Anyone shoots 20g in 3-gun?

[DrLove]

guys, I'm new to 3-gun and wondering does anyone shoot 20g in 3-gun? Also, would a pump action really be "limiting" for speed (split time mainly)?

thx in advnce...

Edited April 20, 2013 by DrLove

[bishop414]

Many will be along to say, "run what you brung." No issue using a 20ga, but the heavy divisons do require 12ga.

[Doug H.]

A few years ago at the R&R match some guys were complaining that one of the stars was set too heavy and was difficult to get the plates off. Along came a kid on the squad shooting a little 20 ga pump and he blew off the plate like they weren't attached. The complaining stopped pretty quick. 20 ga loads run around 1 oz of shot which is what I shoot out of my 12 ga, so you shouldn't have any trouble knocking down steel if you have enough choke. How fast you can reload will have more effect on your time than how fast your gun cycles.

Doug

[AZGunut]

This thread made m thin a bit. Has anyone shot both at speed and noticed a difference in reloading speed loading the 20 gauge. For weak hand loading I would think it would be easier shuffling the smaller 20 gauge shells.

[Jesse Tischauser]

I have a 20 gauge M2. I have yet to shoot it in a match simply because its not easy to find stuff for it. Caddys mainly. Since Tim Ubl from TACCOM shoots a 20 gauge he is actually making a cool little device called a quick caddy and I just scored some quad load caddys for it from him too.

The 20 gauge should knock down everything we shoot in 3 gun if the targets are set properly.

It is really easy to grab 5 20 gauge shells at a time but its not easy to load any shells in a 20 gauge M2 be star it's so narrow. I'm hoping the quad load is easier for me because it requires less thumb in the gun to load.

I have spent a little time behind a pump and it's marginally slower than a semi in quick arrays were the targets are close together almost like the difference in recoil/splits of a 20 gauge vs a 12 gauge. When you have large spacing between targets which gives you time to pump during recoil and the transition the pump is just as fast. Last year when I shot pump in several matches I found myself missing less because I had to slow down and pump which always gave me time to get the proper sight picture. With an auto it's easy to hammer down and outrun your sights. The other plus for a pump is it will run light loads.

[BrianATL]

I have a 20 gauge M1 and a 12 gauge M2. The 20 gauge will take down anything you will typically see in a 3 gun match. I never felt "undergunned" with the 20 gauge. I shoot the the 20 gauge slightly faster than the 12. But loading weak hand with caddies was a lot slower for me with the 20 gauge. It just seemed to take a lot more dexterity with the smaller shells and smaller loading port. I am now loading using strong hand load 2 with the 12 haven't given load 2 a try with the 20.

[ClutchUSMC]

Katie Francis shot last years Benelli shotgun match with one and it did fine. Ubl shot his this year and it did fine.

I've taken to running gamebore extra low recoil 1oz loads in my 12ga and they do fine.

As for pump vs auto, it won't matter. Shoot the pump until its the only limiting factor to you progressing or until you decide you want to buy a new gun. Its not a necessity. I won several club matches back in the day with an 870. And have been shooting pump since about christmas again and don't notice any difference except on stand and shoot hoser type stuff... Plate rack at 15 yards yes the semi is marginally faster... but really any transition between targets and its the same.