A performance factor closely related the absence or degree of choke is shot size and load weight (pellet count). The gun I use for woodcock is a 12 bore cyl/skeet and only one bird out of 39 killed last season was unfit for eating, shooting 1 oz. of No. 8 1/2 card wad loads. Some of these birds were shot at ranges more appropriately measured in feet than yards, at times a necessity in very thick cover.
The previous season I started out shooting a factory shot cup 1 1/16 oz No. 7 load with a lot of knicked as well as "shot to dollrags" birds. The difference is the pellet rich fringe of the No. 8 1/2 bore-scrubbed loads vs. the thin fringe/rich core of the cup-protected No. 7 loads,
at the ranges were the birds are shot.
Since average shooters (like me) tend to catch the birds at any range in the outer 10" instead of the inner 20" of the magic 30" circle, high pellet count loads from cylinder bores shine at closer ranges.
