FL_ Hunter

I want to know what you all think of the "Browning BPS Hunter 3 12/28" for clay and Turkey hunting.

RiverOtter

Great gun. Would be all you ever needed in a shotgun, though you may want to consider either an auto or double barrel depending on what clay game you're shooting. With something like trap you'd be perfectly fine with a pump. With something like skeet or sporting clays, I think you'd feel disadvantaged by having to pump when facing 2 clays at a time. Certainly people manage and it's possible to pump nearly as fast as an auto or double gun can put out shots, but it's one extra thing to think about. I shot skeet many times with my pump, and still do from time to time. I'm really not all that great at it because I don't do it often enough, but pumping the shotgun isn't usually the cause for me missing birds. I hunt turkeys with my pump...never had to take a second shot, but I'm quite sure a turkey wouldn't have been able to disappear in the time it took to pump another shell into the chamber.

James B

I have the BPS 24 inch field gun and I love it.

FL_ Hunter

Glad to hear that, I do agree about the double barrel and in fact I would love to get the o/u the only thing stopping me is its price;$$$$ over 3 times more than pump.
I am novice in using shotguns so can you guys tell me what would be the difference / advantage of 3" vs 2 3/4", barrel length short 22 vs long 26 or 28and would 12 ga be more appropriate for turkey or should I look at the 20 ga?
Thanks all for your input.

RiverOtter

The price of an O/U is the definite downside of obtaining one. For pretty much any birds out there you can get away with only having a 2 3/4" chamber, and that includes turkeys. That said, there are times that a 3" shell has the extra power and pellets that can save the day. I really don't know of any shotguns available today that don't take a 3" shell other than a Remington 1100. There may be others, but I'm not aware of them. Pretty much all of the pumps take at least a 3" shell, and then you could spend more to geta 3 1/2" chamberl (though I don't feel that it's worth it). Short barrels are good for tight shots in brush, and many of the specialized turkey guns have very short barrels. However, for clays you'd be better off with something longer as it will allow a smoother swing. My pump is a 28", which I feel is a good balance. With skeet you may prefer something even shorter, but for trap something longer would be more suitable. You can get the same pattern out of any of them...and realistically the biggest difference from a 22" to a 28" is that the end of the barrel is a whopping 6" closer to the target. When you're talking in tens of yards, that's pretty insignificant. I haven't hunted turkeys with a 20 gauge as I use my 12 gauge pump for that. Most of the commercial loads and available aftermarket turkey (x-full) chokes out there seem to be more geared towards the 12 gauge, but I'm quite sure that you could do just fine with a 20 gauge once you found a good load and choke for it.

FL_ Hunter

Thanks RiverOtter for the excellent synopsis and advice , really appreciated.

Briman

The browning is one of the, if not best pumps out there. The only disadvantage I can think of is that its a bit cumbersome for shooting trap with the bottom loading. You have to push the slide forward about 1/2" to collapse the elevator and thumb a shell into the chamber, which also makes your thumb dirty. I used a Wingmaster for trapshooting for about 15 years and find it (the 870) much more intuitive to use for trapshooting. For sporting clays, a pump in the right hands doesn't give up anything to an autoloader, so long as you don't short stroke it. I've had people comment that I shoot my browning faster than they can shoot their gas guns.