Trying to make life (shooting life anyway) simpler...

[TRINITY]

top draw build quality , easy to wipe down , always looks smart , great balance , 8lb 4 0z   great adj comb etc       at the price  hard to beat !!!  32"

Throw in a trap forend and I will give you your asking price ...    that's the gun I am looking to buy next , if I can ever find a good second hand example to that specification 

 

[Freddypip]

To defend the 3/8th & 5/8th camp & its rational. 1/2 is probably about right, but why have the same choke in both barrels - pick a bit either side and you get 3/8th & 5/8th !!

Personally, when I buy a new 694 it would be 1/4 & 1/2 until Father Christmas turned up with the new chokes.

Will - I have Briley chokes - I almost went to 1/2 & 3/4 for no other reason than they are a nice blue & dark purple compared to dull red & grey !!!

 

[Bebo]

Correct me if I am wrong but although 3/8 is commonly available, most shotguns come with commercial chokes of 1/4  and 1/2 both in fixed and in multi. As far as I am aware in the majority of circumstances,  3/8 usually means a barrel job or buying extra chokes.

Then as a relative rookie to the sport I find  it hard to believe that the difference between 3/8 to half   or 3/8 to quarter is easily detected . I would have  thought cartridge variation would have more effect than 1/8 adjustment in choking. As the saying goes 'its  a gnats **** hair" just cant see the point myself.

Krieghoffs come with fixed 3/4 and full chokes off the shelf.  You want anything other than that you have to specify it when you buy.  The choice I had was to open out the fixed chokes or get thin walled multis put in. I hate cleaning chokes and never bothered changing from quarter and half on my previous gun (DT10).  So fixed it was.  No difference in cost going for 3/8th compared to 1/2, so I went for 3/8th as I've been told that Kreighoffs fixed are slightly tight.

If I'd bought a second hand one with multi-chokes, I would have just put 1/4 and 1/2 in again and ignore them.

 

[Doctor Lecter]

Throw in a trap forend and I will give you your asking price ...    that's the gun I am looking to buy next , if I can ever find a good second hand example to that specification 

forgot to mention superb midas chokes           yes option of a trap fore end   would be the icing on the cake !!!

To defend the 3/8th & 5/8th camp & its rational. 1/2 is probably about right, but why have the same choke in both barrels - pick a bit either side and you get 3/8th & 5/8th !!

Personally, when I buy a new 694 it would be 1/4 & 1/2 until Father Christmas turned up with the new chokes.

Will - I have Briley chokes - I almost went to 1/2 & 3/4 for no other reason than they are a nice blue & dark purple compared to dull red & grey !!!

big ben shoots both barrels same choke    he dose ok !!!     

 

[Lloyd]

I have Briley chokes - I almost went to 1/2 & 3/4 for no other reason than they are a nice blue & dark purple compared to dull red & grey !!!

Flush chokes. Problem solved

 

[Cosmicblue]

Flush chokes. Problem solved

I like flush chokes for the aesthetic look - however the downside is the that the gun slip rubs the bluing off the muzzle which is. then, another visual irritant.  Extended choke tubes get around that problem unless the coloured ring is Pink    

 

[Lloyd]

I like flush chokes for the aesthetic look - however the downside is the that the gun slip rubs the bluing off the muzzle which is. then, another visual irritant.  Extended choke tubes get around that problem unless the coloured ring is Pink    

Is that a euphemism?

big ben shoots both barrels same choke    he dose ok !!!     

Bic and Bic?

sorry, couldn’t resist

if I recollect correctly he shoots 2 ¼ chokes. He did a YouTube post about how he came to that conclusion. It’s an interesting backstory that supports a lot of what has been said here

 

[k80ben]

Is that a euphemism?

Bic and Bic?

sorry, couldn’t resist

if I recollect correctly he shoots 2 ¼ chokes. He did a YouTube post about how he came to that conclusion. It’s an interesting backstory that supports a lot of what has been said here

The rumour was pencil and pencil 
 

in my opinion both barrels should be the same. Lots of info on my YouTube channel 

 

[MartynB]

It always amazes me how many people I see who have bottom barrel less / top barrel more , then completely ignore the barrel selector  when presented with an opportunity to exploit it ... 

 

[Bebo]

It always amazes me how many people I see who have bottom barrel less / top barrel more , then completely ignore the barrel selector  when presented with an opportunity to exploit it ... 

When I had a multi-choke gun I never changed chokes, but I did swop barrels to use the 1/4 on anything that was really close or the 1/2 on anything really distant.  Didn't bother for most targets, just anything at either extreme.

 

[Lloyd]

It always amazes me how many people I see who have bottom barrel less / top barrel more , then completely ignore the barrel selector  when presented with an opportunity to exploit it ... 

way too complicated for me

 

[Martinj]

way too complicated for me

You mean you went to the trouble of fitting two different chokes then don't bother selecting the best for the job? Am-a-zing darling! 

 

[Lloyd]

You mean you went to the trouble of fitting two different chokes then don't bother selecting the best for the job? Am-a-zing darling! 

Oh no... don’t you go making matters worse for me!

