Woodchuck chokes
 

My brother has started hunting Woodcocks down South Georgia looking for choke recommendation. Pine cut overs and hurricane damage areas.Going to set him up with a E.Rizzini o/u need choke recommendation for modify the gun.Thanks,Grayson

Full and fuller. 7 1/2's minimum.

I once fired my 1889 Remington with both barrels loaded with 1 5/8 ounces of lead #4 in both barrels at a woodchuck, and he got up and walked away. I don't think any shotgun is good for woodchucks unless the woodchuck is less than 20 yards away.

Clarification...would that be woodchucks or woodcocks?

Woodcock chokes should be about Skeet & Skeet.





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Woodcock cyl and skeet
Woodchuck 22 cal or if long range 243 bring back memories of shooting Chucks with my dad.

Out here in the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington they are Rockchucks and much smaller than your Eastern variety. They den in cracks in the rock and they need to be small so they can get through a crack in the rock that a Badger can't.

I was introduced to Rockchuck hunting early --

Attachment 135699

Dad's rifle is a Winchester Model 54 .22 Hornet dressed up by Seattle gunsmith Bill English with his English End-lock scope mount and a Weaver 330. A couple of years later he added a Litschert Spot Shot adapter to the Weaver 330 to up it to 6x.

What a great picture.

In my years of shooting groundhogs I killed them with many many cartridges from 17 HMR to a 308 , but the four I used the most were 222 , 220 Swift , 243 and 25-06 .

I agree. What a great picture Dave. It tells a story. What were you 4 or 5 in that picture?

Plus, what is the neat car that got you there?

Looks like a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline?





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No more than 4 as Dad replaced that 1948 with a 1950. He sold the 1948 to my mother's foster brother who drove it into the mid-1960s then sold it to the mechanic at the Mobil station at Queen Anne Avenue and McGraw Street who restored it and added triple carbs and other tweaks to that 6-cylinder engine.

Also, in 1950 Dad got a 35 mm camera and took slides from then on so pictures from then into my college years are all on slides which haven't seen the light of day since the 1970s.

Correct choke selection for woodchucks would be R1 in the left barrel (Rodentia 1= VERY full choke) and R 2 Rodentia 2 = CYL or IC in the right barrel. Left barrel fired first to concentrate shot at the given distance usually encountered (c. 25 yds. or less); Right barrel at point blank range in case it charges. No velocity is too high and no shot size is too large for these bruisers! Similar to when felling a tree, have your escape path clear ahead of time.

And have a Colt double action .450 at the ready in case he launches up onto the elephant you’re riding.





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No wind due to the pines and downed trees, 204 Ruger for Woodchucks. Skeet and Improved Cylinder for Woodcock.

Woodcocks thanks

The few I have found in South Georgia get up and go! Tell him to wear snake boots. Mod and full in the wet timber.

If hunting in New England then I agree with Dean and others. Especially at the beginning of the season when the foliage is on you need to get the shot off quick and at close range. A tight choke will blow up the bird at such ranges.
Where I have shot woodcock in SC on the GA border I find the woodcock in much more open covert and thus whatever choke you like at longer ranges is good up to full.
But I'm new down here and have a lot to learn...

My best woodcock gun is a 16g VH on an 0 frame 26" choked Cylinder/Skeet

The places I hunt woodcock require fairly open constriction for the first shot and maybe a bit more for a follow-up. I use my Philly Sterlingworth Ejector 20 ga. with 28" barrels and the chokes are .006"R and .016"L. Works very well for 'doodles and also quail.