20 Ga Snake Tamer question for a young hunter

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I know some of you are familiar with these 20 ga tamers... My nephew decided he wanted to hunt the "Youth Hunt " this year and his 243 super lite is on its way to be fitted for a new barrel. I have no other real option for the little man besides a tamer 20 that my Father in law has for well Snake Taming heh...
 
 The question is this , How do these do with buckshot 2 3/4" at 20 paces ? will the full choke these come with from the factory serve our needs this weekend ?
 And would I be better suited to go with the 3" over the 2 3/4" ?
 
 Much thanks guys, any help would be appreciated..... And with his success, will come pictures of a young man with his first deer 

[cowboyup453]

I have never seen one that has a full choke as advertised. Mine has a mod choke as do all of them that I have ever heard of. I would pick the 3" over a 2 3/4 any day. The only way to know for sure is to go try it.

[thejanitor]

How little is the nephew? 3" may not be the best if the kid is small, and don't some of those have no recoil pad? Just saying he may think ill of you if you send him out with a super kicking 3"... can you add any weight to the stock inside? If it makes it so it doesn't ruin his day I would assume 3" would perform better but Be nice to the kid if he is small. I know you don't intend to be mean, but I don't think I would want to shoot a 3 inch mag out of a regular unmodified tamer ....
I remember hunting with the family as a little kid and watched Mom shoot at a goose with a 3"mag. She leaned the gun up in the corner and cried for a while....She never shot another 3 inch mag out of that single shot Ithaca.
Hope it works out, good luck,  thejanitor

[Hodr]

As I recall a snake tamer 20 is under 36" long with a 20" barrell at 6pounds weight and I don't think it has a butt pad on it.  There should be a shotgun front bead.  At 20 paces with this set up 2 3/4 buck hammers should knock over anything short of elk.  Depending on size of nephew you might want to make sure you put the three shells in the stock holder, maybe some extra weight also, and try for some sort of butt pad.  The gun is already youth size and at the range indicated it is a clout shot with a buckhammer.
 
Hodr

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Guess I should have dropped a bit more detail.. The Tamer has a recoil pad added, Nephew is a small 13yrs old and has had experience with the super lite youth 243 H&R , It bounced him around at the range (243) but nothing too bad... I have never owned a 20ga only 12ga rifles since I bought my first , so having no personal experience with the ga. or firearm brought me to this question... I was more concerned about effective patterening then recoil.. Remeber what the recoil on your last derr was like ? Me either ! hahaha

[yukondog]

If he's comfortable with the 243 I would stick with that and good luck to him.

[Hodr]

I have neices by marriage who I have given shortened 20 ga( 20" barrell, 34" overall) handi rifles to.  They are equipped with sidesaddle ammo holders, limbsaver recoil pads,  and generally have 2 buck hammers, 2 six chill, 1 #4 buck in battery and another in the sidesaddle.  these nieces are 12 to 16 and have accounted for coyotes feral stray dogs, and a good deal of camp meat.  This has all occured while watching thier grandmothers sheep and cattle.  The girls seem to do just fine with the 2 3/4 shell recoil and they are not the largest girls in the world.  Then again they are Navajo and don't think a whole lot about the recoil on a 30-30.  They are nice girls but since deer/elk out of season could be a problem they probably would be nice enough not to mention it to me.
 
Hodr

[PHATINJUN]

There is no need to have him shoot 3". The 2 3/4" shoots 1oz slugs @1500fps that will pretty much kill anything out to 100 yards. My biggest gripe with Remington right now is that they have discontinued the 1200 fps reduced recoil Buckhammers. Let him sit down and shoot three of the 2 3/4" from a bench to sight in...by the 3rd shot you will see the flinch set in so don't blame the ammo. Just make sure he is doing every thing right on the first 2 then have him take a break and start again. Personally I would not use Buckhammers from the smooth bore. I would use Brennekes first then try Sluggers. I have never been able to get the Winchester Fosters to shoot out of any of my smooth bore 20's past 25yrds. But both the others will produce 2-3" 50 yards groups easy. Just saying "been there done that" both me and the youngsters. Kurt

[spikehorn]

I think he was asking about buck shot patterns out of it not slug groups. The best thing to do is just pattern it like you would a turkey gun see how many buck shot are inside a papper plate at 20 yards. I know from my experience shooting 00 buck shot out my mossy 835 that mod choke works the best for that if I go up to an extra full turkey choke with the 00 buck shot the pattern opens up.

[Default_Required]

How little is the nephew? 3" may not be the best if the kid is small, and don't some of those have no recoil pad? Just saying he may think ill of you if you send him out with a super kicking 3"... can you add any weight to the stock inside? If it makes it so it doesn't ruin his day I would assume 3" would perform better but Be nice to the kid if he is small. I know you don't intend to be mean, but I don't think I would want to shoot a 3 inch mag out of a regular unmodified tamer ....
I remember hunting with the family as a little kid and watched Mom shoot at a goose with a 3"mag. She leaned the gun up in the corner and cried for a while....She never shot another 3 inch mag out of that single shot Ithaca.
Hope it works out, good luck,  thejanitor

 Janitor,  He is a little small for 13 yrs old. I agree I dont want to run him off with to much recoil, but this is one of those reasons for the question .. I have no experience with a 2 3/4" or 3" 20 ga to go on as far as whats to much for him.
 

If he's comfortable with the 243 I would stick with that and good luck to him.

 
 Yukon the 243 is at the factory being fitted with a new barrel, the 20ga is the only other real option to be ready this coming weekend for the youth hunt.
 
 Yes Spike horn is correct Injun , was wanting to go with buckshot ... Its a personal thing but I have never been a fan of a smooth bore slug set-up.. But that aside I figure that a good group of #3 at 20 yards would give him a little room for error and his best chance for success.
 
 I still have the box the flat screen came in I think patterning a deer outline might be the best anwser.
 
 I appreciate everyones thoughts .     DR

[tacklebury]

I would definitely pattern it.  #3 & #4 (only buckshot I could find here in .20 ga.) was way too dispersed for any shot past 10 yards with a modified choke.  I ended up trading it for a 12 ga. H&R Turkey Gun and used the extra full with 3" 000 buck for our early season.  It gave me an 8" group at 20 yards and at 30 was still only 12" or so. 

[Default_Required]

I would definitely pattern it.  #3 & #4 (only buckshot I could find here in .20 ga.) was way too dispersed for any shot past 10 yards with a modified choke.  I ended up trading it for a 12 ga. H&R Turkey Gun and used the extra full with 3" 000 buck for our early season.  It gave me an 8" group at 20 yards and at 30 was still only 12" or so.

I appreciate the heads up tackle , this is what I was wondering about. I want to give my nephew as good of a chance as I can.

[PHATINJUN]

My mistake I got caught up in Hodr's Buckhammer reply. If your shooting buckshot I got no reply...never done it for deer. Kurt