I fit two of the same choke restriction. Switching barrels to the best of those two...  I just can’t cope with that level of optimisation 

I have it set to bottom first all the time

 

[RJD]

in my opinion both barrels should be the same. Lots of info on my YouTube channel 

I really like this idea, presumably only for clays though?  This being the case what constriction would you suggest for average shooters at average layouts?

 

[Lloyd]

I really like this idea, presumably only for clays though?  This being the case what constriction would you suggest for average shooters at average layouts?

Well, it would be wrong of me to speak for Ben (but I will anyway), but as he says, he has info about this on his channel. The story goes if I recollect correctly he was pondering changing his half chokes for some long targets and had a nagging thought that maybe his halves might not be quite up to the job. So he swapped out for two ¾ chokes. The result was let’s say a very good day for Ben.  Later that evening, on cleaning his gun, he’d discovered he’d mistakenly installed 2x ¼ chokes. He concluded that if he could mistakenly be a whole half choke away from what he thought he needed, the what he actually needed wasn’t the choke restriction but confidence gained from making the switch to a tighter pattern at distance. Given the error, and the successes of the day, Ben from that point forward decided not to **** about with chokes any longer. 
 

So, conclusion. Where you place the shot is waaaay more important than the choke. And let’s face it, Ben is pretty exceptional at placing a shot. One wonders why he ever doubted his chokes in the first place, but that’s mindset for you.

I do disagree on one point with Ben in his video where he mentioned having the chokes matched to the gun. I disagree because this matching the diameters would be something in the order of 1/16 or maybe even an 1/8th. So if one half difference still makes the grade, I see little point worrying about that marginal amount of difference. 
 

80% a mind game, the other 20% is in your head. 
 

forget about the bang stick, the crackers, lenses. You may as well start worrying about your shoelaces. Don’t worry about anything else other than developing your skill set, until your at least as good as Ben and then, well... Ben Husthwaite QED

I personally went 2x ½ 

I chose this because I’d broken long targets with 21g CompX with 1/4 choke and close ones with half.

3/8 of course being in the middle seems sensible  I already had one ½  and one ¼  Being a tight arsed northerner I only wanted to buy one more choke and I flipped a coin... then I decided ½ and ½ might be my better long term bet to get accustomed to.

I set the selector to bottom barrel first on the very very thin idea that the gun might be be quicker in its transient response... forget that too, it happens so quickly the human brain has no hope of processing the information. So much is a placebo. If that placebo helps you, then get ten boxes of whatever it is  otherwise, forget it.

just my two cents

 

[Luke_(NL)]

Throw in a trap forend and I will give you your asking price ...    that's the gun I am looking to buy next , if I can ever find a good second hand example to that specification 

Except that you won’t, as there isn’t an option for a trap forend in the special laminate by Browning... 

I like flush chokes for the aesthetic look - however the downside is the that the gun slip rubs the bluing off the muzzle which is. then, another visual irritant.  Extended choke tubes get around that problem unless the coloured ring is Pink    

A case would solve the issue of the rubbing... not a fan of gun slips for multiple reasons and that is one of them.

 

[RJD]

Well, it would be wrong of me to speak for Ben (but I will anyway), but as he says, he has info about this on his channel. The story goes if I recollect correctly he was pondering changing his half chokes for some long targets and had a nagging thought that maybe his halves might not be quite up to the job. So he swapped out for two ¾ chokes. The result was let’s say a very good day for Ben.  Later that evening, on cleaning his gun, he’d discovered he’d mistakenly installed 2x ¼ chokes. He concluded that if he could mistakenly be a whole half choke away from what he thought he needed, the what he actually needed wasn’t the choke restriction but confidence gained from making the switch to a tighter pattern at distance. Given the error, and the successes of the day, Ben from that point forward decided not to **** about with chokes any longer. 
 

So, conclusion. Where you place the shot is waaaay more important than the choke. And let’s face it, Ben is pretty exceptional at placing a shot. One wonders why he ever doubted his chokes in the first place, but that’s mindset for you.

I do disagree on one point with Ben in his video where he mentioned having the chokes matched to the gun. I disagree because this matching the diameters would be something in the order of 1/16 or maybe even an 1/8th. So if one half difference still makes the grade, I see little point worrying about that marginal amount of difference. 
 

80% a mind game, the other 20% is in your head. 
 

forget about the bang stick, the crackers, lenses. You may as well start worrying about your shoelaces. Don’t worry about anything else other than developing your skill set, until your at least as good as Ben and then, well... Ben Husthwaite QED

I personally went 2x ½ 

I chose this because I’d broken long targets with 21g CompX with 1/4 choke and close ones with half.

3/8 of course being in the middle seems sensible  I already had one ½  and one ¼  Being a tight arsed northerner I only wanted to buy one more choke and I flipped a coin... then I decided ½ and ½ might be my better long term bet to get accustomed to.

I set the selector to bottom barrel first on the very very thin idea that the gun might be be quicker in its transient response... forget that too, it happens so quickly the human brain has no hope of processing the information. So much is a placebo. If that placebo helps you, then get ten boxes of whatever it is  otherwise, forget it.

just my two cents

Thank you, makes sense. 5/6 years ago I used ½ ½ for all of my game shooting and that FELT like I couldn’t miss, then I changed because the  black extended chokes I had were not smooth on the end and chewed up gun slips... I’d stopped using flush fit for reasons other have mentioned.