doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cylinder chokes,are they any good?

Apart from the overshot card cartridges issue, which I don't remember reading about
(memory falters), Garwood was a great advocate for the mentioned combination (cyl/full).

His reasoning was that most first shots were taken at around 25 yds and at that
distance cylinder choke worked very well. The shotcup choke reducing factor has to be
considered in this day and age. JMTC.

JC

I had an Army & Navy BLE 12 that ws CYL and MOD (Measured)I hunted Grouse and Woopdcock with it for a few years and it was awesome. never felt I was handicapped.

Long time ago when I first started chasing grouse, the only shotgun I owned was an Ithaca Deerslayer 12 ga with 20" barrel and rifle sights. I made some pretty good shots with it including one too long to even dare print. yes youthful indiscretion; never would take a shot like that again, even with a full choke.

I shoot quite a lot of Sporting Clays and always experimenting with something. Recently I was shooting with an experienced person shooting a round of Sporting Clays from 20 to 45 yds.
I had slipped my cyl/cyl chokes in and I was shocked how it was breaking targets. I asked my companion to guess what chokes I was using and guessed Lite-Mod.
I am always pleased how well Cyl does on targetes and game.

I LOVE the cylinder and full combination. I stumbled on to it with an Ithaca Flues Field 20 gauge. A lightweight little thing with 28 inch barrels and to this day it is still a magic wand.

tim

I bought an aftermarket set of CYL extended chokes for my older 12 gauge Citori, to shoot skeet, and have been very pleased with the performance.

Later, I began using this O/U with the same CYL chokes for preserve birds, and found that it works well. I have deeloped new respect for CYL chokes.

Jerry

This season I used a 16X65 hammer double with cylinder and full chokes. With 28 grams of #5 Bi-Sn shot the cylinder barrel accounted for as many ducks as the full choke barrel. The gun has long barrels, 80+ cm, which always in my experience gives much better patterns with cylinder choke than do short barrels.

Also shot 16 yard trap with this cylinder barrel, with 27 grams USA 7,5 shot, and broke targets reqularily so long as I shot a little sooner than usual.

Niklas

I have no use for cylinder choke. Years ago, when I discovered handloading and patterning and went at it with a vengeance, I decided the best way to improve my O/U was to open the first barrel to true cylinder. Subsequent hunting and patterning convinced me it was ruined. I got rid of the gun and vowed to never flirt with cylinder choke again. These days, the most open choke in any of my shotguns is .005 in the first barrel of my 20ga bird gun. It dispatches woodcock cleanly at 15 yds without mangling them. I miss them occasionally, but I've never been tempted to "spray and pray" again.

Oberfell and Thompson, in their book on shotgun patterns, debunk the old myth that cylinder tends to throw patchy patterns (or "donut" patterns). Their patterning showed that in fact, cylinder throws more evenly distributed patterns than anything with choke. Very useful for most upland hunting, with the right loads. (You do need enough shot to fill that even pattern.)

Larry, I got a surprise when I walked up to a sheet of white cardboard I used for patterning after opening my 16ga Sauer from F/F to C/IC a couple months ago. It appeared from six- or eight feet that I had missed the board, set up on a tree in the snow. Dear god, only on looking more closely did I see tiny pellet holes and remembered that I had picked up a couple No. 9 lead reloads. Looking at the back was the best pattern I had ever seen, perfect, and so was the IC barrel's.

I think it was Jack O'Connor who said that the cylinder choke was a cracker jack of a choke. I have always watched Beretta's Bird Hunter's Journal and I believe Steve Smith uses at least one cylinder choke in his Beretta O/U 20 gauge for quail, pheasant and grouse. I have Cyl/IC in my Model 21- 12 gauge that I use for pheasant and it does a good job. I also use Cyl/Cyl in my Browning Citori and my Beretta 686 when I shoot skeet. I wouldn't use anything else.