rookstorm Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 A lot of guys on here shoot with full choke at pigeons ,have any of you patterned your gun with certain shells through full . When you look at the constriction of a full choke and 32 grams of lead going through it at high speed you would think a lot of the pellets would be crushed and end up as fliers .Personally i use half at the moment but was thinking of trying full for some of the calmer days when they are really high. Im using black gold 32 gram plastic wad and rc sipe 32 gram plastic wad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted February 1, 2017 Report Share Posted February 1, 2017 Whether more pellets get crushed or not is not really that important because in general (but not always) more constriction will put more pellets inside a given circle at a given yardage. This means you will get a few extra pellets with 3/4 and a few more with Full, the difference is a matter of 5-15% so not huge but on really tall birds it may pay dividends provided you're accurate enough in the first place. In general most people do better with Half than Full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeShot Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 At 40m with Miroku MK70 and factory flush chokes, 36g Hull High Pheasant Xtreme #4 plaswad - 1/2 choke (107 pellets inside 30"), - 1/1 choke (123 pellets inside 30"). As of numbers - Hull PHX pellet size is bigger than usual (#4=3.25mm). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Continental Shooter Posted February 3, 2017 Report Share Posted February 3, 2017 As Hamsters said, the full choke will concentrate the pattern so that the flyer will populate the outer circle of the patter as well as protecting the ones in the middle The concentration of pellets will help fend the air as well as retaining heat and ultimately speed. Is not a case that full is used on high birds and some use up to 56 gr loads with full... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coyotemaster Posted February 4, 2017 Report Share Posted February 4, 2017 I think it was the American writer Bob Brister who penned the phrase that full choke is a demanding mistress and IC is a forgiving friend. I have been shooting lots of shells at feral Starlings the past month--my shot bill is atrocious-- and most shots are within 40 yds. At that distance the IC or even skeet 1 with 8s has a pattern the birds cant get through. Incidentally I should add that I am told that Starlings are protected there but farmers hate them here as they roost in livestock barns by the thousands and make a mess. I have watched youtube videos of George Digweed effortlessly killing pigeons at extreme range with what I assume is a full choke and 5s but when you employ that on decoyed birds you "pillowcase"? them. I don't have any of the skill George has at 70 yd. pigeons but when we had pigeons that decoyed well a load of 7 1/2s and Improved Cylinder killed very cleanly to around 45 yds. It is my belief that unless you shoot an awful lot at long range you will kill more birds cleanly with less constriction. This statement exempts large shot and waterfowl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Continental Shooter Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Talking of Starlings... try watching videos of this pest flying over the sky in Rome.... and they're protected too...although we then pay millions in compensation for olive trees grower as each starling takes 3 olives every couple of hours... and the price of olive oil jumps sky high as the production reduces in years where migratory birds can't fly to Africa and join the residents... Sometimes, we used to get that 'grace' months (normally November and January) it was spectacular (to say the least), but we employed smaller pellets (10-11) so, full choke was required when they weren't decoying. They also make good eating, especially if they haven't hit the olives yet ... alternate a starling, a bay leave and a piece pork belly and slow cook them over ambers consistently turning them .... late winter ones might require skinning rather than plucking ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 A lot of guys on here shoot with full choke at pigeons ,have any of you patterned your gun with certain shells through full . When you look at the constriction of a full choke and 32 grams of lead going through it at high speed you would think a lot of the pellets would be crushed and end up as fliers .Personally i use half at the moment but was thinking of trying full for some of the calmer days when they are really high. Im using black gold 32 gram plastic wad and rc sipe 32 gram plastic wad I use 28 g Proper Cartridges plastic wadded 6s through a Mandel Full choke and I have patterned the combination and am very happy with the performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutron619 Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) 32g of #5/#6 will give you 50-yard performance, all day long, in almost any gun through any constriction you choose. Yes, there are exceptions, and some particularly poor cylinder-type performance might drop that number by a few yards, but the short of it is that anything with that much lead in it isn't remotely marginal on any species thus far mentioned and isn't worth worrying about. If full choke gives you confidence, use it, but if you find them easier to hit with half, use that. You'll be hard-pushed to tell the difference. When you're shooting a small bore with sub-21g loads of small shot, that's the time to start thinking about choke, pellet deformation, scrubbing, etc. seriously. Edited February 10, 2017 by neutron619 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wymberley Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 32g of #5/#6 will give you 50-yard performance, all day long, in almost any gun through any constriction you choose. Yes, there are exceptions, and some particularly poor cylinder-type performance might drop that number by a few yards, but the short of it is that anything with that much lead in it isn't remotely marginal on any species thus far mentioned and isn't worth worrying about. If full choke gives you confidence, use it, but if you find them easier to hit with half, use that. You'll be hard-pushed to tell the difference. When you're shooting a small bore with sub-21g loads of small shot, that's the time to start thinking about choke, pellet deformation, scrubbing, etc. seriously. Devil's advocate here, with the exception that apart from the starlings the only species mentioned as far as I can see is pigeon. As far as energy is concerned, at the range mentioned we need not worry as there's plenty - you could even say that possibly 6&1/2 shot would suffice. BASC would have it that on average 6 pellet strikes are required in order to achieve a clean kill. If we accept the fact that the pellet distribution is not even throughout a 30" circle - it thins out around the outside - and for the sake of round figures we look at the inner 20" circle where there's no such problem, as this area contains the vulnerable area of some 20 birds, then we're looking for 120 strikes on average. Give or take a percentage point, a full choke will throw a 50% pattern at 50 yards. Extensive trials some years back reflected that on average given that 50%, some 26.5 % will end up in the 20". For the 5s this equates to 66 in round figures and for the 6s, 81. Something somewhere is not right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterse Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Years ago got fed up with rattling the wings of pigeons with 1/4 choke only for them to fly on. Switched to an old Browning Auto 5 full choke and 32 gm 6s, never looked back, shot thousands of pigeons with that combination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neutron619 Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) Something somewhere is not right. Normally distributed pellets; accurate shooting. Lose either and you risk the bird not coming down, but the only one likely to exist in this reality is poor shooting. Therefore, point the gun in the right direction and the bird comes down. No-one asked whether or not the chap could shoot, after all, so I assumed he could. Addendum: Further, don't forget that 80 pellets per 30" circle will kill. Ok - probably not well but we all have this idea in our minds that we need 120, 130, 140, 150 (or whatever) pellets per 30" circle to have a "killing pattern" and that may be true, but let's say 120 is the minimum: all that means is that 100 in the circle is a 5-in-6 pattern, and that 80 is 4-in-6, etc. It's not as if the fact that we only have 119 pellets means that they're all guaranteed to miss... Edited February 10, 2017 by neutron619 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wymberley Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 Normally distributed pellets; accurate shooting. Lose either and you risk the bird not coming down, but the only one likely to exist in this reality is poor shooting. Therefore, point the gun in the right direction and the bird comes down. No-one asked whether or not the chap could shoot, after all, so I assumed he could. Addendum: Further, don't forget that 80 pellets per 30" circle will kill. Ok - probably not well but we all have this idea in our minds that we need 120, 130, 140, 150 (or whatever) pellets per 30" circle to have a "killing pattern" and that may be true, but let's say 120 is the minimum: all that means is that 100 in the circle is a 5-in-6 pattern, and that 80 is 4-in-6, etc. It's not as if the fact that we only have 119 pellets means that they're all guaranteed to miss... Yep, agreed. I suppose it all boils down to how efficient we are, or more appropriately, perhaps, inefficiently we kill and can still justify the term, 'sportsmen'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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