Boy oh boy, you just touched on what I've long believed is a sort of secret hiding in plain sight. Now, I'm just a joe from Wisconsin with nothing like the credentials of the two men you mention in your question. But I long ago came to the same conclusion -- especially if your game, like mine, is mostly ruffed grouse. ANY choke is too much for the right barrel in the grouse woods. Interestingly, I note that a large percentage (though of course not all) of vintage Brit doubles are cylinder choke in the right barrel. The great makers of Britain had this figured out a long time ago. But we (speaking of Yanks like me who constitute the big users of this board) who were raised on a reach-out-and-hit-em-hard-at-40-yards crowbar-gun ethic (be it double or repeater) think there's something wrong with a gun that has no choke. Hence, the prevalent notion of the IC/MOD double as the "ideal" upland configuration. It's certainly not ideal for lots of upland shooting.
