Originally Posted By: PA24


Originally Posted By: L. Brown

Finally, as for PA24's evaluation of my mental abilities . . . Anyone who talks about shooting nothing more open than modified and then refers to spreaders ought to maybe check his own thought processes and logic. Or lack thereof.


I know you don't comprehend what you read very well Brown, so let me lay it out in "Sally See Spot Run" terms for you...... I never said I shoot spreaders, I don't shoot spreaders or reload them or hunt in topography that requires the use of them..... I live in the Western U.S.A. and hunt in the Western U.S.A. and a typical shot is longer than your porch in Wisconsin.

And yes, I have hunted 60+ years with only modified and full choked guns and I have done quite well thank you.... According to the FAA my eyesight is still 20/10, how is yours...?

Spreaders were mentioned as an option for brush lot hunters, like you, who talk about and need to shoot up close and personal with regularity, without grinding/boring/changing vintage original F/M chokes.....I do believe that is why spreaders were invented, I would think you already know that, then again maybe not.





Thanks for simplifying things for me, PA24. There are folks in the Western United States that hunt birds in thick cover. Ruffed grouse, for example . . . although never having hunted them out there, I understand they're not as nervous as our Midwest/Eastern US birds. Also some of the western quail species, other than the desert birds.

Spreaders are of value to people who don't hunt in thick cover ALL the time, which pretty much describes grouse and woodcock hunters. I wrote the chapter on grouse guns in the recently-published "A Passion For Grouse" . . . my qualification being that I've missed more grouse with more different guns than any other writer they could find. Brian's 1 for 3 is a pretty typical success rate on ruffs, as verified in the hunting logs submitted by the Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters--LODGH. What he didn't add is that you're likely to get 1 shot for every 3 grouse you flush. Do the math . . . that means the average hunter needs to flush 9 birds to kill 1. Which is why grouse hunters (and even more so, woodcock hunters--doodles being shot at even closer range, and sometimes in even thicker cover) like open chokes pretty much ALL the time. So unless someone has a gun with sentimental value on which he does not want to tamper with the chokes, he'll probably just go ahead and open them rather than going to the time and expense required to shoot spreaders. Spreaders were invented for INFREQUENT users of open chokes, not FREQUENT ones. You won't see many skeet shooters using their trap guns, for example, and feeding them spreaders.

But the point you seem to have missed--and still seem to miss--is that as soon as you put a spreader in your M or F barrel and pull the trigger, it's no longer M or F. What's stamped on the barrel, or the constriction you measure, does not determine the choke. That's determined by the resulting pattern--which, if it isn't any more open than M from a spreader load, means you need to find better spreaders. And if you were to hunt grouse and woodcock, or other consistently close range game, you'd have more birds in more edible quality as a result of opening your choke--whether with a hone or with spreaders.

And not to denigrate all your western hunting experience, but I lived in Iowa during the years when it was the best pheasant state in the nation. Did just fine shooting nothing tighter than LM--and that was in the tight barrel of guns usually choked more like skeet in the R barrel. A good dog, knowing how to hunt the birds . . . no need for a bunch of choke on pheasants. Guided hunters on wild Iowa roosters for a few years during the 90's, and sad to say, I saw plenty of misses at ranges where cyl would have stoned roosters.

Last edited by L. Brown; 04/01/14 05:35 PM.