1/2 and 3/4 chokes for sporting clays??

[Cumbrian]

I'm very tempted to buy a nice gun but it has chokes fixed at 1/2 and 3/4 and I shoot not-too-challenging sporting clays i.e. not being very skillful,  I can't really hit the far out targets that these relatively tight chokes would be best suited too. So, since I don't wish to install multi chokes or to have the chokes bored out, is there anything I could do in terms of cartridges to make the gun usable at the sort of distances that I'm used to?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Yes you could buy some fibre wadded 9s and that would open the pattern out without spoiling the gun.

[chesterse]

3 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes you could buy some fibre wadded 9s and that would open the pattern out without spoiling the gun.

Good advice, I shoot that exact combination of fixed chokes using 9s and don’t have any problems with close targets. 

[Smokersmith]

Hull Pro Piston, and Fiocchi Bior are specifically designed to spread at close range, but a fibre wad 9 should achieve the same thing ….

No harm in patterning a few to see which helps the most.

[Cumbrian]

Many thanks, guys. Very helpful. I think I will go ahead in that case.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Good man, let us know what you buy and what you test to open up the pattern.

[Mr.C]

Alternatively just use 7.5s. Put it in right place and get some satisfying dust balls. Mate has the same and does OK. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

22 minutes ago, Mr.C said:

Alternatively just use 7.5s. Put it in right place and get some satisfying dust balls. Mate has the same and does OK. 

That is exactly the set up I use, 32" 3/4 and full with 7 1/2s, work very well close in too, although you do have to be rather accurate!

[wymberley]

Have you properly already patterned your existing set up which will allow you to make a sensible comparison? Once you've bought it and dependent upon how the 1/2 barrel shoots - because it may well already do so - I'd be inclined to have just that one barrel opened up to shoot 1/4. This really just in case with a nice gun you use it for live quarry and that 1/4 by 3/4 combination is a very good all purpose combination with the ability to be changed by cartridge selection.

[Scully]

I use 7.5’s and 8’s for all my clay shooting, and all are fibre wads, no matter which gun I’m shooting with and whatever choke they have. 
I use trap guns, sporters, pumps and autos for clays, and chokes vary from fixed at full and extra full, through to 1/4 and skeet. I’ve no doubt I cut down my chances using tighter or wide open chokes on some birds, but you’re either on them or you’re not. 
Despite what some say, it’s not a bad idea to pattern your gun; once you know where it’s shooting you know where you need to be. 

[Westward]

Leave it as it is and shoot fibres (or piston shells which perform exactly like fibres but cost more).

It's a myth that 9s have a greater usable pattern than 7.5s. There might - just might - be the occasional extra wayward pellet compared with 7.5s, but the reality is you just get more pellets in the same size pattern.

[Cumbrian]

I'm grateful for all the further suggestions and advice. Look forward to acting on them and experimenting, though patterning is not too easy for me at the moment: neurotic horses in the fields adjacent to our garden and I don't find the steel plates smeared with whitewash that you can find at some clay grounds all that helpful compared to good old plain wall paper, but I agree that this is the only way to test anything.

[Taileron]

On 16/02/2020 at 10:51, Mr.C said:

Alternatively just use 7.5s. Put it in right place and get some satisfying dust balls. Mate has the same and does OK. 

This ^^^

 

I went out last Tuesday with a couple of pals to do 100 birds. My buddy has an old MK70 which he has used day in/out for donkeys years choked to super full/super full. He is a keeper/grounds man and started shooting at about 8 with his dads .410. He dusted 92/100 then to add insult to injury mentioned he hadn’t shot clays for about 5 years.