[SIZE=medium]Hi All,[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]As a follow on to the thread I started on barrel length, which indecently did answer my question and gave valuable information for me to help me decide.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Now on to, Extended Chokes, what do they give, what is the advantage of these. A friend of mine is insisting I should get extended chokes, so what is the advantage of these?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Thanks[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Dave[/SIZE]
Hi Dave,
For a new shooter, you are unlikely to be missing targets due to the chokes you are using, so I wouldn't worry too much about it just yet.
The journey with multi-choke guns, normally goes from "wide open" (Skeet or Cylinder) when you are a beginner, to "tighter" Half choke or "really quite tight" 3/4 or Full, when you are more experienced. Most of the top shots, use tight chokes much of the time and the likes of Olympian, Richard Faulds and mutli-multi-time World Champion, George Digweed; both use Full chokes and both (I believe) have fixed choke guns.
The main thing to remember about chokes, is not to get too fussy about them, changing every stand...certainly not until you know
why you are changing them.
Standard advice is to put in 1/4 and 1/2 (tighter 1/2 in the top barrel).
Better advice is to put in two chokes the same and forget about them. Either a pair of 1/4's or a pair of 1/2's.
As to your question. Flush chokes constrict the shot charge down from Cylinder (the full width of the bore) to whatever the exit diameter of the choke is, (half, full etc) ...in a very short distance, perhaps an inch or so.
The thinking behind extended chokes, apart from easy changeability, is that the longer tapered section of extended chokes, makes this transition "easier" on the shot charge, damaging the pellets much less and so producing a more even pattern/shot cloud.
There are many companies making extended chokes and the users of a particular choke brand are usually quite adamant that they are "the best", so I will not go into the various brands, of which I have tried several and to be fair, been happy enough with them.
However, none have ever been "different" in any great way, they are all much the same, apart from Muller chokes, which is what I now use...as do many other people, including people who "matter" (ie, not me!).
I actually wrote a review of them for this site and you can see it by clicking on the blue link in my signature below.