doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Choke in a Bird Gun

Buzz, no problem on my side. It's an interesting topic to debate. And no matter how your gun is choked, one should always shoot some patterns (at ranges where you expect to shoot most of your birds) to see how a particular choke-load combination works out.

At 15 yards, the cyl pattern from my Sauer 20ga had a 22" diameter. The pattern from the "tight" barrel (IC, .007) had a diameter of 18". If you compute the area of those two pattern circles, you'll find that the open one covers almost exactly 50% more than the tighter one. The real eye-opener was the tight IC choke out of my Ithaca Classic Doubles 20ga (.009, 14" spread) versus a Polywad Spred-R through the same barrel: 21" spread.

For birds that offer a lot of really close shots, I don't object to a little choke. But I think it needs to be darned little. And even on pheasants, if you're in good ringneck country and have a decent dog, I don't think you need a lot. (Particularly true if you're shooting a DT double, because you can always leave more choke in that one, and select it instantly if required.) I have not used a gun with one barrel bored cylinder on very many roosters, but I've shot piles of them through 12's choked right around .005 in the R barrel.

I have shot alot of dove, quail,and turkey in western and southwestern Okla. with improved modified setup.

I have a friend who is/was a competent trap shooter, before we got him seriously addicted to Sporting Clays. He shoots his old trap Winchester 101 on the Sporting Clays course, even though it is bored IM & FULL. His scores are often higher than mine, and others in our group - notwirhstanding his tight chokes. It probably helps that he has used this 101 for 25+ years. If you are "ON", the extra choke constriction doesn't hurt a thing.

Those of us that aren'e as expert, do benefit from more open chokes.

JERRY

I think that the data used for most grouse being taken at or near 23 yards is getting to be outdated with the introduction of the coyote into our covers. I find (and I am no expert but this is my experience only) is that for the first several weeks of the season, the grouse will hold a bit better because the cover is still a bit thicker. In early season I think C/C or C/IC is best. As the leaves come down I find they do not hold well, even less so with a dog (thanks to Mr. Wiley Coyote) and often they are flushing at well over 25 yards. To adjust to this I change up from C/IC to IC/M to LtM/IM (30-35 yards) as the season comes to an end.

Yep, I knew it, the man's barrels are oriented the wrong way and I bet there is only one trigger? Heck I am surprised he hits any grouse at all, regardless of the choke. He says he hunts the Ottawa so I will look for a market hunters blunderbuss to help him out. I will leave it at the restaurant in Bergland or at the Hungry Bear in Marinesco. Your choice Buzz.

Larry:
All the grouse in the Ottawa are dead.

Mike

Hey Chicago: Leave the Blunderbuss for me at the Timbers and I will hunt some of the ten year old Aspen in the thick of things and I will leave my 12 bore DT Purdey and 20 bore ST Browning super in the truck. I'm glad there aren't very many Grouse in the Ottawa because there aren't very many hunters and you really have to know what you are doing to find the few which are there! It's just a little more sportin' that way!!

A vigorous defense of cyclinder chokes (at least in most circumstances): "THE MERITS OF CHOKES AND CYLINDERS, AS APPLIED TO THEIR EFFECT ON GAME AND SUITABILITY TO THE SHOOTER," By Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey
Payne-Gallway article

No offense meant toward you, Doverham, but I care no more for what SRP-G thought about chokes than I do several of my peers, and myself, who have shot many thousands of birds in differing types of cover over the last 50 years.

There is entirely too much parroting what this and that writer said about a subject, IMO, and not nearly enough first hand information. On top of that, we are all individuals and subject to different likes/dislikes. It's not all as cut and dried as most of the writers would have us believe.

Again, not directed at you, Doverham, I enjoy reading your thoughts on gunning.

SRH

Exactly.........!........

1. Everybody has a different set of eyes 'uncorrected'...some have 20-10 and some have 20-40/50....

2. Everybody hunts in a different geography, cyl and open chokes are useless in the West.

3. Everybody has a different level of experience and talent.

4. What one reads in sporting publications is far from gospel, experience is a far better teacher.

5. Shooting clays and shooting 'real wild birds' are two different animals.


Best,

Couldn't agree more, Doug. I'm glad we shoot guns with two barrels so we have a choice of chokes, even if one of'ems wrong. Shoot what makes you happy!...Geo