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TEAGUE CHOKES


Shotkam
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I've been using a 30 year old quality Browning 20g 28" with standard Invector chokes for a number of years.

The chokes are bog standard basic, just 1 1/2" long and as soon as you fit the 3/4 or Full you really notice the difference in recoil.

Teague are apparently legendary at reducing the levels of recoil as the taper runs the complete length of the choke tube and they claim to hold a quality pattern over a greater distance.

I am planning to go for the longest 20G available Invector Super Extended.

This will increase barrel length to 28 3/4" approx.

The thought of the ease of changing is great as its never ideal to feel under gunned when you haven't made the effort to get the key out to change chokes when perhaps you should.

I am interested to hear others views.

Edited by Shotkam
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I’m a fan of Teague chokes. I have two shotguns fitted with them, but I’m not in the habit of changing chokes during a shooting session, no matter what the discipline, but yes, it is much handier not needing to carry a choke key. 
Saying that, I can usually unscrew even the slim fitting flush Teagues if need be by jamming a finger in there and using that as a key. 🙂

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8 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

its never ideal to feel under gunned 

I am interested to hear others views.

Firstly, I must say that I do not have any removable chokes.

My choke of choice would always be improved cylinder, or even true cylinder, certainly never more than quarter choke.

I have never felt undergunned, anywhere, ever.

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1 hour ago, London Best said:

Firstly, I must say that I do not have any removable chokes.

My choke of choice would always be improved cylinder, or even true cylinder, certainly never more than quarter choke.

I have never felt undergunned, anywhere, ever.

How interesting. 

I am not advocating swapping chokes more than absolutely necessary,  I would be happy to take on a 7 yard bird with true cylinder and 24g but a 60 yard edge on fast midi on report with true cylinder -  I don't think many shots would be keen on that.

Each to there own of course.

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1 hour ago, Scully said:

I’m a fan of Teague chokes. I have two shotguns fitted with them, but I’m not in the habit of changing chokes during a shooting session, no matter what the discipline, but yes, it is much handier not needing to carry a choke key. 
Saying that, I can usually unscrew even the slim fitting flush Teagues if need be by jamming a finger in there and using that as a key. 🙂

A syndicate I am in shows good birds, but on one drive in particular they can come over at 60 + yards and having the option to change chokes for that drive I would suggest is a more humane approach if you are happy to take them on.

Pattern plates have their place and I know they have their limitations, but for assessing a gun / cartridge combination at longer ranges I would say they are invaluable.

Teague, Gamebore, Eley, Hull etc. all use them and I am a massive fan. It gives you confidence in your equipment combination as you know what works.

Accepting of course that shot string length is the unknown and we all know that the complete string does not get to pass the bird at range, even though shot is travelling at around 900 mph when it leaves the muzzle.

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5 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

A syndicate I am in shows good birds, but on one drive in particular they can come over at 60 + yards and having the option to change chokes for that drive I would suggest is a more humane approach if you are happy to take them on.

Pattern plates have their place and I know they have their limitations, but for assessing a gun / cartridge combination at longer ranges I would say they are invaluable.

Teague, Gamebore, Eley, Hull etc. all use them and I am a massive fan. It gives you confidence in your equipment combination as you know what works.

Accepting of course that shot string length is the unknown and we all know that the complete string does not get to pass the bird at range, even though shot is travelling at around 900 mph when it leaves the muzzle.

At that range. 34gm 5 or 4 with open chokes will bring them down no problem.

Shoot a pattern plate at that range with open or closed chokes you’d struggle to tell the difference. 
 

Most ‘Meer Mortals’ will struggle to hit anything at that range without worrying about the choke. I count myself in the bracket. 

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15 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

A syndicate I am in shows good birds, but on one drive in particular they can come over at 60 + yards 

even though shot is travelling at around 900 mph when it leaves the muzzle.

All I can say is that imp cyl seems to work for me, even on driven pheasants in the Welsh mountains.

You must remember that shot slows very fast and is only travelling at around 300 mph at about fifty yards.

