It's been stated that at Skeet or Quail distances, there is little difference between the patterns thrown by Skeet chokes and full chokes.
This one is right up there with any ranking of "greatest shotgun canards".
Most available bore gauges don't "do" .410. I recently obtained a small hole gauge set. I had long before developed very clear ideas of what barrels actually worked in grouse/WC cover and on a skeet field.
My 42 "skeet"s run from .003 to .011. All are unaltered. Mods I've measured have run from .005 to .011. My fulls run from .016 to .020.
The measurements validated my impressions (why did I do so much better with this skeet gun vs that skeet gun?).
I'll distill it: .005 is my minimum for single barrel field work. It will work with Rem 3" to 25 yds. It's also my minimum for confidence on 3,4,5 with good 2.5" shells. .010 is Nirvana for both NSSA and field work (for me). Put differently, .010 gives the widest effective pattern at 25 yds - 25 yds is my .410 field max.
My Briley .014 is a great 5-stand constriction, as are the full choke barrels.
I've patterned true cyl .410 barrels and would not feel comfortable using one on birds beyond 15 yds. But I'm kinda slow. I'm guessing Chuck is alot faster than me.
Maybe the forcing cone surgery is worth the trouble.
Finally, I should mention that .410 ammo selection is important. There are huge differences in pattern characteristics among available factory 3" loads.
Sam
