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Thread: Chokes & Ammo

  1. #1
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    Default Chokes & Ammo

    Good Evening

    My shotgun has chokes in that I use 71/2 for clay shooting. I am now going bird hunting and need to use no 5’s. Can I shoot the no 5’s with the same chokes in that I use for 71/2.

    Your help is appreciated

    Regards

    Wesley

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    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo


  3. #3
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    Default

    What chokes have you got in? Barrel length, chokes and what you're shooting will need to be considered in what shot size you need.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    Quote Originally Posted by wthang View Post
    What chokes have you got in? Barrel length, chokes and what you're shooting will need to be considered in what shot size you need.
    I firmly believed the above....but the guys that I have been hunting with in the last 5 or so years would disagree. One of them uses 32g #6's for everything from Spurwings to Spurfowl, another one swears by 34g #5s.....and I think that he shoots more gypos in a year than I will shoot in my lifetime.

    Regarding chokes - I have always thought of choking as being dependent on the likely range that you are going to shoot (much like the graphic posted above). For example, the Imam Meffert that Wthang uses is choked so tightly that it is quite suitable for things well beyond 40yrds.

    Then there is also the old adage....chokes tighten your pattern and lighten your bag.

    My advice is go ahead and use the ones that you are used to. There is no issue using any chokes with lead shot (Steel shot is another matter, but I know very little about that subject).

    Probably more importantly is to pattern your gun with each batch of ammo that you use......and test the different chokes....some "tight" chokes seem to "blow" the pattern rather than tightening it.

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    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    Quote Originally Posted by wesley white View Post
    Can I shoot the no 5’s with the same chokes in that I use for 71/2
    Yes!

    Putting the pattern in the right place is a 1000x more important than the actual choke used (i.e. pattern in the wrong place = miss, irrespective of the quality of the pattern)

    Don't over-think the choke story IMO for bird-shooting. Lots of theory about chokes blah blah but unless you're checking your actual ammo on a pattern plate, it's just theory. Remember for the first 100-150 years of wing shooting, everyone used fixed chokes.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    If you over think anything when shooting shotgun. You will miss.

    You can use any Choke with any shot. Just dont shoot a slug through a choke.

    Your choke selection should be depending on the distance your shooting.

    A more open choke is for close and tight for further. If you use a more open choke and the bird is a little far away. You will be on target but all the shot might spread so wide it just flies all around the bird and nothing hits.

    To tight choke and your slightly off and the pattern will be so tight it just passes bird.

    I found for Guine Fowl and Pheasant I favour Half and Full. Half I have as first shot when Pheasant. As you walk in filed and they will jump up close by and fly away. So first shot pattern will be wide. Then as tehy move away my second shot will be more tight and better for the distance.

    When Guennie Fowl which start further away I will swap barrel sequence to fist shoot the Full choke. And hope the wills scatter towards me for the more open choke.

    With birds in air that sometime they are high or some distance. So you might need full choke marked 1 and the next one marked 2 and not even the half choke.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    Quote Originally Posted by shooty View Post
    If you over think anything when shooting shotgun. You will miss.

    You can use any Choke with any shot. Just dont shoot a slug through a choke.

    Your choke selection should be depending on the distance your shooting.

    A more open choke is for close and tight for further. If you use a more open choke and the bird is a little far away. You will be on target but all the shot might spread so wide it just flies all around the bird and nothing hits.

    To tight choke and your slightly off and the pattern will be so tight it just passes bird.

    I found for Guine Fowl and Pheasant I favour Half and Full. Half I have as first shot when Pheasant. As you walk in filed and they will jump up close by and fly away. So first shot pattern will be wide. Then as tehy move away my second shot will be more tight and better for the distance.

    When Guennie Fowl which start further away I will swap barrel sequence to fist shoot the Full choke. And hope the wills scatter towards me for the more open choke.

    With birds in air that sometime they are high or some distance. So you might need full choke marked 1 and the next one marked 2 and not even the half choke.
    Pretty much what I do. I have only ever used full and half choke for hunting.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    Shotgunning is instinctive shooting, with both eyes open. The whole multichoke culture is driven more by the clay target group than by hunters. For field use, as others have already said, half and full choke are fine for all shot weights ( but not slugs through a full choke).

    It’s mainly Trap shooters that play with choke patterns, for the different disciplines


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Chokes & Ammo

    Wesley, you shoot with a Miroku. It doesn't care what chokes you put in, it will still be deadly ;-)

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