gonna buy a shotgun......

[Kmann]

gonna buy a shotgun for both hunting and home defense. I found one at walmart, a mossberg 20 gauge with both smooth and rifled barrels for $280 bucks. Will the 20 gauge be plenty for both purposes or should I shop around for a 12 gauge? I also plan on taking it to the range to break my son in on firearms. thinking the 12 might be alittle much for him though. He is 5ft and about 100 lbs.

 

[billyboyr6]

goods price on 20 ga. that would be plenty of gun for HD and hunting. and perfect to learn to shoot with for the son.

 

[JohnP82]

sounds good to me
you can always just grab a 12ga in a few years down the road if you want, but there is nothing wrong with a 20ga

 

[baldguy637]

For deer, a 20ga will do everything a 12ga will.

For turkey, it's a little easier finding aftermarket chokes and shells for a 12ga.

With his size, i'd go with the 20ga, hope he likes it.

 

[ambushunter]

IMHO I wouldn't trust a mossburg to save my life. So I would go with an 870. But 20 gauge is plenty. Acualy shoots little flater with slugs then 12 does

 

[IndyMonkey]

It really depends on what kind of cash situation you have.

If moneys tight you might want to go with the 12 and your kid will grow into it in a year or so.

There is a difference between 12 and 20 guage slugs. Here is some quick info that I googled up from the remington site.

The 12 gauge Core-Lokt Ultra sabot bullet is a .50 caliber, 385 grain HP semi-spitzer. The catalog MV is 1900 fps and the 100 yard velocity is 1648 fps. The ME is given as 3086 ft. lbs. and the remaining energy at 100 yards is 2325 ft. lbs. The trajectory of that load looks like this: +1.8" at 50 yards, +2.4" at 100 yards, and +/- 0" at 150 yards.

The 20 gauge sabot bullet weighs 260 grains. It also has a MV of 1900 fps, and its velocity at 100 yards is given as 1615 fps. The ME is 2084 ft. lbs., and the remaining energy at 100 yards is 1506 ft. lbs. The trajectory of that load looks like this: +2.0" at 50 yards, +2.7" at 100 yards, and +/- 0" at 150 yards.

I started with a 20 guage when I was 8. I think I went to the 12 guage at 14. Still break out a 410 once in a while for giggles.

 

[greyhound47]

IMHO I wouldn't trust a mossburg to save my life. So I would go with an 870. But 20 gauge is plenty. Acualy shoots little flater with slugs then 12 does

I guess that is why Mossberg is the choice of our military, right?

 

[Gungho_1989]

As stated above by others the 20 is adequate for most anything you would need it for. the good thing is the rest of the market is finally figuring this out.
Ammo selection on the 20 ga side for HD is not up to speed yet but I kinda expect it to get there before too long.