Who changes chokes?

[Dougy]

23 minutes ago, Diver One said:

Yep

there is one of those at the two clay grounds we frequent

he has standard length chokes, extended, ported (vented) 

the bloke is a total 🔔 end

and he still misses as many as everyone else

You've stood behind me then a few times then. 🤣

 You need to check, speed, size of clay ,path,drop,angle of the clays, then have a look in the choke box and choose the one for the job, its not that easy picking the right one. Sometimes we make the wrong choice. 🤣🤣

I change it for skeet and game only. 

[bornfree]

I change chokes on every stand if I need to . It takes around 10 seconds.

[Townie]

I put in CYL and a quarter years ago. Kills anything if I shoot straight. We didn’t used to worry about chokes before multi chokes were popular and my advice is not to worry now.

[team tractor]

I use 1/2 and 3/4 normally but lower it for steel in duck season . 

[JohnfromUK]

I have several guns, all but one fixed choke.  These are between improved, quarter and half.  My one multichoke (Teagued by a previous owner) I never change.  I'm not even quite sure what is in it, but probably improved and quarter (or quarter and half?).  I'm sure it performs better than I do!

[blackbird]

Sporting clays  1/4 & 1/2

game shooting 1/2 & 3/4

If I was to buy a fixed choke gun for clays/game  1/4. &. 1/2. 

Edited March 16, 2019 by blackbird

[Diver One]

12 hours ago, Dougy said:

You've stood behind me then a few times then. 🤣

In future can you tuck your shirt lap into your pants then, please.

bloke in front of us has a hell of a "bike park" on display 😂🤢you can almost tell what he had for breakfast 

[figgy]

13 hours ago, shaun4860 said:

Skeet = Mûller 1s

Sporting = Mûller 2s

Trap = Mûller 3 & 4

Its horses for courses.

old saying, Would you play a round of golf with only 1 club?

If I had to go to fixed chokes it would be 3/8 & 3/8

You would if all the shots were perfect for a seven iron.

[wymberley]

12 hours ago, Townie said:

I put in CYL and a quarter years ago. Kills anything if I shoot straight. We didn’t used to worry about chokes before multi chokes were popular and my advice is not to worry now.

Right enough back in the day when those chokes and possibly Imp by 1/2 were termed "game bored" when you consider who was shooting what and they still work today on the same targets at the same range. But haven't things evolved in terms of distance? I very rarely shoot at (even more rarely do I shoot them) clays and have noticed that currently one has to stretch far more than previously. On the live quarry side isn't this reflected by the names that the makers are giving to some of their current offerings. In my neck of the woods the pigeon numbers have dropped right down and if I want to make the outing worth while, even when decoying, I need every advantage I can get. Not too keen on the multi chokes (an age thing I suspect) so for many years have settled for fixed at 1/4 by 3/4 and if I do need something different, I change the cartridge. Whereas previously I used more open choke, I was persuaded by the results from the American mortality trials and the UK research -  both aimed at better understanding the performance of lead shot so that it could be fairly compared to the then new NTS -  to tighten things up a tad. It seems to have worked for me.

[Scully]

2 hours ago, figgy said:

You would if all the shots were perfect for a seven iron.

👍

[shaun4860]

10 hours ago, figgy said:

You would if all the shots were perfect for a seven iron.

And how many golf courses play like that?

You would probably still need a putter.

I’m not a changer unless it’s a different discipline....

[figgy]

They're not but a decent golfer can do a lot with one club. 

A seven being middle of the road can cope with a lot, much like half choke can.

Golf isn't really the same as shooting but I see why you drew the analogy.

[Scully]

17 minutes ago, shaun4860 said:

And how many golf courses play like that?

You would probably still need a putter.

I’m not a changer unless it’s a different discipline....

🙂 Fair point.  I don’t play golf but do shoot clays amongst other things, and am a great believer in ‘you’re either on them or you’re not’.

