DOES CHOKE REALLY MATTER?

[Scully]

When I initially saw this thread,I almost posted immediately with a 'no',but have reconsidered over the last day or so.It's a good question,and Frenchieboy has made a good point.

When I first bought a shotgun I bought a fixed choke model as it was just used for mooching around fields and hedgerows,but when I discovered clays I couldn't wait to trade it in for a multi-choke,but the better I became the more I realised choke wasn't such a big deal.I usually shot Sporting but didn't feel outgunned on the few occasions I had a go at DTL with my Sporter,using 1/4 for the first barrel and 1/2 for the second.Saying that,I was simply playing,and if I'd taken it seriously I'd probably have wanted a dedicated Trap gun.

My present Sporter is a multi-choke 1/4 and 1/2,and they're never changed,no matter what I'm shooting at,so even if they were fixed at this I would still use it for everything.A mate has a lovely 101 game model fixed at 1/4 and 3/4,and we sometimes swap over guns after lunch.

I enjoy shooting bolting bunnies with my 3/4 choked Browning,but it wouldn't be the first gun I took out of the cabinet if decoying pigeons from a hide.So,despite really wanting to say no,I suppose the answer has to be,for me at least,yes;dependant on what I'm doing.

Saying all that,as I've said before,for 99.99% of your shooting,if you miss,it wont be because you've got in the wrong chokes.

[Catweazle]

The only use I have ever had for full choke was knocking squirrels out of very tall trees.

 

Let's just say that my "style" of shooting favours open chokes and stout loads

[coyotemaster]

Any discussion of choke would almost always have to include discussion of loads ie. shot pellets as they can and do impact the choke or seem to as has been said of steel pellets patterning tightly. All soft shot loads will open up sooner regardless of wad type and hard shot (lead or steel) will pattern more tightly regardless of constriction.

[12boreblue]

For clay I use 1/4 and 1/2 and average around the eighties. For game I use 1/2 and 1/2 I don't shoot close birds! not the done thing in my book. For pigeon the same, if I know I'm in for some high birds then 1/2 and 3/4. But in all reality I think a reasonable shot could shoot 1/2 and 1/2 all the time and adjust the cartridge gramms for those long or high game birds.

[Westley]

Just got my Salvinelli Monaco back from Malmo. Chokes have been opened up, by Nigel Teague, from 3/4 and full to 3/8 and 3/8.

 

I sincerely hope it makes difference or I have just wasted a small wedge. :rolleyes:

 

 

Sorry for resurrecting this one Gordon but you should have had Briley thin wall extended chokes fitted !!!!!

 

Have a Happ y New Year. W.

[Gordon R]

Westley - I already have another Salvinelli Monaco with thin wall Teagues fitted. I still stick with the fixed choke gun.

[deershooter]

Point it in the right direction and it will break/kill the target ....

Come to Orston shooting ground with skeet chokes and tell me that

 

Deershooter

[peteri]

As a relative newbie, i took the common advice on here and stuck 1/4 and 1/2 in my Browning XTR for sporting.

 

Until I pattern plated at 25 yds, very open pattern - much more than expected with large gaps you could easily drive a clay through, which partly explained what felt like random misses to me.

 

So I changed to 1/2 and 3/4 - much tighter and my scores have improved considerably, and with it my confidence (and yes they're related!) - I don't change them now, nor think about barrel selection - I figure that if my chokes are a little tight on closer targets, those are the ones easier to be more accurate on.

 

So I'd say - spend 20 minutes on a pattern plate, get yourself happy and then forget about it!

[Will Poon]

Looking back at my shooting this year and that comment I made a year ago , yes choke size does matter IMO , cleaner accurate kills at various disciplines will depend on what your shooting at.

I'm only commenting on what I shoot mostly , if your shooting skeet all makes sense to stick skeet chokes in with smaller pellet size to give you a better advantage.

DTL 1/2 and 3/4 with a fast cartridge and a hard lead as the clay your shooting is edge on.

Sporting...now it's a fine line between an amateur like myself or a pro. I've watched some excellent sporting shooters smoke clays I've never asked them the question but I reckon there shot is placed very accurately and with use of a tighter choke, with me 1/4 and 1/2 is more than sufficient to break a clay at most grounds, I've also been using my barrel selector to my advantage depending on the bird

 

 

Oh you still have to point the gun in the right place though, it helps

Edited January 1, 2014 by Willpoon

[Old farrier]

Very interesting thread

Yes choke is important more relevant now than before not to shoot more at greater distance but to enable you to fire the modern cartridge with the components and pressures that go with them

High speed steel for one

Just my thoughts on it

My choke choice blunderbuss in both

All the best

Of

[kent]

DEPENDS. The larger the bore the more relevant it becomes, in the likes of say a .410 many think full in reality the constriction difference between full and 1/2 is very little, on the other hand on a ten bore its quite a bit. Shell choice makes as much difference as choke but the only way to know if choke is going to make a certain job easier or rather more efficient is to test it at the given range you expect to shoot with that combination of gun, shell and choke at paper or plate. The shot will travel at the same speed and contain the same number of shot but were it places is another matter. With steel some shells are more effected by wad retention with different choke ( I know this by testing not guessing). Cant believe that people don't test, its like going out with a rifle that you think might be zeroed but your just not sure at what range that could be

[The Essex Hunter]

My chokes have changed as my decoying has evolved, where I would set decoys out at 40+ yards and use 1/2 & 3/4 and struggle with the second bird as it was a bit to far to kill consistently.

