Fixed choke - opening it up!

[Salopian]

With all due respect , the post by Cosmicblue is full of inaccuracies .

With regard to 'experts' choke selection and the shooting of tight chokes , much of the stated restriction is actually gamesmanship.

The book Sporting Shotgun Performance by Dr. AC Jones concludes (after exhaustive tests ) that 3/4 is possibly an ideal choice .

Many very good shots do use 3/4 & 3/4 , but Carl Bloxham for instance and many others use what they believe is the correct choice for any given target, and use multichokes and change after evaluating the targets on each stand, this knowledge is used after years of experience and shooting .

Food for thought sporting clays courses are featuring more and more distant targets generally .

Are you sure that you can correctly judge the distance at what the clay will be broken and secondly are you sure that you have enough pattern density at that range with your chosen choke and cartridge?

 

[Jonny English]

I have just put 2 x Teague 3/8ths chokes in my 725 in the vain hope that they shoot everything, and will stay in the gun with the exception of coming out for cleaning.

Even if they shoot badly they look the business!

 

[chippy]

I have just put 2 x Teague 3/8ths chokes in my 725 in the vain hope that they shoot everything, and will stay in the gun with the exception of coming out for cleaning.

Even if they shoot badly they look the business!

View attachment 6132

What even on a close rabbit or a low driven?

 

[ips]

What I'm saying is that during that 5" max length of travel that Will so ably told us about, the clay can just as easily get out of the way of a pellet than run into another - statistically speaking, hence shot string is all but meaningless. 

I remain unconvinced (with respect) that shot string is not an actual thing.

 

[balltrap]

I remain unconvinced (with respect) that shot string is not an actual thing.

Its like a G string its not far behind :lol:

 

[Hamster]

I remain unconvinced (with respect) that shot string is not an actual thing.

It absolutely is a thing but it isn't our friend. The longer the string the looser by definition the pattern. 

 

[balltrap]

If you fired both barrels quickly then you would have a string, would you not with a slight gap

 

[Jonny English]

What even on a close rabbit or a low driven?

Yep even close rabbits and low driven, if they get too close I'll throw the cartridges for a 2 1/2" pattern or I'll poke em with the barrels!

In all seriousness, close stuff doesn't bother me, concentrate and be accurate. But distant going away stuff, edge on crossers and big loppers really give me the willies!

 

[Bebo]

Had a driven target today that I don't think went more than 12ft over my head.  My 3/8th fixed chokes had no problem with it, even using my bog standard 7.5s

 

[chippy]

Yep even close rabbits and low driven, if they get too close I'll throw the cartridges for a 2 1/2" pattern or I'll poke em with the barrels!

In all seriousness, close stuff doesn't bother me, concentrate and be accurate. But distant going away stuff, edge on crossers and big loppers really give me the willies!

two words  Brave and talented. i would be shooting those with no chokes screwed in. as the americans say" shooting the threads"

 

[schmokinn]

Had my MXS taken out to half and half by Teague.

 Wesfeid last week they had a stand with 2 incomers couldn't have been more than 5 metres away and straighted that but still quite happily break long range targets convincingly when i put the lead in the right place.

 

[AW13]

It an odd sport.  Today I shot all sorts of clay presentations with a semi which had a SC2 Remington skeet choke in it. That included long and short ranges. If you know West Kent Shooting School it was breaking clays on the long right/left rabbit and the long crosser as examples. 

 

[Bebo]

I thought the long rabbit was a left/right. Used to break fine with my quarter choke in my old dt10.  The long crosser on that stand I can't break consistently irrespective of choke.

 

[schmokinn]

I was told a while back by someone who has no reason to BS that many top shots claim  they are shooting full and full it is bending the truth a bit as old english guns used to be described as full with the equivalent of a modern half constriction.

 

[AW13]

I thought the long rabbit was a left/right. Used to break fine with my quarter choke in my old dt10.  The long crosser on that stand I can't break consistently irrespective of choke.

you are ĉorrect my mistake, it was trickly to pick it up today as it was all but invisible until it rolled out into the open ground. And I only managed 2 from 5 on the crosser 

 

[MJJ]

I was told a while back by someone who has no reason to BS that many top shots claim  they are shooting full and full it is bending the truth a bit as old english guns used to be described as full with the equivalent of a modern half constriction.

Could you explain that a bit better please. I was under the impression that -0.010" was one degree of choke relative to the 'bore size'. IE 20mm bore with -0.010" would be 1/4 choke, -0.020" would be 1/2 choke etc. Using the old style brass 'bore gauges' does not have any bearing on todays barrels as most are over bored and the end hole will be bigger. This does not mean that it has a more 'open choke' compared to the 'old guns'. I have a few guns at home with different bore sizes but they are 'choked' the same, but the end hole (muzzle) is a different diameter.

 

[westley]

If you fired both barrels quickly then you would have a string, would you not with a slight gap

NO...............a rope  ?

um, interesting.

even though the bird is a much bigger thing than a midi. ???

must admit watching driven pheasant from behind the gun looks very easy indeed. Look down the barrel (so to speak) and they look much smaller and faster. Same can be said for clays though ?

Watching driven pheasants IS very easy.  Shooting them is the hard bit  !

 

[schmokinn]

Could you explain that a bit better please. I was under the impression that -0.010" was one degree of choke relative to the 'bore size'. IE 20mm bore with -0.010" would be 1/4 choke, -0.020" would be 1/2 choke etc. Using the old style brass 'bore gauges' does not have any bearing on todays barrels as most are over bored and the end hole will be bigger. This does not mean that it has a more 'open choke' compared to the 'old guns'. I have a few guns at home with different bore sizes but they are 'choked' the same, but the end hole (muzzle) is a different diameter.

I fully understand how the choke measurement system works relative to bore size and that brass bore gauges are irrelevant to most modern guns though after going in a local gunshop it would appear their "gunsmith" doesn't.

The suggestion was that the measurements were regarded differently.