Chokes Revisited (and Revisited, and Revisited...)

[Randy Roberts]

Originally Posted by Reggie Bishop

I have read of instances, either here or in other publications/boards, about the surprising distances hunters/shooters have hit their targets with cylinder choked shotguns. It would be interesting to give an open choked, long barreled 12 to a shooter who prefers tight chokes, let them shoot a round of sporting clays with the gun and see what kind of results they might have without them knowing how the gun was choked. I would speculate that a very good shooter would have a very good round, despite how the gun was choked.

Distance is only one factor in choke selection. Speed, angle, and face are the others. A chandelle presentation (lots of face) at a basis L to R angle with a lot of spring can be broken at amazing distances with a Cyl or IC. As the target slows, the face diminishes, and or the angle increases the effectiveness of the Cyl and IC will decrease. Folks get focused on distance and that's only part of the equation.

Reggie I won't comment on how I would do with that long barreled open choked gun you referenced but I promise you I would know something was up with me or the chokes in short order, it's usually me

[Larry the Gun Guy]

I was shooting in a sporting clays tournament and there were a group of us discussing chokes for particular stations that were challenging a lot of us shooters. And as were theorizing about choke selection and their effectiveness Andy Duffy walked up and began listening to the conversation. Maybe some of you have heard of Andy Duffy, he has won the NSCA national championship 3 times and the national FITASC championship 4 times. Andy probably knows a little about chokes and shotgun shooting. Well after a while Andy chimed in and said, you guys are talking about things that matter within inches and you're missing these targets by feet. Put the chokes in the gun that pattern well with the loads you're shooting and shoot them.
Of course, none of us really knew which loads patterned well with which chokes. And then he said the key was to shoot where the target (bird or clay) was going to be.
I've never forgot that; worried about inches and missing by feet.
To Reggie's point...