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38 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

A syndicate I am in shows good birds, but on one drive in particular they can come over at 60 + yards and having the option to change chokes for that drive I would suggest is a more humane approach if you are happy to take them on.

Pattern plates have their place and I know they have their limitations, but for assessing a gun / cartridge combination at longer ranges I would say they are invaluable.

Teague, Gamebore, Eley, Hull etc. all use them and I am a massive fan. It gives you confidence in your equipment combination as you know what works.

Accepting of course that shot string length is the unknown and we all know that the complete string does not get to pass the bird at range, even though shot is travelling at around 900 mph when it leaves the muzzle.

I beat on a big commercial shoot locally, and they too have birds ( redlegs and pheasant ) presented on some drives at heights of what some regard as ‘extreme’. 
I have folded more than a few of them dead in the air through 3/8th and 5/8th. These are Teagues slim fitting flush chokes, and they stay in my game gun all season. 

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33 minutes ago, London Best said:

All I can say is that imp cyl seems to work for me, even on driven pheasants in the Welsh mountains.

You must remember that shot slows very fast and is only travelling at around 300 mph at about fifty yards.

I agree that imp cyl can give uncanny results - clay shooting on Monday and with 24g No 8 a 45yard on edge going away broke well.

Plus one of the best driven birds I have ever shot was with imp - maybe a lucky shot but it was stone dead.

7 minutes ago, Scully said:

I beat on a big commercial shoot locally, and they too have birds ( redlegs and pheasant ) presented on some drives at heights of what some regard as ‘extreme’. 
I have folded more than a few of them dead in the air through 3/8th and 5/8th. These are Teagues slim fitting flush chokes, and they stay in my game gun all season. 

 

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10 minutes ago, Scully said:

I beat on a big commercial shoot locally, and they too have birds ( redlegs and pheasant ) presented on some drives at heights of what some regard as ‘extreme’. 
I have folded more than a few of them dead in the air through 3/8th and 5/8th. These are Teagues slim fitting flush chokes, and they stay in my game gun all season. 

I know Teague themselves are a great fan of 5/8, which must be for good reason.

Anyway its my birthday tomorrow and I have treated myself to a basic 4 choke set in the case.  I cant wait to see how they pattern at the longer ranges and to see if I have spent my money wisely !

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39 minutes ago, markm said:

At that range. 34gm 5 or 4 with open chokes will bring them down no problem.

Shoot a pattern plate at that range with open or closed chokes you’d struggle to tell the difference. 
 

Most ‘Meer Mortals’ will struggle to hit anything at that range without worrying about the choke. I count myself in the bracket. 

If we assume that the 'birds' are pheasant and that the hens are included, then BASC tell us that some 60 pellets are required in the central 20" viable zone of our pattern in order to be reasonably certain of a clean kill - obviously assuming a satisfactory level of marksmanship. Working with the 5s and the 34g this in round figures equates to an overall pattern density of 45%. A quick look at the shooters' diary suggests that even with Full we're only going to get about 30% at the 60 yards. Question is, as sportsmen how do we define 'bring it down' and are we content to rely on luck as opposed to a reasoned consideration to a achieve as far as is possible a clean kill? It is not unheard of that some would use the above mentioned load on pigeon at half of the vulnerable of the hen pheasant.

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12 minutes ago, button said:

What browning is it you are using?

Nothing as grand as a B25 - Belgium made grade 3, 34 years old - nice wood and it does exactly what I want.

Planning on shooting 150 sporting tomorrow as it my Birthday treat wether the Teague chokes arrive or not.

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8 minutes ago, wymberley said:

If we assume that the 'birds' are pheasant and that the hens are included, then BASC tell us that some 60 pellets are required in the central 20" viable zone of our pattern in order to be reasonably certain of a clean kill - obviously assuming a satisfactory level of marksmanship. Working with the 5s and the 34g this in round figures equates to an overall pattern density of 45%. A quick look at the shooters' diary suggests that even with Full we're only going to get about 30% at the 60 yards. Question is, as sportsmen how do we define 'bring it down' and are we content to rely on luck as opposed to a reasoned consideration to a achieve as far as is possible a clean kill? It is not unheard of that some would use the above mentioned load on pigeon at half of the vulnerable of the hen pheasant.

