doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Choke recommended for steel shot

Most of my serious duck hunting was pre steel shot. Invited to north Arkansas this weekend. Taking my 686 Black Onyx with double triggers. Only have standard flush chokes to select from. Will be shooting 3" steel twos from pit blind over rice fields. Mainly going to watch my son work his Boykin fresh home from "Boykin School" in Ga. Is the thought still IC/Mod like the "Steel Shot Special" Parker repo I owned for a few years, or should I try something tighter like M/Improved Mod. Last min trip so gun,shells, and first daylight will not merge until dawn on Sat making any attempt at patterning not an option. (At least till Sat pm after opening first hunt.) All constructive, informed input welcome.

No need for tighter than mod. Will kill anything out to 60 yds if you put it on em.

I don't shoot anything tighter than .020" in a 12 ga. with steel, Tyler. Gracious plenty, IMO. In fact, my go to steel shot duck gun is my 30" BSS, and I've got the chokes in both barrels at .018".

Hope you have a good trip, and some good hunts. Where are you headed in AR?

SRH

Nearest "town" is Delaplaine. Contact me "off line" for more details. Very much a "small world" story.

For steel twos, I have been shooting nothing but IC for maybe 15 years in my SBE. The Citori gets IC and Light Mod. Works pretty well.

In the hunting conditions you mentioned I think I would go with skeet, or cylinder and IC, I would also consider 3s or maybe even 4s, today's steel shells are pretty good, early on I was using 6s in my 20 gauge.

Sounds like to much fun to me!!

Good luck.

TM

When I used my 686 with Mobil chokes for duck hunting, I used the standard Beretta flush chokes as well. They patterned fine. Because I hunt over decoys, I usually put in IC/IC. I know this kind of defeats the purpose of having two barrels, but I found in my hunting situation, most of my shots tended to be around the same distance and the IC choked worked fine. I'm not familiar with rice field hunting, but if it will be pass shooting, I would prob go with IC/Mod. Again, just my limited experience and your situation may differ...

I hunt ducks with steel #2's and sometimes #3's. I'd go IC/Mod.

I have utilized as a rule of thumb that when shooting steel, use one step more open than I would using lead.

So if shooting full/mod I would go mod/ic with steel. If shooting IC with lead I would go to Cylinder.

That said I normally don�t go by Mod or Full terminology but normally go with measurements such as .005/.015 as my standard when using tubes.

This fall I used one of my Grandfather�s Guns, a Franchi Eldorado automatic,. I purchased an extra barrel for it because it already had Briley tubes so I would not have to risk one of the original barrels and is my the one steel capable gun I shoot. In it I used an IC (.010) tube when I was shooting dove this last fall.

I use Briley extended chokes because the constriction is outside the barrel. After extensive testing years ago the only choke that patterned well was IMOD, That is all that I have used for years. Things have changed enough that it may be time for new tests??

bill