Hi everyone;

I'm new to the forum and really enjoy all the info here. I'm taking up skeet and trap shooting as a hobby and wonder if there is any difference or advantage in using a 12 gauge over a 20 gauge. I was under the impression that a 12 gauge is meant more for hunting. Since the shooting I'l be doing is 50 yards or less, will a 20 gauge be good enough?
Less recoil and cheaper ammo over thousands of rounds seems to make sense.

The standard guage for trap competition is 12 guage. Skeet can be shot equally well with either. If you plan to shoot thousands of rounds, you will want to reload and the 12 guage is easily reloaded with 7/8 ounce loads that are similar to the standard 20 guage load. There is no difference in cost between new promotional or competition loads between these 2 guages. If you get into skeet seriously you will need to add the 28 guage and .410 bore which use shells costing more. If you get a 12 guage over/under, you can get subguage tubes and shoot all 4 guages from the same gun.

Hi everyone;

I'm new to the forum and really enjoy all the info here. I'm taking up skeet and trap shooting as a hobby and wonder if there is any difference or advantage in using a 12 gauge over a 20 gauge. I was under the impression that a 12 gauge is meant more for hunting. Since the shooting I'l be doing is 50 yards or less, will a 20 gauge be good enough?
Less recoil and cheaper ammo over thousands of rounds seems to make sense.

Welcome to the forum RED DOT.

For competition the 12 gauge throws more shot which means less holes a skeet target can go thru. I've never shot trap, but did a lot of skeet shooting in the Army and all that's pretty close, but you never saw many 20 gauges. You do see a lot of specialized guns designed just for skeet or trap.

I shot a Remington 3200 competition skeet gun for a bunch of years. It was choked Skeet and Skeet. That was in a day before interchangable chokes. The over under was the favored gun for skeet shooting.

Today the big upcoming sport is Sporting Clays and it to has special guns designed just for the sport. If your just starting out the only thing you will need is a gun that will do doubles and for skeet has an open choke or the ability to put in an open choke. For Trap some of the other guys can help you and I've only seen Sporting Clays on TV.

Like was said above lots of folks that compete reload. I did all of my shotgun reloading on a little Lee reloader that cost all of 24 bucks at the time. Still use it along with one set of for 20 gauge for the kids guns. Shotgun shells are still pretty much a bargian compared to other shooting sports if you buy bulk.