Hello Mr. Rawles,
Thanks so much for your efforts, they are appreciated. SurvivalBlog has been a great help to me preparing for inevitable events.
Your suggestion to consider what you will be hunting is dead on. I have hunted small game, as well as large for 35 years. I have hunted in West Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Arkansas. I have hunted squirrels, rabbits, turkey, grouse, ring necks, geese, ducks, Bob White, doves, quail. #6 works well on squirrels, rabbits and small birds like grouse and quail. I have taken several shots at turkey with #6 inside 30 yards and did not carry any of them home. I have found with the large birds like turkey, geese, ducks, and ring necks #4 is about as small as you can go and be successful. Here in Florida we do a lot of hog hunting on big ranches. In the orange groves we carry rifles and big caliber pistols, .44 Magnum and .357 Magnum. When hunting hogs in the [closed canopy] “hammocks”, I carry shotgun loaded with 00 buck. My son prefers slugs. Some of these hammocks are like hunting in jungle so you keep that shotgun mounted [to your shoulder] all the time. In the dense foliage, the slugs and 00 works much better where as lighter shot loses a lot of steam.
If you have never hunted small game in the area that you live, I highly suggest that you find some farmer that will let you. You will need to learn the habitat that suits each species in your area and the tactics need to successfully fill your game bag.
I own a several shotguns but I have three favorites, Remington 870 and 11-87, Browning BPS pump. All three use choke tubes and I have a full set for each. All three are high gloss “sportsman grade” with blued barrels. I think they are beautiful guns, which causes them to be left in the safe when hunting in foul weather. For home defense I have the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500, both are improved cylinder bore with 20″ barrels and we have used these successfully to hunt hogs in the hammocks. They are both “marine grade” stainless and work well in foul weather.
I have had some exotic shotguns but most of the time they got left in the safe so I ended up parting with them. Remington has built and sold a pile of 870s and about as many 11-87 shotguns, parts are plentiful and easy to come by. I have had one 870 for about 30 years, I have put thousand of rounds through this thing and have yet to have used any of my spare parts. I highly recommend the Remingtons, since they are relatively inexpensive, are easy to work on, and extremely durable. The Brownings run a close second. I know guys who say the same thing about the [even less expensive] Mossberg 500s.
I store a lot of 00 buck, #3, and #7.5, roughly 500 shells of each type per gun. My son stores a lot of slugs for defense. I make him keep these segregated to avoid accidentally picking them up and shooting them in one of the guns with choke tubes. I have seen choke tube-equipped barrels destroyed with slugs.
This may be helpful, but it is not the right solution for everybody. If you have never hunted small game learn now, while you still have time. You will fail if try to learn this quickly when you are hungry. Hunting small game is not as easy as it may seem. If you are hunting an area that is under a lot of hunting pressure, small can be just as illusive as big game. If you have never used a shotgun but think you may need one in TEOTWAWKI (I know I will need my shotguns) then get one know and start learning to use it. Though shooting rifles, shotguns, and pistols are all similar, I taught my children that all three are different disciplines of the same thing.
Shotguns work differently than rifles, they move heavier loads slower over a shorter area. Lead times on moving game are much greater than for a rifle. You will also need to know the effective killing range for each load of shot. Flying geese can shrug off #7.5 shot at 45+ yards where as they drop like rocks with #2 or #3. Shoot a turkey at 25 yards with 00 buck and you get turkey nuggets, shot the same turkey with #4 and you have a fine meal ahead. Shoot quail or dove with #4 you may have some meat left on the bird, #7.5 leaves these smaller birds pretty well intact. Shoot a hog with #7.5 he will probably run over and remove your leg for you, but shoot him with 00 or slug and you will put him down for good.
My 2 cents worth, hopefully it will help someone. Thanks again, – C.D.P.