find it too expensive for the amount of hunting he will do.
 
The only real difference between shooting clays and live birds is going to be your choice of ammo and the choke of the gun. If your dead set on using 3" then it will be a problem. You can however buy good duck or goose loads in 2 3/4" Other than that just make sure you have the right choke tube in because you'll want different pattern spreads for hunting than for clays. So basically to answer your question if you'll be successful in the field that will mostly depend on if your successful at range
 
A "sporting" gun should work well in the field since the whole idea of sporting clays was to mimic actual field shots.
2 3/4" is about all most of the people I know use for hunting upland birds (pheasant, quail, grouse, prairie chicken, partridge, etc.) Most do however step up to 3" for waterfowl, really made almost necessary by steel shot, but with the newer "heavy" nontoxic shot 2 3/4" will work fine unless you are trying to do some "skybustin" on high flying Candas. If you do use the new nontoxics be sure to test pattern them with all of your tubes, due to their density and hardness they respond "differently". This is necessary, but not cheap to do, they run about 3 to 5 times the cost of a box of AA trap loads for a box of 10 shells. If you want to hunt turkeys, again 2 3/4" heavy load of 4, 5 or 6 shot out of a full or x full tube will do a number on them. The new 3" or 3 1/2" turkey" loads are not necessary (and not much fun to shoot when you are sitting against a tree.)
For about 25 years I used one shotgun, a 2 3/4" chambered modified choke pump gun for hunting all of the above, and goose hunting was the only time I could have needed more.
bergie
 
a sporting clays gun is made to shoot sporting clays, usually a little longer barrel, wider rib, and a slimmer forearm. SC is made to similate ducks, geese, and dove pretty much, so the same gun works great on both. I love shooting doves with my 391 28" sporting and 32" 682 Gold E Sporting.

If you don't duck hunt 40+ times a year like we do, you will do just fine with 2-3/4 loads, but you will have to get kent impact or hevi-shot loads. They pack much more punch than steel.
 
Sure you can, especially if your clays gun is a modified field gun. Dedicated clay guns run heavier than field models.

Waterfowling guns run heavier. For 3" waterfowling loads I like shotguns weighing 8 lbs or better, and less than 7 for the uplands. My favorite trap gun weighs close to 9.
 
The sporting clays game was invented in England about 70 years ago as practice for hunting. I've used my Benelli M1-90 [24"]and Beretta 686 [28"]for both. Both BTW weigh 7 1/4 lbs ,both 3".If you can't hit the real bird with the gun you can't hit the clay one either .
 
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