I assumed this is why Dave Carrie uses 3/4 and full in his Mirokus and Gerwyn Jones uses X full and X full in his Perazzi.

Everyone has their view but chokes were developed for a reason and have been used for decades with great success.

I can 100% say that at range, for me, pattern density is everything, which is why I change chokes when the need arises. I do a lot of shooting and choke makes a noticeable difference at longer range birds. I know my limit and with a quality cartridge the tall stuff is generally missed cleanly or dead.

As you say pigeons are a completely different bird and different rules apply.

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38 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

 

Everyone has their view but chokes were developed for a reason and have been used for decades with great success.

 

And the old saying is still true for 99% of “mere mortal” shooters: 

Choke will lengthen your range, a little, and lighten your bag, a lot.

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12 minutes ago, London Best said:

And the old saying is still true for 99% of “mere mortal” shooters: 

Choke will lengthen your range, a little, and lighten your bag, a lot.

True enough provided the 'mere mortals' who shot under the Burrard rules still do so. Open chokes and 30 yards is considered a high/long bird which conceals the inefficiency of the 3 pellet requirement which is readily exposed once the range is extended.

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19 minutes ago, wymberley said:

True enough provided the 'mere mortals' who shot under the Burrard rules still do so. Open chokes and 30 yards is considered a high/long bird which conceals the inefficiency of the 3 pellet requirement which is readily exposed once the range is extended.

Sounds like you know your shooting evolution - 'Shotgunning' is an interesting ready even though very dated.

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17 minutes ago, London Best said:

B. U. L. L.......you know the rest!

Quite right, my apologies. I said 'is' and meant/should have said 'was'. This was the case even though an open choke could stretch a fair sized gamebird somewhat further and some 40 yards would have been considered stratospheric. I believe half the problem is that some folk have got confused when we went metric and think that a yard is 36 centimeters. 

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Like it!

7 minutes ago, wymberley said:

I believe half the problem is that some folk have got confused when we went metric and think that a yard is 36 centimeters. 

Edit: who’s gone metric? I’m British. We are not in the ruddy EU you know.

Edited by London Best
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30 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

Sounds like you know your shooting evolution - 'Shotgunning' is an interesting ready even though very dated.

Thank you. The advent of NTS did us all a favour. The by product was the need to ensure that we knew what we were doing with lead so that an accurate assessment could be made when comparing it with other new materials. We had hardly heard of Journee or Gauss and his bell - not to mention the law of probability Add their knowledge to the mortality trials in the USA and we gained an all new understanding of shotgun capability. Basically, they aren't as efficient as we once thought and in order to achieve clean kills we can understand that more pellets in the pattern are required - not necessarily at the shorter ranges but at those which are becoming increasingly the norm.

Edit: The "ready" threw me, I've just twigged. That one I've not read.

Edited by wymberley
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7 minutes ago, wymberley said:

Thank you. The advent of NTS did us all a favour. The by product was the need to ensure that we knew what we were doing with lead so that an accurate assessment could be made when comparing it with other new materials. We had hardly heard of Journee or Gauss and his bell - not to mention the law of probability Add their knowledge to the mortality trials in the USA and we gained an all new understanding of shotgun capability. Basically, they aren't as efficient as we once thought and in order to achieve clean kills we can understand that more pellets in the pattern are required - not necessarily at the shorter ranges but at those which are becoming increasingly the norm.

Well, the Teague chokes are on the way and I will be patterning at 50 and 60 yards with different chokes, then recording the performance for my own interest and in the interest of possible clean kills.

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2 minutes ago, Shotkam said:

Well, the Teague chokes are on the way and I will be patterning at 50 and 60 yards with different chokes, then recording the performance for my own interest and in the interest of possible clean kills.

:good:

I had them in my Maxus and had two fixed and permanently installed in the Chapuis.

Facts: If it helps, the vulnerable area of a cock pheasant is 41 sq" and the hen 31. The woodpigeon is 16.

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