Chokes

[Peterthepilot]

can anyone tell me how the choke markings work on a Laurona ?

it feels like one notch is the tightest IE full. so two would be three quarter , and so on.

 

I,m selling it so need to tell the new owner , I have just used what I thought was 1/2 &. 3/4

 

cheers

 

peter

[Westley]

Normally 1 notch or star is FULL choke, 2 is 3/4, 3 is 1/2 or Mod, 4 is 1/4 or Imp Cyl. No markings is either true cylinder or skeet. This only applies to Manufacturers chokes, some after market chokes are tighter than displayed on the choke so the notches are then only a guide. Hope this helps.

[clayman]

Unless you have a gun on which the chokes have been regulated for a particular load by pattern plate analysis - all chokes markings whether original or after market are only a guide. Tests by BASC showed that across a spread of several makes of gun, all patterned with 1/2 choke, there were wide variations in the size of pattern thrown. Further pattern testing showed that linear increment chokes ( which most are , 10thou" per increment), do not have a linear reduction. The tests showed that a typical difference between Cy and 1/4 in pattern size, was as much as the rest of the reductions put together. - viz, the reduction from 1/4 to 1/2 is small compared with the reduction from Cy to 1/4. In other words, if each choke is 10/1000th" smaller in a series, the rate of reduction in pattern size has a reverse exponential as the chokes get smaller.

Top makes of guns, and top after-market choke modifiers like Nigel Teague offer services to regulate the chokes to give an even reduction.

It must always be remembered, that choke is a function of the gun, cartridge, and tube combined, and is the result displayed on the pattern plate - NOT necessarily the "indication" given by the stars / notches or name the manufacturer puts on the choke / barrels.

Until you have actually done a pellet count on a plate, you don't know what any given choke tube does. On a standard series of 1 to 5 notches, all these are really telling you is the order in which each tube reduces, not the amount.

[seeker]

+1

Then you have the cartridge to cartridge variation, even from the same box that The BASC research also highlights. And if that's not enough variation then there are the 3-400 little lead spherics on their own mission once they've left the gun.

As Clayman says .. check the pattern .. and then be happy that you could get something similar most of the time. Or just use the one that works for you.