Never heard of a 3" 28 gauge. A "magnum" shell in a 28 gauge would seem to defeat its purpose. You CAN buy 2 3/4" loads as heavy as one ounce, however.

All seem to be nice shotguns. All are made on 20 gauge frames, which makes them a bit larger and heavier than necessary. However, the Beretta and the Ruger are made without underlugs, making them not so deep in the receiver as the Browning, so their barrels are a little closer together and do not require such a large (deep) solder joint between them. This makes them a little lighter, all things being equal. I would say the Beretta would be the pick of the litter, but I wouldn't turn up my nose at the Ruger or Browning, either.

I have a Beretta and a Winchester 101 in 28, and a good friend has a Citori. I like them all. One of these days a Ruger 28 is likely going to latch onto some of my money, circumstances being right. Of course, what I REALLY, REALLY want is one of those Franchi Highlander SxS built on a specific 28 gauge frame.

I have the Beretta 686 Quail Unlimited version. A very nice piece and tips the scales at just under 5.5 pounds. I have used it extensively for everything from quail to jump shooting ducks. I like the Winchester 1 ounce load for pheasants and I load 7/8 ounce bismuth loads for ducks. For general all around game shooting one can get by nicely with the 3/4 ounce factory loads that are available. I just wish they made hevy shot loads in the 28. Also the 28 was never to my knowledge made in a 3 inch. Now that I am in Alaska it gets a lot less use but did pick up 3 spruce hens the other day. It still works. Good Luck. Mart

I have a Miroku 28 ga. O/U skeet gun (same as a Browning Citori) that I bought when I lived in Italy. I also got a pair of Beretta S57Es, one 12 ga. and one 20 ga., and a pair of 426Es (side-by-side doubles). I shoot well with the Miroku and have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I feel the Beretta's are much higher quality. I handled the new Beretta 28 ga., made on the 28 ga. frame, at the SHOT show this year. It is about $3,000, and is a beautiful little gun. L.L. Bean also sell some nice 28 ga. O/Us. I don't know who makes them. The earlier comment about the Berettas not having underlugs is also worth considering. A Beretta 12 ga. is about as thick (vertically) in the action as a 20 ga. with underlugs, and the Beretta actions are extremely strong.

Like all of the earlier comments, I have never heard of a 3" 28 ga. The 2-3/4" load with 3/4 oz. of shot works well, and just fits the small gun. On skeet, I can not really see that this load is any less effective than the 7/8 oz. 20 ga. load. I have some 1 oz. load that I am planning to pattern this weekend, so will post the results later.

I patterned 3 28 ga. loads this morning. They were the Winchester Sporting Clays load with 3/4 oz. of #7-1/2 shot, and the Winchester game loads with 1 oz. of #6 and #7-1/2 shot. My barrel is Miroku is choked skeet/skeet, which in the 28 ga. shold be between IC and Mod. I plan to try the gun on ruffed and blue grouse in the mountains here in Utah. At 30 yards, either load of #7-1/2 pattern dense enough for grouse. The 1 oz. load only had about 10-12% more hits in the central portion of the pattern, in spite of starting with 33% more shot. The #6 load is only dense enough out to about 25 yards. I have killed a lot of grouse with the 3" .410 load of #6 from a Contender, so this 28 ga. should be more than adequate.