doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What chokes do you prefer? Do you care?

Miller's experience matches mine. I patterned some of the then-new pheasant loads a few years back: 1 1/4 oz lead at 1500 fps. Compared patterns to the old 3 1/4 DE, 1 1/4 oz "super pigeon" recipe (1220fps) and to the other old standby, the Super-X 3 3/4 DE, 1 1/4 oz (1330 fps). Best percentage award went in reverse order of velocity, although the Super Pigeon didn't have much of an advantage over the Super-X. More of a dropoff from the Super-X to the souped-up 1500 fps loads.

Full is a good choice for longer range shooting because a tighter central core is just what you're looking for. For close range shooting, it's just what you're NOT looking for. Were tight chokes a good idea at close range, the real skeet hotshots would have discovered that long ago, and that's what they'd be shooting. Instead, they shoot very little choke.

I've killed more wild pheasants than anything else, and I've never encountered much need for a full choke. For me, 30 yards is a long shot, so I set myself up for the shots I'm most likely to have, which are inside 25 yards. At that range, cylinder will deliver a 70% pattern. I'd also rather pass on 40+ yard chances, unless the bird is already carrying some lead. I don't consider myself that good at long range, and distance increases aiming error. Wing-bust a rooster that drops at 50 yards with a pair of healthy legs, you'd better have a good dog or else you're feeding the foxes and coyotes.

This might be your problem Larry. At long range you're aiming rather than snap shooting. For wild pheasants try a heavy payload of #4's in a 12 bore or better yet a good 10 bore with Full choke in the left barrel. Let him flush, wait a bit, then snap shoot. Have fun and put some meat in the freezer.

Right on, JRB. And it doesn't have to be more than 1 1/4oz of 4s.

Conversations like this tend to generalize with few to no parameters. The most important variable is payload. I don't mind a little more choke but I don't shoot heavy payloads. I only shoot 7/8 ounce loads in 12 and 16 gauge and I rarely use that much gun. A 50% pattern of 1-1 1/8 ounce at a given range has a heck of a lot more density than a 50% pattern of 1/2-3/4 ounce of shot at the same distance.

Why would I want to do that, when they're flushing closer and I'm shooting an open choke specifically because I know those are the kinds of shots I'm going to get? Play games with pheasants, let them get out further, and you'll end up losing more cripples. In Roster's steel shot lethality tests, birds hit with shot even as small as steel 6's were hardly ever lost if they hit the ground inside 30 yards. Outside 40 yards, crippling losses increased by a factor of 5. I've kept notes on pheasant hunting and unrecovered birds for a very long time. Something in excess of 1500 birds. The amount of time needed for the dog to get to the downed bird is the major factor in losing them. Might be a bird that falls at longer range, might be some kind of barrier (fence, stream, whatever) between the dog and the bird. But give a rooster more of a head start, you're more likely to lose him. I'm interested in not only knocking them down, but putting them in the bag.

What ever works for you Larry. I don't care if it hails as long as you're happy but you won't find a Roto-Rooted gun in my stable.

Don't always have to open them up. Just acquired a British 12 that came from the factory with the R barrel cylinder. I did have to modify the L one, however. It was full.

But whatever works. Just seems to me that if most of my shots are going to come at skeet distances, then the kind of chokes used in that game make a lot of sense.

A friend of mine bought a Parker choked tight mod and tight full. We shot factory loads at a pattern board and confirmed the chokes were tighter than he wanted. We loaded some hulls the old way using card and fiber wads and the chokes opened up to a loose mod and tight mod. We loaded up some spreader loads and achieved a variety of usable patterns. Before I would ream out the chokes, I would attempt to get the desired patterns by reloading using card and fiber and spreader loads.

+2.... So simple.........but some people around here just can't figure that one out...I guess it's just easier to butcher the barrels and turn the vintage gun into a "one use only" gun, sad indeed........

There are also other reloading techniques to accomplish those same open patterns with factory full choked vintage guns should you shoot at close ranges, but still want an unbutchered vintage gun to shoot at long range for other species.........then you can carry short range ammo in the left pocket, long range ammo in the right pocket, depending on the topography and your hunting style, i.e. dog or no dog, Eastern or Western or in between.......

Even with different brands of factory shells my guns pattern different. I guess people are too lazy to go to a pattern board. It's easier to take the barrels to the Roto-Rooter man.