I don’t believe widening a choke will give you more of a chance of hitting a target unless perhaps you’re an outright beginner; it’s all a mind game.

The only reason I open up on game is so the meat isn’t rendered inedible.

Each to their own. 

 

[grahamch]

My aya no4 inherited from my father is IC and half or there about and has killed very long wigeon and geese with the right barrel. My browning 725 which is 4  years old has never had the 1/4 @ 1/2 tubes changed since l got it. My foreshore maxus us 1/4 choke and works fine for ducks and geese with itm, itx and hevishot from 31g to 5yg is 5s to 1s

Edited March 16, 2019 by grahamch

[Stonepark]

I like Mobil **** for crows and pigeons in my semi and normally **** and *** in my ou.

For game in 410 i am on Briley LM and M.

For clay gun for skeet normally IC and IC and IC and LM for sporting.

As i lean towards cartridges with a higher pellet count and therefore denser pattern than the minimum (for pheasant 150 pellets in 30 inch circle rather than 120 and 180 for pigeons /crows) , it is rare for me to have to use tighter chokes unless expecting long range flighting.

 

[Fen tiger]

Very rare i change a choke tube, only advantage i see in having a multi choke gun is the ability to use some of the dedicated after market choke tubes.  most open choke tube i use is 1/4 x 3/4 in my sidelock and a modified in a semi auto 12 and next a 3/4 in a 20 semi auto all the rest are full chokes or tighter than full after market WF or turkey chokes i only move these for cleaning. .

[Old Boggy]

On 15 March 2019 at 21:37, Dougy said:

You've stood behind me then a few times then. 🤣

 You need to check, speed, size of clay ,path,drop,angle of the clays, then have a look in the choke box and choose the one for the job, its not that easy picking the right one. Sometimes we make the wrong choice. 🤣🤣

I change it for skeet and game only. 

Blimey, I'm only glad that I don't shoot clays. All that chopping and changing, it would do my head in, but if it makes people happy and gives them confidence, then good luck to them. Having shot fixed choked SxSs for about 55 years, I cannot even remember which of the earlier guns had what chokes, but now know that my fixed choked guns, one SxS and one O/U have 1/4 & 1/2 which work for me. My multi choked O/U remains at IC & 1/4 (I think) and the chokes don't get changed, only removed occasionally for cleaning.

I think that it's more important to find a cartridge that patterns well in a particular gun and stick with it. Confidence, plus being able to hold the gun straight and to shoot at ranges within one's ability, where live quarry is concerned, is all important in my book.

OB

[panoma1]

In the late 60's I used to go Rough shooting with a guy who used an old double English hammer gun that had a few inches of the muzzles missing......so no choke.........he didn't miss much!.......for live quarry shooting at normal range, I have never been convinced choke was that important!

[JohnfromUK]

8 minutes ago, panoma1 said:

I have never been convinced choke was that important!

I am inclined to agree in many respects (with the 'normal ranges' being understood).  However, I have been told that a true cylinder gun is much more prone to variations between different brands/types of cartridge, and at least a small amount (such as improved cylinder) will give greater consistency between cartridges.  I suspect this is correct, though I don't have any real evidence.  I do have one old hammer gun which I think is true cylinder ......... and it kills well (clays).  I haven't used it on game, but I have no reason to believe it wouldn't do well there as well.

Edited March 17, 2019 by JohnfromUK

[panoma1]

1 minute ago, JohnfromUK said:

I am inclined to agree in many respects (with the 'normal ranges' being understood).  However, I have been told that a true cylinder gun is much more prone to variations between different brands/types of cartridge, and at least a small amount (such as improved cylinder) will give greater consistency between cartridges.  I suspect this is correct, though I don't have any real evidence.  I do have one old hammer gum which I think is true cylinder ......... and it kills well (clays).  I haven't used it on game, but I have no reason to believe it wouldn't do well there as well.

The lad I referred to used any old cartridge that would fit in his gun and that he could get hold of! Lol! .........from memory, it didn't seem to affect his cartridge to kill ratio! 

