Most doubles I own or see if choked differently are more open in the right barrel than in the left. However, I have a few guns where the left barrel is more open than the right and these barrels have not been honed or altered. Can anyone shed some light on this?

In-comming driven birds, First bird is farther away and second bird is closer

Mike

I have heard that these were made this way for driven birds?? Right / tight barrel for farthest shot at incoming with open choke for closer if you miss the longer shot. I don't really know, just stating something that I have heard. It makes sense to me, but I am sure there are others more knowledgeable on this board who will probably check in with an answer. We may both learn something!!

Here is how I see this. I've shot incoming doves by the thousands, so I understand the principle of taking the first bird farther out, then taking the second one closer to you, but still incoming.

What I do not understand is all the people who will argue the value of instant selection of choke with two triggers, then explain a gun built with a tighter choked right barrel and a more open choked left one, by saying that driven shooters want to shoot the tighter choked barrel first. If they do, as I often do, then JUST USE THE REAR TRIGGER FIRST !!!!

I have accomplished this act of shooting the rear trigger/left bbl. first, then immediately shifting to the front trigger/right bbl. to use the more open choke. Sporting clays is a perfect venue to practice this. It's actually easy.

These armchair experts need to realize they are talking like hypocrites. Not referring to anyone who has posted in this thread.

Skeet In / Skeet out
Left barrel Skeet incomer / right barrel Skeet outgoer.
Slightly less choke for the incomer / slightly more choke for the outgoer.

Yup, Bob. That's the way it was done in the early days of skeet, before the Bob Stacks of the game learned that shooting the outgoers before the stake was the only way they were going to shoot 100 straight. At that point, they realized that both birds should be shot at less than 20 yards and a real open choke was correct for both birds.

Skeet in and Skeet out makes for useful hunting chokes for upland birds. Short barrel Skeet guns, two chokes were the norm in my younger days. Now we get 30-34" O/U tube sets weighing nine to ten pounds instead of four different 870's, 1100's or model 12 and 42's. One gun instead of four and one sight picture instead of four. Four barrel sets made high scores much more attainable, by the slightly above average shooters, but tube sets made hundreds such a common thing that today even a .410 hundred straight does not turn too many heads. Equipment has been advanced to almost perfection, the game made so regimented that almost all variables have been removed or reduced and high average shooters refuse to shoot in bad weather because they do not want to ruin their average in a single event. We use to shoot in wind, rain, snow, whatever, but we also never were in the running for All American.

In my youth, major shoots were won outright with 99's in the .410. My local club .410 shoot had two 100 straights last month. I ended up "winning" it because the other fellow left for a family affair. I offered to shoot it off with him later, or just be co champions but he was not interested in shooting it off the next week. So I told them to split the money, not a big payout, and then put his name on the plaque. Mine was on there from the last two years, once misspelled with Jon with a H. My mother would not be impressed.

I had a uncle who had a Crescent .410 he used for quail, with "reversed chokes", with the triggers reversed for left handed shooting, left barrel off the front trigger and the right barrel off the rear, and the left was I/C while the right was so tightly choked that it would ink Skeet birds at station four. He shot right handed but by his end of hunting, his hands were so arthritic that he needed the extra room for his fat finger joints to work the triggers. I think he repurposed a trigger guard off a Syracuse Arms double to get extra room. When I later restored the trigger, to right handed operation the right barrel shot "rifled slugs" out of the shot load and the left was open. I left the chokes as they were as a way to remember him. If you ever want to see a nice ten inch pattern at 20 yards, borrow it and be impressed.

What is the actual constriction on your uncle's .410 right barrel, Jon? Have you measured it?

When a .410 patterns extremely tight I always try to learn why.

I had a WC Scott 12ga set up this way. IM right, IC left and factory marked as such. Always figured it was for driven birds.

I have a little.20ga Nitro Special that has a short stock and choked SK left and SK-II right. It is old enough that skeet was shot singles all around and then the doubles. You could also load the barrel between each single. Someone with small hands could shoot 21 birds with the rear trigger and only have to reach for the farther front trigger four times in a round. You don't even have to reach for the front trigger it pivots, just straighten your finger the trigger moves forward and snaps back, you just have curl your finger back and your on the front trigger. It is a neat little shotgun. I bought it for my wife but I shoot it well.