My Ideal Shotgun
by Rafael Hernandez
There are more similarities between shotguns and rifles than there are differences, a fact that surprisingly few people consciously realize. Of course, we really pick our equipment based on how well it addresses our tactical needs, which is why we need to have both rifles and shotguns and why it is an advantage to every shooter that he or she learn to shoot both types of guns well. Most of the time the guns simply cannot replace each other tactically, and learning both disciplines enhances our hunting pleasure tremendously.
Without getting into a deep dissertation of these differences and similarities and for the purpose of this article, however, it will suffice for us to say that rifles and shotguns are similar in action types used, concept, materials and very basic and general shooting form but they are quite different because of the ammunition they each use as well as the environments that come into play when choosing one over the other. Those tactical considerations explain, in great part, why you see such a proliferation of bolt action and single shot rifles while shotguns are, for the most part, either double-barreled or the higher capacity semi-autos and pumps.
Of course, tactical considerations apply to all types of guns and it is interesting to note how, sometimes, those choices overlap each other and how, sometimes, they downright contradict themselves when they are applied to different types of guns. Which is a roundabout way of saying that matching the game to the choice of ammunition is, perhaps, the biggest tactical decision of all. After all, you wouldn’t hunt pronghorns with a 20-ga. shotgun any more than you would hunt bobwhites with a .308.
The next important tactical consideration, this time within the specific type of gun that is being chosen, is the type of action and the gun’s overall contour. That same covey of bobwhites, for instance, will give you, after a significant amount of walking behind the dogs and under regular shooting circumstances, two shots before the birds disperse and get out of range, about four or five seconds on the average. When we consider this style of shooting, we also understand that a light, 28- or 20 gauge, double-barreled shotgun is about the perfect choice for upland hunting.
On the other hand, that pronghorn might allow you to look him over, carefully judge or measure distance, set up properly and take aim, all of which could and often does take several minutes from a vantage point that could well be three hundred and fifty yards away from the target. That shot will, therefore, cry out for a properly scoped bolt-action rifle in a flat- shooting caliber.
But, within those rather broad parameters there is much more to focus our nit-picking attention on, so it is never really as easy as saying like the Hank Williams song says: ” A rifle, a shotgun and a forty-five, a country boy will survive”.
For instance, a double-barreled shotgun offers the gunner the opportunity of using a standard 26” or 28” barrel in an overall shorter gun that has two different chokes, is easy to carry and swing and is balanced almost perfectly at the breech; while the high capacity single barrel pumps and semi-autos give the gunner up to three more shots (depending on local game laws) for any single shooting sequence.
Choosing the right action for the game at hand has allowed me the chance to triple on goose and ducks, for instance, while a handy side-by-side is just about as perfect for upland game as an over and under is for target shooting.
But addressing tactical needs does not stop at the gun designer’s desk. There is a whole wide world of customizing available to those who, like me, enjoy tweaking the last drop of tactical advantage from an otherwise standard and sometimes rather common gun. I have always enjoyed doing that, and the results that I consistently get from customizing a gun to suit my own taste and shooting style gives the whole shooting sport a terrific boost that would be somewhat deflated if I was to simply accept what somebody else decided on my behalf and I meekly adapted my shooting to those choices—a task, by the way, that can take a tremendous effort and is often quite impossible.
In fact, most gun innovations are but the result of this kind of tweaking and adapting by gunners through their independent gunsmiths or by the custom gun makers themselves. The standard manufacturers must eventually also follow the well-trodden path of public taste and popular fads or they risk falling behind in the very competitive gun market.
Another important reason to customize is that guns are made taking into account only market biotype averages and, traditionally, gun makers are very slow to review these averages or to change when the average bio-typical person changes.
Therefore, unless your shooting style and environment as well as your body build (personal measurements) and your tactics conform to "the average man with an average need", the same one that the specific gun manufacturer chose and specified in their design sometimes seventy years ago or longer, the chances of an out-of-the-box shotgun fitting your specific needs properly are slim to none—particularly since shotgunning is so tightly dependent on proper gun fit and, as I said above, on proper tactical decisions.
And so, some few of us are lucky enough to find guns that fit our specific needs right out of the box but, the large majority of us don’t, and must make the guns fit those needs before we can draw out every ounce of pleasure or performance from a particular gun. But, that’s okay too, because, after all, we do love those guns, don’t we?
My favorite duck gun: The Browning BPS.
Way before it was fashionable for repeating shotguns to come in the shorter 22” and 24” barrels that became popular later on, or for those guns to have any specialized treatment done to them as standard fare, I purchased a Browning BPS Field Model in 12 gauge with a 22” barrel and Invector chokes.
That choice was made because I liked this gun better than my beloved Remington 870 Wingmaster which I had used up until then.
Mostly this preference was because the BPS is a truly ambidextrous pump shotgun and I shoot lefty. It ejects straight down (also quite good when shooting from a blind or boat) and it has a thumb safety on its grip, which is an English straight grip, not a pistol grip. The shorter barrel was an advantage to hunting out of a small boat or canoe and also quite handy in a covered pit blind.
There were a couple of things that I didn’t much like about the gun, though. The stock had a shiny epoxy finish and the bluing was a high- polish black. Also, there were no sling swivels or any other assistance for carrying the gun to a blind or boat when I had to also carry ammo, decoys, gear bag and more.
I saw these things as impertinently negative and set up, immediately, to correct them. I sent the gun out for refinishing of both the wood and the metal.
The first was to be traditionally oil-finished, which to my taste is not only more aesthetically pleasing but also much easier to maintain. This is particularly so when it comes to steaming out nicks and dents in a hard-duty duck and goose gun but mainly because it does not reflect light as bad as that ugly epoxy finish it came with.
I also took the opportunity to install a Pachmayr recoil pad in order to lengthen the stock to my proper length of pull. Comb and cast were pretty good for me (as most Brownings seem to be) so I left these as they were.
The metal was to be sand blasted and Parkerized. This finish is more rust resistant than standard bluing and, again, it does not reflect sunshine. The much desired sling swivels were also added (a feature that also began to appear in many factory shotguns later) and a military canvas rifle sling became a fixture on this gun as well as on the 20 gauge that I bought a few years later and modified to match the 12.
I also ordered the full complement of Invector choke tubes so that I now have in my pouch from full to cylinder and everything in between. I also have an extended tube, choked extra-full and vented, which I have also used successfully on gobblers more than once.
I have shot well with this gun over the years. A good number of doubles and several triples on both geese and ducks will attest to that but, specifically, that BPS gave me what is still a beautifully latent memory of those three crossing pintails that fell to its bite at Lake Guerrero, in Northern Mexico. Bang! Bang! Bang! All three birds were dead in the air and tumbling head over heels before the first one killed had hit the water.
Needless to say I have used this gun extensively for more than twenty years; it is one of my favorite guns and the one I always take out over water. I can’t imagine a more flexible shotgun from the tactical point of view. The custom “fixes” I had done to it were not all that expensive or dramatic but the results are a surprisingly enhanced and much more attractive gun than the one I originally started out with. It reaches, in addition, that ego-satisfying description of "unique" in that it reflects my own specific taste and needs perfectly. The wood looks much better even after all these years of hard use and the dull Parkerized metal, now showing signs of wear, as well as that business-first canvas gun sling makes the gun look as a gun with a purpose should look.
I don’t think I will ever part with it. Too many wonderful memories of great gunning days form an integral part of that gun and I would find it impossible to put a price on it.
I guess that, in guns especially, form does indeed follow function.
