doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on chokes for a 20ga. SxS

Hi Everyone, I posted earlier about my recent purchase of a nice little Fox Sterlingworth 20ga. 26 inch barrels, 5 lbs 14ozs. I'm in northern Wisconsin and a avid grouse hunter. Right now it is choked Imp. Mod and Imp. Mod. I intend to shoot mostly skeet and take her afield for some grouse work. My thoughts are Skeet 1 and Skeet 2 or Skeet 1 and Mod. I'm open to your thoughts. My primary Grouse gun is a W&S 700 12ga. Skeet 1 and Skeet 2 at 6 lbs 2 ozs. I'm also a fan of Cyl. bore but only have experience with that in a 12. Shot a lot of grouse and skeet with a old beat up L.C.Smith with cut off barrels. 1 of the best grouse guns I had was a L.C. Smith grade 3, 28inch barrels choked Cyl. & Mod. So, thoughts anyone!

Leave it as is for ONE YEAR and use spreader loads

http://www.polywad.com/spredr-shells.html

http://www.polywad.com/spredr.html

Mike

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/bpi/load_recipes/loads_pdf/dispersorx_20.pdf

Skeetx makes a good point. If you decide to open up the chokes. I'd make them .005 and .015. And you're good to go.

Hi:

I hunt with two 20 gage SxS guns and they are both choked I.C and Mod. I never lusted for any other chokes as I seldom take two shots at birds!

Try the spreader loads and see if you want to open the chokes.

Stay well,

Franchi










s
x

Never hunted the Ruffed Grouse but if were going to use it over pointing dogs in the pursuit of Bobwhites I would choke it cylinder and improved cylinder. If I thought I would also pursue wild Ringnecks with it cylinder and full.


Best,

Mike

IM/IM sounds really tight for a grouse gun. With respect to what SkeetTX Mike's conservative approach, I'd still open the first shot to an IC for that first year. That leaves plenty of choke for playing with later but puts some additional utility in the gun, and it leaves enough choke for the other Mike's approach to using it as a pheasant gun. IM/IC is not a bad 20ga setup for most situations.

As a die hard Ruffed Grouse hunter, I think you are on the right track with skt I / skt II, but cyl / lt mod or ic / mod would work for me too. I'm not real keen on cyl choke for hi-power shells (Rem Exp or Fed Hi Powers) which I like to use for grouse because they seem to blow the pattern out somewhat. If shooting low pressure, real light loads, cyl would be great IMHO.

Couple of my favorite 20s for grouse run .003/.010 (M-21) and .007/.017 (AS20EL). .003 is as open as I want. .010, a first bbl LM, can be made to work using soft shot, promo loads, etc. Tighter than that starts to wreck birds. We can hunt grouse till the end of December here, so a fairly tight 2nd bbl isn't a horror.

I would do as Mike advises, and try spreaders for a season. And I agree with Buzz: I have no use for true cylinder subgauges (suppose Chuck's forcing cone treatment might change my mind.

Sam

I don't get to hunt grouse much in AZ, but I used to in PA. The chokes I use on my Parker 20ga, which is my favorite bird gun, is skeet and modified. Works well for desert quail, Huns in Idaho and even pheasant in South Dakota. If I were making the gun exclusively for grouse and skeet I would probably go with skeet1 and skeet 2 as I can not recall ever having a shot at grouse beyond 25yds.

Surprised no one has asked this Badger State gent what breed and style dog he hunts grouse with- About 5 years ago, when I thought we'd have a legal dove season in MI- I bought a Utica mfg. Sterlingworth 20 gauge- 28" choked Imp. cyl. and mod., DT and ejectors- fine gun--that would still be my choice if I were grouse hunting at age 72--but as they say- "it ain't the gun that kills the grouse, it's the legs- yours and the dog's too"--

I recommend RST to anyone, Morris is an avid grouse hunter- likes Parker 20's- My guess- he might suggest trying spreader loads for the first season or two, before you have the chokes altered. If you do decide to do that, Mark Beasland is the right guy for that job--