Shotguns-semiauto-20

Many shooters don't like the shoulder-popping recoil of a 12-gauge shotgun, so a logical substitute might be a sub-gauge semi-automatic — such as two Italian imports we tested recently.

[IMGCAP(1)]The 20 gauge has long been known as the little brother of the 12-gauge scattergun, and like any tag-along sibling, it often goes underappreciated. Twenty-gauge guns with 3-inch chambers carry a lot of pop for their boresize—enough to send fast-flying teal, high-honking geese, and decoying mallards to the stewpot—but because the 20-gauge shotgun’s receiver can be slimmer than the 12 gauge’s, the Plenty Twenty carries easier than a 12. That can mean a lot when you’re lugging a nylon-mesh sack filled with decoys at 4 a.m.

Of the available 20-gauge shotguns, we recently had a chance to examine, pattern-test, and field-test two of the higher-priced autoloaders: Browning’s Gold Hun...