Best Farm Shotgun?

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lockedcj7

New member
I use whichever is close at hand but I prefer small shot with open chokes for getting mistletoe down and tight chokes for tree trimming around my deer stands. I've even used a 20 ga. dove gun to get my son's kites, airplanes and other toys out of the trees. (I shoot the supporting limbs, not the toys!)

I generally use a 20ga sxs with 4's or 6's for critter control. It can also do double-duty with 3", #3 Buck for bigger critters.
 
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RetiredLawman

New member
I have a 20 gauge Nova with a 24" barrel. It has a nylon sling. Short, light, and handy. It is about three years old, been tossed around in the truck, but still looks like new. I use it for deer, turkey, and quail on the farm. With the correct load, it will do about anything a shotgun will do. Slugs for deer, buckshot for coyotes, #4s for turkey, #6s for squirrels, #7.5s for doves, etc.

When I go out in "public", I take my 20 gauge Franchi 48, or a 12 gauge in one of the better looking brands. When I was much younger, I used a 12 gauge. I've found that the 20 gauge Nova is all I need around the farm. I like the idea of a SXS and have a couple but they don't take to abuse like the Nova, which is pertnear indestructable. There is nothing on the Nova to rust or corrode. Once you get past the looks, you've got a decent farm gun that can really take abuse and neglect. If you forget to oil it, it doesn't rust. Toss it around and it doesn't scar up. It is ugly, with a capital "U" but you can't beat it for a farm gun.

I would expect that a Mossberg or a Maverick in black would be good. The Nova has a special coating on the barrel that is rust resistant.
 
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levrluvr

New member
For years, and years, it was my grandfather's Remington 29 pump 12 gauge. He bought it new, maybe around 1930. He used it until his illness and death in the 1970's, then I let it continue its work. You can imagine what the farm history is of that shotgun working for nearly 80 years.
I have retired it, and have a Mossberg 500 that handles all the chores now. I have multiple barrels for it, which makes it a pretty versatile piece. If I don't grab for it, the .22wmr works fine for everything else.
 
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schutzen

New member
Farm shotgun

I'm still running durability tests, but fot the last 30 years my 12 ga. 870 Remington has done everything asked of it around the farm. My father used an Ithaca M37 and Grandpa used an H&R Single Shot in a scabbard on the fender of a Case WD.

I personally like the pump guns. You can load bird shot for small game and have a buckshot in the magazine for coytes or bobcats.
 
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alfred

New member
A "Farm Gun" is a tool.

I am a 64 year old man and have lived in the country for most of my life.I have farmed and visited farms scattered around the USA.In my lifetime,the most popular and most often seen "Farm Shotgun" on a working farm has been a old used single barrel,single shot,in break open or bolt action.The reason?If it is bent,broken,lost or stolen,you are not out much AND it will do anything that the most expensive gun in the world will do on 99% of the farms in the world.

Farm guns are a tool that will be abused sooner or later.I have seen them used as "Pry Bars",to stretch fence with and to beat Snakes with when you are out of shells.Why abuse a expensive gun with dirt,sweat,salt,chemicals,manure and urine?A "Farm Gun" will have to cope with all of these and much more!

The same goes for a rifle.Usually a .22 rim fire where you do not have large predators.


On farms in the world where you may be attacked by,people,Bears,Lions,Tigers or Leopards,a Double Barrel Shotgun has been popular for the last several hundred years.

The Russian peasant in Siberia has taken Polar and Russian Bear,Moose and Tiger with Single and Double Barrel Shotguns for generations now.Why?Because that is all that he had!alfred
 
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JWT

New member
Double barrel side by side 12 ga. Doesn't have to be expensive. Saw lots of 'em behind the door at many small farms as a kid.
 
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Uncle Buck

New member
Pump action, .410 or 20 guage. Also carry the judge with .410 shells for a snake gun/critter gun inside the barns.
Prefer the .410 because the judge and the shotgun can share the same feed, and on a farm, feeding is what makes things happy.
 
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Russ5924

New member
I did the same thing. I had a tree in the yard that at the top a branch was hanging by a thread. I wanted to get it down before it fell on me or someone else. Was way to high to reach with a ladder and no way to climb. So got out my 870 trap gun with full choke took three shot but down it came. Yes! I lived in the country and I made sure no shot could hit anything:)
 
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bamafan4life

New member
Uhm, just a suggestion but how about a used single barrel? its cheap and will fire everytime and you wont feel as bad when you get it scratched up. And a handgun for 2 legged predators?
 
