Well, back from the range with a range report;
I decided to take my H&R TDC 20Ga
The bad news; the trap range was closed
The good news; I was able to pattern the TDC 20G
Ammo used; Rio 7/8 Oz trap loads with #9 shot
The TDC 20G is also equipped with the same homemade recoil-absorbing system I have installed in my 12G TDC and the stock "Big Squishy" H&R factory recoil pad
With my first shot with the 20, I wasn't sure what to expect recoil-wise**, I've heard stories of how the 20 gauge Toppers/Pardners actually recoil worse than the 12's due to them being lighter, so as I thumbed back the hammer, I prepared myself for a typical 12-gauge recoil...
as I pulled the trigger, I was treated to a soft, pleasant shove, no unpleasant "punchy" recoil, in fact, it felt like there as no recoil to speak of, I'm sure part of that was the fact that I was shooting light target loads was a big factor in the intensity of the perceived recoil, but the fact remains that recoil from *this* H&R single-shot 20G was what I would term "pleasant/negligible", it had a pushy/shove-y feel to it, muzzle lift was negligible, and when I tried to do a "double" shot by holding a spare shell in my support hand, I found that I could fire one shell, eject, load and fire the second shell in a little over 1.5 seconds, and that's with *NO* practice on a new-to-me gun that is still a little stiff when opening, once the parts wear in and it drops open under it's own weight when the release button is pressed, I'm sure I can cut the reload time down even more
With the full choke tube, it throws a nice tight pattern at 16 yards, good and dense, no voids or gaps,the pattern is about 5" across, it also seems to shoot a tad high but centered on POA
With the modified tube in, the pattern opens up to about 8-9" and there appear to be a couple gaps in the pattern, the mod would be a better general purpose choke, but the full choke is far better for trap
I am *extremely* impressed, both with this particular gun, which has now fast become my absolute *favorite* shotgun, yes, even surpassing my family heirloom Parker VH (I always feel guilty using an irreplaceable family heirloom, the TDC 20G has the look and feel of an honest *working man's* gun), and with the 20 gauge shotshell in general, I guess if I could sum up the 20G with one word, that word would be "balanced", it throws a decent shot payload, and in the right gun, recoil is easily manageable, if not even unnoticeable
When the time does come for my *next* shotgun (and the next after that, and the one after that, ad infinitum) I'm pretty sure they're all gonna' be 20's from here on out, for my purposes, the 20 just plain works, and does it without being abusive or uncomfortable to shoot
now, to be fair to my 12's, I will have to shoot some HD loads through the 20 to see how it handles those, but as a sporting gun, this humble H&R 20G TDC just plain works for me, it does the job perfectly, and it's going to be my primary clay games gun
** before I left for the range, I hefted both the 12 and the 20 at the same time, they seem to weigh about the same, it would make sense, as the 20 appears to have the same outside barrel diameter, perhaps a piece of 12-gauge barrel stock that has a 20 gauge bore cut through it instead of a 12-gauge bore, the barrel walls of the 20 are noticeably thicker than the 12, and it feels like a "heavy/bull barrel"
