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Forums10
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Most Online1,258 Mar 29th, 2024
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Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 406 Likes: 1
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 406 Likes: 1 |
I don't think there is much "MAGIC" to choke selection, but I use Cylinder for Skeet, most Sporting Clay stations,and preserve quail & pheasant. Works well for me...
JERRY
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,600 Likes: 13
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,600 Likes: 13 |
Breaking clays at distances of 35 - 45 yards or longer with cylinder or skeet-in chokes is a lot easier to do than to put a live bird on the ground at the same distances with the same chokes. Full choke has its limits too and too many wild game shooters over-extend their gun's limit both with full choke as well as with cylinder. Use whichever choke, or lack thereof, in clays games but for live birds, common sense must rule.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,032 Likes: 8
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,032 Likes: 8 |
Cylinder is very effective for early season grouse. Probably the best choice in your first barrel. The game changes a bit in November when they become more skiddish but I would any more choke then IC, no matter what time of season it is for grouse.
Last edited by nca225; 03/24/14 09:05 PM.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6 |
I wouldn't consider a cylinder barrel for pass shooting. But if a cylinder barrel performs according to "theory," it should put close to 100% of the pattern inside a 35" circle at 20 yards. That is 460 pellets if you are shooting an 1 1/8 oz of 8s, which equates to an average of 1 pellet in every 2.13 sq. in. of the pattern, or 1 pellet in every 3.8 sq. in. if you are shooting an 1 1/8 oz of 6s. That would suggest a pretty effective pattern for a right/bottom barrel when hunting upland game over dogs. Of course, that all assumes that your cylinder barrel performs according to "theory."
Reduce that load to 7/8 oz, though, and some choke starts to look like a good idea.
Last edited by Doverham; 03/24/14 09:42 PM.
Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there.
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 386 Likes: 1
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 386 Likes: 1 |
Most of the shooting I do is at grouse and woodcock. Cylinder choke may be fine for some, but it messes with my mind. Knowing I don't have choke makes me rush the shot, "shoot before it gets away". A little choke is a confidence builder. terc
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106 |
"The least little thing will balk a shooter". It's a true statement IMHO. The statement choke is irrelevant is just ridiculous, I think. Modern shotshells have tightened up patterns, but have not made choke superfluous, thank goodness. If all we had was cylinder choke, like in the pre-choke era, shooting life would be soooooo boring!
Socialism is almost the worst.
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 239
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 239 |
If all we had was cylinder choke, like in the pre-choke era, shooting life would be soooooo boring! Makes one wonder, what was the effective range of those guns/shells?
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 7,065
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 7,065 |
A cylinder pattern is a big pattern. Three times this season I unintentionally took took wild bobwhite out of covey rise. Once I took three. My shooting student Joe Wood also had an unitentional double.
If I want to fill the game bag I use cylinder.
The cylinder pattern has good density at 40 yards - if you look at the center eight inches of the pattern.
I am glad to be here.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,964 Likes: 89
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,964 Likes: 89 |
Fun topic. There has been enough varied responses to prove one thing: every constriction has a useful purpose. There is no correct or incorrect "one size fits all" answer. I am perfectly happy using my cylinder bored guns on quail but feel very inferior pass shooting geese with anything but a full choke. Incidentally, I grew up in a time when a full choke was the only manly boring to use and it was a hard habit to break but glad I did.
Sorta reminds me of being asked what is the best fly to use on a trout stream. The best answer is "whichever you have the most confidence in".
When an old man dies a library burns to the ground. (Old African proverb)
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,718 Likes: 479
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,718 Likes: 479 |
Choke selection is based on part on what works for you and what you have confidence in. One year I shot everything with I/C using a pump gun that I restocked. That gun killed limits of dove, quail, ducks, geese, had multiple hundred straights at skeet and several 97's at trap. Much to my regret I never ran a hundred in trap with it but it was shooter error not the gun or chokes fault. At that time I was supremely confident that that gun, with I/C choke, proper shells with the right shot would hit what ever I was shooting.
In hind sight I was often limiting my shots to high percentage shots which is only reasonable when hunting. Sky busting is for fools and a-holes in the next blind. Dramatic, long range kills look great but are often the shot of desperation when a bird is first missed or just lightly hit at more moderate ranges and extreme range shots are taken to bring a possibly wounded bird down.
Now days I tend to favor skeet or i/c and mod for close work and light mod and improved mod for distant work. But sometimes I just pick up a gun and try to adjust to what it has to offer. The size of the bag limit is no longer important and the hunt is more a way to learn than show off. hten again I do not shoot with world beaters like Mike and Joe. If I did I might have to double my sights or standards to keep up.
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