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LanceOregon

Moderator
Uhm, just a suggestion but how about a used single barrel? its cheap and will fire everytime and you wont feel as bad when you get it scratched up. And a handgun for 2 legged predators?
Click to expand...

A handgun makes best sense for home protection in an urban setting.

But out on a farm? No, a shotgun is definitely better.

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kmrcstintn

New member
I might be the guy who sees the glass half full, but look at the moeny that is wasted on purchasing the shotshells and the lead that falls on the ground and allows unnecessary lead depositing in the soil (and possibly water supplies when runoff develops after a hard-n-fast rain shower) :(
 
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LanceOregon

Moderator
I might be the guy who sees the glass half full, but look at the moeny that is wasted on purchasing the shotshells and the lead that falls on the ground and allows unnecessary lead depositing in the soil (and possibly water supplies when runoff develops after a hard-n-fast rain shower)
Click to expand...

If he used a gasoline powered tool, though, he would have added green house gases that would then caused the polar ice caps to melt, and for all of the polar bears to then drown.

This way, the polar bears get to live! grin

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Nite Ryder

New member
Farm Shotgun

Quote: bamafan4life
Uhm, just a suggestion but how about a used single barrel? its cheap and will fire everytime and you wont feel as bad when you get it scratched up. And a handgun for 2 legged predators?

I can not believe that anyone would seriously suggest a used single barrel shotgun for anything. Maybe you didn't know this, or think about it, but no target is so big that you can't miss. If you do miss and you only have one shot, what do you think is going to happen to you? Do you think someone is going to give you time to reload? I own 6 SXS shotguns and 4 O/U shotguns, I would never consider any of them for home defense use. I would use a pump with an extended mag, or possibly a semi auto with an extended mag.

I didn't know there is a difference between a Farm shotgun, and a City Shotgun. Do you thing the shotgun knows which one it is? Maybe you can explain the difference to me...
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Uncle Buck

New member
I actually keep a single barrel 12g in one of my barns. If I am working up at the farm and I do not have the pistol with me and my truck is parked somewhere else, I have used the single shot.
Usually I do not miss the critter I am shooting at, but if I do, it is usually long gone before I could shoot again anyway. (I will not fire at a random, might be there, spot where it could have gone. If I do not see it, I am not shooting towards it!)
Sorry, you can disagree with me all you want, but I am protecting feed sacks and my chickens. I do not need a pump action, extended magazine, laser sighted, night lighted, Rambo shotgun fitted with a bayonet and range finding devices. I need to be able to pop off a round at a critter.
 
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mathman

New member
21 inch benelli m2 or 21 inch 870 (turkey model)...these would be great farm guns...but i like the 21 inch barrel (obviously) ymmv
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
I always found the best farm shotgun to be the one ones that went BANG every time I pulled the trigger.

Didn't matter if it was a single, double, pump, or semi-auto, as long as it went bang when I pulled the trigger, I was very, very happy.

Bayonet on a farm gun? What, after you shoot the ground hog with the shotgun (hopefully it went BANG!), you stick the ground hog with the bayonet and flip it over the fence line into the neighbor's field?

I guess along with going bang, my definition of the best farm gun is one that is SIMPLE. No fancy BOPOS (bolt-on pieces of shinola), no extended mag tubes, no holographic infrared ranging and vectoring sights, just simple, cheap, and to the point.

As far as I know, the HR Topper 20 gauge that I used to use while working on a friend's farm still sits in the corner of the barn by the work bench, with a box of shells on the bench, and is still used regularly to dispatch ground hogs, raccoons, and possums, the same as it has been doing since the middle to late 1970s.

BUT BUT BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A HYPERBOLIC FLEEM RENUBULATOR ON THAT SHOTGUN! YOU'RE SUCH A HICK!

It goes bang when I pull the trigger, what more do you want?

I'M SORRY, CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN, I WAS CHARGING UP THE RENUBULATOR.

Bang.



Oh well, if lots and lots of BOPOS makes you happy...
 
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