To that point, here's a gun that is my 9 year old son's. The question was, "why do you want a 28 gauge?". So many times people want a 28 gauge guns because they want 1.) Light weight, 2.) no recoil, 3.) Suitable shot payload for smaller birds.
So, why not have a high quality British 12 bore? My son's gun is a "forever" gun. It weighs less than 90% of the 28 gauges that exist and probably ALL the beretta, browning, and modern American 28 gauges.
So instead of buying my kid a browning or a beretta that is overweight, cumbersome, and loses value over time, I bought a vintage near "Best boxlock" gun. When he grows, that checkered butt gets sanded smooth and a 1" pad is installed to carry him into adulthood.
For what I paid for an EJ Churchill 12 bore boxlock ejector with two pairs of barrels, I would have bought him a fairly junkie, soon to be at a yardsale 28 bore O/U with a polyurethane finish and laser engraving of a cheesy pheasant on it.
To have this shotgun made today by EJ Churchill you'd spend $35,000 or more. It's of lasting quality and does what a 28 bore does, and what a 12 bore does. Pay special attention to this advice and @Red Leg 's example. Of all the shotguns ever made in Europe, 96% of them were 12 gauge. 2% were 10 gauge. 2% were 16 gauge. ALL the others are in that remaining 2% including 4 bore, 6 bore, 8 bore, 14 bore, 20 bore, 24 bore, 28 bore, 32 bore, .410, 9mm, and some gauges I've never heard of before. You are paying incredible premiums for scarcity/rarity whereas you may get a 50x higher quality gun in 12 gauge for a fraction of the price.
