A few years ago I bought an old (1890 made) Husqvarna hammer double with 16-gauge, 80 cm barrels, one full choke, one cylinder -- a fairly common combination for one-gun hunters that used that one gun for grouse, rabbits, foxes, roedeer, and moose (latter with round ball loads in cylinder bore barrel -- quite capable on moose at 50 meters or less -- common distances in dense, dark forests in late 1800s). Someone also lengthened forcing cones to about 10-15 cm.
In recent decades I have used almost exclusively light weight, long barreled (75 cm), tight choked, 16-bore doubles with 24 to 30 gram of hard lead alloy or bismuth-tin shot in one-peice plastic wads, for everything from quail to geese. Deadly guns for how I hunt -- no sky-busting, try to keep shots under 45 yards for ducks, geese and pheasants, under 40 yards for smaller birds.
I quickly found that cylinder bore barrel was quite useful at 16-yard trap with 24-28 grams #7 or #7,5 shot. In duck season that cylinder bore was deadly on decoying ducks with 28 grams #5 Bi-Sn shot at about 1250 fps.
I suspect that 80 cm barrel allows for significantly less powder-gass disturbance of shot and wad column as it exits muzzle, even compared to 75 cm barrels.
More importantly, I now have a gun with two chokes that cover nearly all my shotgun shooting. Previously I used scatter loads when I needed more open patterns, or, when possible, just waited out bird till pattern opened.
SO, is full choke or no choke best?? I want BOTH!! Overall, each choke drops plenty of birds. Prefer this 120 year-old hammer double for sporting clays -- only decision is which barrel to shoot first.
Niklas