The old timers used to do just fine with the old muzzle loaders with cylinder barrels! Using minimal wadding, a roughly calculated volume of powder and hardly spherical and size accurate shot.......I do think people get very anal and overthink these things!

You should try your old H/G on live quarry, speed needn't be an issue, my pal was a very good shot and could get his hammer gun off as quick, or quicker than many with a hammerless gun! 

[JohnfromUK]

2 hours ago, panoma1 said:

You should try your old H/G on live quarry, speed needn't be an issue

There are a couple of reasons I don't use it on live quarry (I have in fact used it for pigeon flighting once or twice);

1. The old Damascus barrels are quite thin towards the muzzles.  Although comfortably in nitro proof, they would dent easily ........ and when the walls are thin, a dent is not good news as raising it can lead to further metal loss.
2. On a cold day, with cold (and possibly wet) hands there is a very small risk of a hammer slipping when cocking.  Not a safety issue of the muzzles are skywards when cocking (as should be the case), but I wouldn't want it to happen.  I can't shoot in gloves anyway, but can manage hammerless better with cold hands.
3. I like to stick to one gun on live quarry.  I think we should always shoot live quarry with a gun we know we shoot our best with.  I use a number of guns on clays, and changing guns can be fun, but doesn't help good scores!  Scores aren't that important to me (I shoot clays with friend for fun, not competitively), but I don't like wounding game, so prefer to stick to my regular AyA when game shooting.

Overall I'm very unfussy about choke, cartridges etc.  For my clays, I use any choke 1/2 or less quite happily, never change the barrel order, and shoot 21g fibre cartridges (cheap and kind in light guns).

[Fen tiger]

Any gun any choke any load all have a place,  to try and judge the performance of any combination on what is expected is unlikely to be accurate. Now how far away from expectations a combination is will vary gun to gun, only proper testing for pattern can show the true capability.

  Cylinder choke as in true cylinder zero choke can vary from 20% to approaching 40% with nothing more than wad changes in some loads add to this the variations in the gun itself (bore) its easy to see why some open bored guns can surprise.  so the tales above of the old hammer gun can have some credibility even when viewed by an old sceptic like me, there is nothing more fickle than shotgun testing its fraught with surprises some times and what is not expected simply wont happen.

  There are many variables and the only real way is to pattern test your shotgun with the choke you chose you load and at the range your expecting your shots to occur. Its not essential to get kills but its the only way of knowing what your outfit is really capable of and at real ranges not educated guesswork ranges such estimation are often way off the real ranges 40 yards is a long way on the ground with trees bushes hedges etc as a yardstick range in a featureless sky its easy to get your sums wrong regardless of experience. ,

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Fen tiger

[Old farrier]

Never really got the choke change thing seems a cheap option 

i just take a different gun  😉

doesent anyone have there guns bored and regulated for a specific cartridge anymore 😟

[JohnfromUK]

Just now, Old farrier said:

doesent anyone have there guns bored and regulated for a specific cartridge anymore

One of my old guns I have a copy of the entry in 'the book' where it lists the cartridges used in testing and fitting.  I can't remember (records not to hand) offhand what it was other than it specified the load (1 1/16 oz) and powder weight - and it was also tested with 'Shultze' powder.  I don't think the shot size or other type of (black or normal smokeless?) powder was mentioned.  That was 1919.

[Old farrier]

21 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

One of my old guns I have a copy of the entry in 'the book' where it lists the cartridges used in testing and fitting.  I can't remember (records not to hand) offhand what it was other than it specified the load (1 1/16 oz) and powder weight - and it was also tested with 'Shultze' powder.  I don't think the shot size or other type of (black or normal smokeless?) powder was mentioned.  That was 1919.

Interesting information 

some of mine were bored and regulated 

just seems that the importance some put on the choke and pattern I would have thought more would have it done at the same time there having the gun fitted 

maybe it’s the difference between gun manufacturers and gun makers 🙂