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What's the Best Choking for clays?


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I expect this has been asked loads of times before on here, but I am wondering what is the best choke to use for clays?

 

The guys at the club I go to say half and half, which I am currently using should be right, but I had a lesson yesterday and my coach told me I should use cyl and quarter.

 

I'm worried that using such open chokes, I may have problems hitting the further away targets because of the shot not going as far.

 

Now I know that ultimately, whatever chokes I put in the gun arn't going to make the blindest bit of difference if I'm not pointing the gun in the right direction, and by and large I should just put a set of chokes in and leave them alone, but I am wondering what are your views on this?

 

Cheers

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I was killing birds nicely at Southdown with CYL and Skeet last weekend, and they aren't exactly close in.

 

Half is too much for the vast majority of targets. I use 1/4 and 3/8s. I'd forgotten to swap chokes in my gun after shooting skeet the weekend before.

 

Yes, chokes are a bit of a waste of time, but if you like to fiddle then they're worth it.

Edited by Peter De La Mare
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Now I know that ultimately, whatever chokes I put in the gun arn't going to make the blindest bit of difference if I'm not pointing the gun in the right direction, and by and large I should just put a set of chokes in and leave them alone, but I am wondering what are your views on this?

 

Cheers

 

That's it in a nutshell.

 

To maximise your chances, i'd choose cylinder and cylinder for skeet (Skeet and skeet if you have them) purely because all the targets are relatively close.

 

Normally though, i'd put in full and half. Full for the further shots, half for the closer ones.

 

Best bet though, is just to choose 1/2 - 3/4 and leave it in all the time.

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All the books say 1/4 and 1/2 :P

 

I shoot with 1/2 and 1/2 :P

 

In sporting clys, I can't really see the sense in having different chokes in each barrel. There's nothing to say that the second clay is going to be further away, and I couldn't be bothered to keep switching barrels :lol:

 

There is a school of thought that says 1/4 and 1/4 should be able to account for anything on a sporting clay course.

Edited by Chard
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All the books say 1/4 and 1/2 :P

 

I shoot with 1/2 and 1/2 :P

 

In sporting clys, I can't really see the sense in having different chokes in each barrel. There's nothing to say that the second clay is going to be further away, and I couldn't be bothered to keep switching barrels :lol:

 

There is a school of thought that says 1/4 and 1/4 should be able to account for anything on a sporting clay course.

 

You no its true you've seen it done more than once :)

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I use to use skeet and quarter and now use 1/4 and 1/4. As said there won't be a bird on a sporting course that can't be broken with a 1/4 choke. Tighter chokes don't make the shot go further, they keep it together longer. you will get the same range from a cylinder choke as you will from a full one.

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I might have to change mine after reading this thread...

 

 

My SPig5 has got 3/4 and 1/2 in so that, if there is a longer bird, I have the flexibility to select the barrel with a slightly tighter pattern. But... I have noticed that a lot of the time the birds are closer than I think they are, so I might change them to 1/4 and 1/2 and see what happens. These days, I like seeing good clean kills when I hit a clay, but I do wonder if using a slightly more open setup would allow me the chance to pick up birds that I am just missing with the tighter chokes.

 

At least I have stopped using full and 3/4...

 

I use Cyl and 1/4 for skeet as I do not have a set of Extended skeet chokes yet. However, Christmas is fast approaching and I might treat myself...

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At least I have stopped using full and 3/4...

 

I occasionally put in full chokes, or full and 3/4, just to force myself to consider accuracy a bit more, instead of spraying shot around the place :hmm:

 

I wouldn't dream of shooting in a competition with them though. My scores are usually 10% or more lower if I use full or full and 3/4 :blink:

 

You certainly get convincing kills with tight chokes, if you do hit them :lol:

 

Alternatively, I dig out the Mossberg. My Mossberg has a fixed full choke barrel :hmm:

Edited by Chard
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These days, I like seeing good clean kills when I hit a clay,

 

Never really understood this I just like to see them break. If you want to smoke them then by all means use tight chokes but you will miss slightly more. I like to break as many clays as possible and don't worry to much how it looks. As to chokes cyl and 1/4 if I'm at the clay range but most of my practicing is for sharpening up my game shooting so I usually just stick with 1/4 and 1/2 as thats what I shoot live quarry with where a clean kill clearly does matter! Its worth remembering chokes affect the pellet spread not the range the shot travels. A 7.5 shot size will have enough energy to break a clay at say 60yrds regardless of what choke is in. Tighter chokes just increase pattern density and given 2 or three pellets ought to break most clays you can get away with quite an open cloud of shot provided it has no holes in it . If you want your shot to travel further use larger shot sizes, simple ballistics I know but I thought I would mention it.

straight shootin' :good:

Edited by utectok
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So here's my dilemma with Chokes.....

 

When I purchased my shotgun (my first one by the way), the gunshop fitted the chokes and I decided to just leave them in and not worry about them.

 

I also clean the gun thoroughly after each outing and take the chokes out for a clean every three outings - now, usually, I take one out, clean it, put it back then repeat for the other but for some reason this Sunday I took both out and don't know which way round they came out!!!!!

 

The are marked with 3 and 4 marks respectively and what I need to know is typically which one would go in to which barrel on an over/under?

 

Cheers all

 

 

Dan73

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I use 1/4 and 3/8 in my Guerini, but I am told their chokes are on the tight side.

 

Shot years ago with my Winchester - 1/4 and 1/4 - never found anything out of range.

 

Used a Browning Gti - 3/8 and 3/8 - again - nothing out of range.

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Dan, The one with 3 marks is probably a half choke so put it in the top barrel The one with 4 marks is probably a quarter choke so put it in the bottom barrel.That's the conventional way. I say probably because that is the usual markings for most makes.

 

I use 3/8 and 3/8 in my Miroku.

Edited by VicW
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I use 1/4 and 3/8 in my Guerini, but I am told their chokes are on the tight side.

 

Shot years ago with my Winchester - 1/4 and 1/4 - never found anything out of range.

 

Used a Browning Gti - 3/8 and 3/8 - again - nothing out of range.

 

I use 1/4 & 3/8 in my Renato Gamba, with modern plaswad shells I'm absolutely confident that combination will be adequate for any Sporting targets I shoot. :good:

 

Cat.

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An old shooting adage , " The better the shot you are the tighter the chokes you should use "

Harnser .

I think that's Macho nonsense no matter how good you are the correct chokes are going to hit more targets simple as. It's good to make things easy! That said I need all the help I can get !

Edited by utectok
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I think that's Macho nonsense no matter how good you are the correct chokes are going to hit more targets simple as. It's good to make things easy!

 

 

There's nothing macho about it :good:

 

Were you bullied as a child?

 

If he wants to use tight chokes, get off his back. There's a place for them, ottherwise they wouldn't make them. If you want to know where you're shooting, high or low, in front or behind, you use a tight choke, you can see where you hit the clay. It makes you focus on accuracy too, instead of relying on having a blunderbuss.

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woo take a chill pill chard it's no biggie I couldn't care less what chokes people use merly pointing out the facts unless you never miss choking to provide a good patern will reduce misses granted not by much but u probaly don't miss as it happens I still do rather a lot!

Edited by utectok
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  • 4 weeks later...

When practising I always use full and half. I believe this helps with acuracy, some of the lads I shoot with always practice with extrafull in both.

When shooting in a competitive situation I always change down too 1/2 and 1/4. This works for me. But each to thier own. :yes:

I shoot DTL, ABT and sporting with a Miroku Mk70 sporter. 30".

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