Converting duck gun to predator gun.

Brad Kircher

Brad Kircher

New member
Hi everyone. I've been checking out this forum for a while now and have picked up a lot of great advice and now I have a few questions about using shotguns for predator work. I own a Benelli SuperNova that I used for waterfowl hunting for a few years. Now that i've realized how much more fun calling in a coyote is than standing around in crotch deep ice water trying to kill a duck, i'm trying to make my shotgun better suited for the job. Right now I'm shooting Dead Coyote T's with a Carlson's Dead Coyote choke out of a 28" barrel and have had good luck out to 60 yards. My question is: Does shortening the barrel reduce the range at which i can cleanly kill a coyote? If I go from a 28" to a 24" barrel, is my pattern going to open up considerably?
 
Provided you're using the same choke tube, 28" to 24" shouldn't really have any affect on your pattern. Velocity loss, if any, would be very, very minimal.
 
The only thing shortening the barrel will help you do is shoot yourself in the foot.

I do a lot of predator hunting with my 28" barreled shotgun and I like having the barrel stick out past my foot when I am sitting down or laying down with the shotgun beside me. The 28" barrel sticks out past my feet by about 4".

A waterfowl shotgun makes a much better coyote shotgun than a turkey shotgun does. Longer barrels are much better for swinging on moving targets than short barrels are.
 
The bbl length has very little of anything to do with patterns. The choke tube is the ultimate "say-so" on patterns. Just swap you duck choke for a tighter choke.

The 24" is still enough to get a good swing. A 21-18" not so much. Plus you save a bit of weight will packing in-out of stands. I say the length thing is a toss up from 24-28"
 


"Now that i've realized how much more fun calling in a coyote is than standing around in crotch deep ice water trying to kill a duck"

Dude, that is absolutely priceless. Everyone in my office laughed when I read it outloud. Welcome to the sport and Good Luck!
 
Stay with the 28in, unless you are going to be in THICK brush, and need the manueverability. Absolutely nothing wrong with a 28. I use my Mossberg 500 28in VR in the brush, and when it was a little long, I mounted a side folding Butler Creek stock on it, and shoot it gangsta style. No more recoil than a .44mag pistol, and accurate.
 
Looks like I'm going to be the odd man out early in this discussion but I actually prefer a shorter barrel for all of my shotgun hunting. I shoot a 22" barrel Browning Upland Special for turkey, field shooting geese, and for predators. I use a 24" double barrel for ducks. Personally, I think a "turkey" gun makes a great predator gun. It has more to do with how well the gun fits you, your choke selection, load, and how well you shoot it. Shooting myself in the foot has never been a concern because I pay a lot of attention to where my barrel is pointed at all times. I like the overall compactness of a shorter barrel and the ability to put some cover in front of me while still being able to swing the shotgun without hitting a tree or brush. As JTB said, shortening the barrel won't reduce your range or your pattern if you have the right choke and, if I had the choice, I'd go with a 24" barrel over a 28" barrel. I also use the same Dead Coyote T's and the Carlson choke that you use, Brad, and I really like the combination.
 
Hey Tyler, what's going on man? Thanks for the quick replys everyone. Well I was considering buying a 24" barrel for the Benelli, but judging from your alls responses I think i'll save the 300 bucks and keep the 28" on it.

On that note, what are some other add ons/modifications I should consider? I just bought a steadygrip stock of ebay and put that on it, and have been thinking about adding a holo sight.

Oh and jcs271, i'm glad you and the coworkers got a kick out of that. I often wondered why I went to that much trouble for something that wasn't worth eating anyway.
 
Brad, For predators and turkey, I'm shooting a 12 ga. 22" barrel Browning BPS pump Upland Special with fiber optic sights.
 
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I also like short barrels my duck gun is 24" and my coyote gun is an 18" both are Benelli M-1s I like the short barrels because if I crawl into a fence row my gun does not get hung up on all the brush. I can even turn and shoot the other side of the fence most the time. I would have a hard time doing that with a 28" barrel. I would say coyotes and turkeys are more similar than coyotes and sporting clays.
 
At least 50% of the coyotes I kill with a shotgun are running and at times they must be lead just like a bird or a clay target.
Are Turkeys shot when they are flying or running 30 mph?

I have been shooting clay targets off and on for 45 years and coyotes with a shotgun for 26 years. Quite a few of the running shots we get on coyotes are more like shooting a quail or dove than it is like shooting at turkeys.

I don't think you need a special shotgun to kill coyotes. Whatever shotgun you shoot birds or waterfowl with as long as you shoot it good and it fits you it will work great on coyotes.
 
My 870 with a 28" barrel kills coyotes, ducks, geese, pheasant, rabbit, tree rats, dove, crow, turkey and anything else that is legal and crosses my path. Never have had a problem with lenth.

Only time it sports a shorter barrel is when I got the rifled slug barrel on it.

Save the money and use it find a choke with a killer pattern and buy some premium shells.
 
Carlesons DeadCoyote choke and 3 1/2 4-buck or DeadCoyote T's will do the trick. I would leave the barrel at 28 myself honestly.
 
I agree with the safest bet is to leave it at 28", but then again I cannot imagine coyotes being more of a rush than some fat greenheads or wood ducks floating into a timber hole.
 
I'm another that prefers short barreled shotguns. Funny, I started like you over 30 years ago.

You think you enjoy it now? Get rid of the shotgun, get yourself a nice bolt action rifle chambered in a high velocity cartridge and you won't look back. I never did.
 
Personally, I wouldn't go changing a bunch of stuff just yet. Shoot what you are comfortable with and get some kills under your belt. You'll be the most effective with what seems most natural to you. Bolting extraneous add on gee-gawks like steady grip stocks and glass sights might just impede your shotgunning rather than improve it. You may eventually evolve and fine tune your equipment but do so after some experience in the field and because it is necessary to improve your success. Not because it looks cool and all the super cool Pro-Staffers recommend it.
 


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