How do you choke for trap?

Win/64 said:
It depends if you want to see "Ink Balls" or just pieces and chunks. I like Ink Balls.
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:agree: and when you're ink balling them your confidence starts running high and you feel yourself settle into a groove, especially if you are on a good squad that has a real good rhythm going and the guys ahead of you are into them good as well. Thats when trap shooting gets really fun. :d

That is the part of the game that those who say "I find trap so boring" don't get to experience. Until they have done it enough and got a group together that shoots well together and focuses as one entity they will probably always find it boring. Those of you who have shot competitively know what I mean.....
 
I shoot a Beretta A400 Semi Auto and I shoot a Modified at 16 yards. I've been told that the way I dust the targets, I could go to Full. We have a couple great shooters at my club that have helped me out and even they not to go to full until I'm at the 22 yard line or farther back.
 
the spank said:
:agree: and when you're ink balling them your confidence starts running high and you feel yourself settle into a groove, especially if you are on a good squad that has a real good rhythm going and the guys ahead of you are into them good as well. Thats when trap shooting gets really fun. :d

That is the part of the game that those who say "I find trap so boring" don't get to experience. Until they have done it enough and got a group together that shoots well together and focuses as one entity they will probably always find it boring. Those of you who have shot competitively know what I mean.....
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I rarely shoot trap, but I have shot with experienced people where you do get a rhythm going, and it definitely makes it more pleasant to shoot. However, after a couple of rounds, I still get bored , and go back to shooting skeet. And if sporting clays is an option, I would choose it over trap or skeet anytime.:)
 
I'm in between "smoke" and "chips & chunks" ... 100 well-broken targets out scores 99 ink-balls (edited) every time.
Consecutive straight runs, to me, builds more confidence than smoked targets with the occasional miss !

A station or two in and you just "break" a target or two might make you try to bear down a little, a then what, you let
one slide. Confidence gone & second guessing starts. Doesn't take a whole lot to be off just a little with Full or X-Full from 16.

An ounce of eights works just fine at 16. Back at about 22 and beyond, 1-1/8 oz. of 7-1/2's seems the overall favourite choice.
 
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beretta boy said:
I'm in between "smoke" and "chips & chunks" ... 100 well-broken targets out scores 100 ink-balls every time.
Consecutive straight runs, to me, builds more confidence than smoked targets with the occasional miss !

A station or two in and you just "break" a target or two might make you try to bear down a little, a then what, you let
one slide. Confidence gone & second guessing starts. Doesn't take a whole lot to be off just a little with Full or X-Full from 16.

An ounce of eights works just fine at 16. Back at about 22 and beyond, 1-1/8 oz. of 7-1/2's seems the overall favourite choice.
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"100 well-broken targets out scores 100 ink-balls every time"....

Sounds like a tie to me. My 2 cents the tie goes to the Ink Balls.
 
Win/64 said:
"100 well-broken targets out scores 100 ink-balls every time"....

Sounds like a tie to me. My 2 cents the tie goes to the Ink Balls.
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Yes I am confused by the math here as well. A 100 broken targets vs 100 ink balled targets = 100/100 on the score sheet!! And like Win/64 I would much prefer 100 ink balls to 100 chips and chunks. Chips and chunks sounds like a Christie chocolate cookie to me......;)
 
I say choke to your confidence level. After being told that the only way to shoot trap was with full choke 7.5's 3 dram loads. we went to the 27 yard line. him with his full choke big loads, me with my skeet choke, 9.5 shot 7/8 ounce intl skeet loads. he shot 15, i shot 17. Neither was a winning score, but it proved that 3 pellets in the right place do enough to break a target. The most important part was putting them in the right place.
 
Yes, I did mean 100 well-broken targets outscores 99 ink-balls Original post edited.

I'm advocating enough choke to achieve well-broken targets ... not chips & chunks !

The balance of my statements still stand. Yes, 100 ink-balls looks damn impressive ... but there is so little room
for any sort of error ... ever shot a 199 and wondered " Gee, What Just Happened ? "
 
Oh you guys!

I miss some of the old timers who have passed on now or are too old to shoot or have lost interest.

Growing up at a gun club, there were some older trap shooters who could SHOOT!

Didn't matter if they had a model 12, a MX-8 or K-80. Ink balls after ink balls and hardly ever a miss.

Mostly skeet shot at my home club now and all those old trap shooters are pretty much gone. Kinda sad.
 
Kind of interesting how the question of what choke to use keeps coming up over the years. I just don't think there is any correct simple answer. For me it depends how the shotgun shoots, whether one is shooting doubles or singles and how quickly one shoots too. I had a citori trap that opened up lots with a modified choke at 35 yards, for example. I'm probably a little bit slow and quite often I'm picking up the bird around there or even a little further out. Improved modified was clearly best for me with this gun in singles. My BT-99 is full choke and I match the Citori with it. I get good hits, but only see two or three true smoke balls in a round. In doubles, which I don't have the opportunity to shoot very often, I can use modified or even IC for the first bird because one knows where it is coming from. I suspect I could even use a skeet choke. One thing I noticed about good shooters is that they often pick the bird up very quickly. That being the case, they could use IC in singles and still whack birds all day. Sadly, not all of us have that kind of talent. I tend to support the idea that hits are more important than smoke balls, especially for beginning shooters where any hit is morale building. Just my $0.02 worth, of course.
 
I shot trap once with Steve Torino. I shot gun down aka FITASC and 1 0z load with LM. I shot 25. American trap are not very difficult. So, I asked him what was the difficulty. He said 50-75 and 100. I shot 24 gun down for 49. LM will kill FITASC targets out to over 50 M with proper shells. Bunker trap and Olympic trap are much more challenging targets! BTW, Olympic double trap is shot with 9s or 9.5 first shot and 8 or 7.5 second shot!
Henry
 
hnachaj said:
I shot trap once with Steve Torino. I shot gun down aka FITASC and 1 0z load with LM. I shot 25. American trap are not very difficult. So, I asked him what was the difficulty. He said 50-75 and 100. I shot 24 gun down for 49. LM will kill FITASC targets out to over 50 M with proper shells. Bunker trap and Olympic trap are much more challenging targets! BTW, Olympic double trap is shot with 9s or 9.5 first shot and 8 or 7.5 second shot!
Henry
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I didn't understand a word of that. So you would choke what for Trap??
 
I choke for smoke. I shoot quick and can use a cylinder bore at 16 yards and still score well. I enjoy shooting my hunting sxs guns and prefer the rear trigger if shooting pre mounted which usually is the left barrel choked full. 7/8 oz #8. It works for me. 22+ yards I use full or my custom .650 choke for 12 ga
 
hnachaj said:
I shot trap once with Steve Torino. I shot gun down aka FITASC and 1 0z load with LM. I shot 25. American trap are not very difficult. So, I asked him what was the difficulty. He said 50-75 and 100. I shot 24 gun down for 49. LM will kill FITASC targets out to over 50 M with proper shells. Bunker trap and Olympic trap are much more challenging targets! BTW, Olympic double trap is shot with 9s or 9.5 first shot and 8 or 7.5 second shot!
Henry
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You are absolutely right! I guess that is why at the 100th Grand American in the Preliminary Handicap event which had over 5,000 entries that day( the highest ever in a Grand event to that point) the winning score was a lone 98x100 and wasn't a big name shooter? Then there was 4 - 97's shooting off for 2nd to 5th place and 8 of us with 96's vying for 6th - 10th. Funny? The top 3 scores were by 13/5000 shooters and not a single 100 straight. I can't believe you weren't there doing it low gun with it being so easy? :rolleyes:
 
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