Paul, a inside mic used for measuring shotgun bores that reach in about 18" can be bought from Brownells for about a 100$. Ed, when we get new shooters on the skeet field we don't try to handicap them with tight chokes but want them to use the proper chokes for the game they're shooting. Not hitting anything, or a lot of misses is very discouraging. It's a whole lot more fun to hit some targets. I've had friends who are quite good forget to change chokes and miss a lot of birds and then half way through realize they have full chokes installed. If what you've said about 2" per choke is true then there's about a 10" bigger pattern when going from full to skeet chokes and 12" if a cyl bore is used. That's quite a bit. There's a reason for different chokes. Back when most our old doubles were made they were choked full for hunting, and even that was too much for Pat or Woodcock hunting. Even pheasant hunting over pointing dogs a mod coke would be more than enough. On our SC's course, most birds are under 35yds and shooting skeet chokes will break them nice. All my SxS's at the most have LM, many SK. I have one that's LM/IM for trap. I have a friend that shoots a Lever with cut barrels having no choke and has shot a 44/50 on SC's. The choke rating was for back when fiber wads were shot, and now with plastic wads about one increase in choke is realized. I believe too many guns are passed up because someone worries the chokes have been opened up. Unless you're aduck hunter, it doesn't really matter IMHO.
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Paul Harm
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