My set up is much different using a lighter load, cylinder and 1/4 kill the back bird first (if there is a pair in range) then the second bird as it tries to get away..

I use the same chokes for pheasants but with a heaver load..

 

TEH .

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Come to Orston shooting ground with skeet chokes and tell me that

 

Deershooter

 

 

That sums it up nicely!

 

A lot of the problems that people experience with choke is in the mind, how often do you see shooters changing choke on every stand at a registered shoot!

 

Until you have chosen a good reliable round and have patterned it through your chokes at a distance that is realistic to your shooting you will never know what is posssible.

[woodcock1]

I'll throw something else into the mix. Rather than talk just about a hit or miss which makes the difference in clay shooting, if I was to shoot a woodcock with an average 30gm load of 7s at 20 yards with a full choke then its going to be destroyed beyond eating. Take the same load through a cylinder choke at 50 yards then I'm going to miss due to gaps in the pattern or else more likely just hit the bird with one pickle and wound it. I know you cant have the one choke to cover all situations in game shooting thats why we go for something in the middle and why most game guns are 1/4 and 1/2. Not ideal for everything but covers most general shooting.

[Ears]

concentrate on the shooting. Tight chokes will make you shoot better in the long run.

[terrior]

Hello

I recently asked if I should multychoke my fixed 3/4 full miroku.

I all ready have a multichoke gun o/u but still reach for the fixed gun.

So on reflection confidence in what you are using is far more important,

People will find confidence in different combinations of equipment and ammo.

Cheers.

[retromlc]

I use 3/8 and 1/4,if I miss it'sdown to my head

[Dougy]

I'm no super dooper shooter, but as far as my thinking goes think of the choke in you're shotgun like a jet attachment on a hosepipe.

Full full and you get a jet of water reaching far out now change to a spray a see how far in comparison the water is dispersed.

Your shot bwill still travel the same distance but like the water from the hosepipe the shot will be either scattered all around the target or all or mostly on the target. You either soak or skim.

[Gunnerbob]

I'm no super dooper shooter, but as far as my thinking goes think of the choke in you're shotgun like a jet attachment on a hosepipe.

Full full and you get a jet of water reaching far out now change to a spray a see how far in comparison the water is dispersed.

Your shot bwill still travel the same distance but like the water from the hosepipe the shot will be either scattered all around the target or all or mostly on the target. You either soak or skim.

Good analogy...

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I'm no super dooper shooter, but as far as my thinking goes think of the choke in you're shotgun like a jet attachment on a hosepipe.

Full full and you get a jet of water reaching far out now change to a spray a see how far in comparison the water is dispersed.

Your shot bwill still travel the same distance but like the water from the hosepipe the shot will be either scattered all around the target or all or mostly on the target. You either soak or skim.

 

Do NOT however put you thumb over the end of your open choked gun to increase its performance down range!

[figgy]

Choke is relevant to your cartridges. As I have changed cartridges I have noticed they are very tight compared to the ones I had been using so have opened up my choke choice.

 

If my gun was fixed I would use a cartridge to suit what pattern spread I was after' like a number 8 or 9 in fiber wad for close targets with a tight choked gun.

 

Figgy

[wymberley]

As a relative newbie, i took the common advice on here and stuck 1/4 and 1/2 in my Browning XTR for sporting.

 

Until I pattern plated at 25 yds, very open pattern - much more than expected with large gaps you could easily drive a clay through, which partly explained what felt like random misses to me.

 

So I changed to 1/2 and 3/4 - much tighter and my scores have improved considerably, and with it my confidence (and yes they're related!) - I don't change them now, nor think about barrel selection - I figure that if my chokes are a little tight on closer targets, those are the ones easier to be more accurate on.

 

So I'd say - spend 20 minutes on a pattern plate, get yourself happy and then forget about it!

Having taken the advice, did you use the chokes that actually patterned 1/4 by 1/2 or did you simply use those that had 1/4 and 1/2 stamped on them? The reason for asking is that something doesn't make sense. If, say, you were using 1oz of No 71/2s, you would expect about 350 pellets in the 30" circle on the pattern plate for 1/4 and the recognised chances of any 5" Dia vacant holes (another way of assessing patterns) in the circumstances that you describe are considered to be nil. Even 1oz of No 6 would only be expected to produce 1 or 2 voids. It would appear, as is often the case, the two chokes that you initially installed were not performing as it said on the tin.