Chokes for Trap and skeet

sharp shooter

sharp shooter

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I am thinking about buying a O/U with fixed skeet chokes. How do you guys like your skeet chokes, I have never used one. Can I still hunt pheasants with it. What range is a skeet choke good for when shooting trap and skeet. I usually use red dot 1-1/8 oz loads with 7.5 or 8 shot. Let me know what you think about the skeet choke!

Steve
 
I hunted for years with nothing but "Skeet" guns, cause that's all I had.

From my own experiance, I found them very effective in either 12 or 20 gauge out to 30-35 yards with 7-1/2's, but 40 yard patterns with 4's or even 6's were starting to get a little sketchy.

Skeet as you know is pretty much a 21 yard ideal (any station to the "crossing" point) with shots anywhere from 5-6 yards ( station 8's, or riding the incomers at the end stations, to as much as 25 yards for those that ride their outgoing singles. I think you can be quite comfortable for most upland hunting situations and waterfowl over decoys with "Skeet" chokes ! Skeet chokes with steel shot will also deliver some pretty good patterns at ranges that may surprise you ... shoot a few patterns and see !

Skeet chokes for Trap can be a bit of a disappointment. Most 16 yard Trap targets are taken at something like 34-36 yards by a reasonably quick shooter, many of whom find Modified or Improved Modified to be adavantageous. As Skeet chokes typically have less than half the amount of constriction of Modified, patterns can be pretty thin for that little 108mm clay disk. That's not to say you can't shoot Trap with a Skeet choke ... I have, as have many others ... but a few targets will go sailing away unscathed that you swore you were right-on. I've had better & more consistant scores shooting Skeet with a .410 and it's measly 1/2 oz. shot charge than I have using a Skeet gun on Trap with 1-1/8 oz. of shot.
 
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If you can spend a few extra bucks, go with a shotgun that has interchangeable chocke tubes as it's going to be so much more versatile.

For skeet shooting, I'd normally have 1 tube with skeet, the other with improved cylinder. For trap, skeet is way too wide of a pattern. Anywhere from improved to full is what you need.

For pheasant & partridge hunting, I'd have 1 tube with improved cylinder, the other with modified.

Then for the occasional duck hunt, I'd have one with modified, the other with full (or both full).

.... one gun, many different hunts.
 
Sheet chokes are very open chokes. As such, they're ideal for short range shooting - they produce a well saturated pattern at about 25 yards. This makes them well suited to short range target sports such as skeet, or for short range game situations such as wingshooting in dense bush conditions.

I wouldn't be too enthusiastic about doing any hunting with skeet/skeet chokes, though, because you don't have a barrel choked for anything much beyond 25 yards. I consider it likely that longer shots would present themselves, even in tight situations. I've never tried doing so myself, but I'd imagine that skeet chokes would work well for snipe hunting, which tends to be short range and can benefit from good patterns close in.

In my opinion, skeet chokes are wholly unsuited to trap shooting or pheasant hunting. Trap shooting is best done with at least 30" barrels and a combination of full and modified chokes. This is because in trap your first shot will usually be at roughly 35 yards and your second shot (if required), at considerably longer distances, depending on how quickly you can adjust and fire off a second shot.

Pheasant hunting usually presents a combination of close and longer shots. It's possible to have limited success pheasant hunting with skeet chokes, but it could be extremely frustrating. Besides having gaping holes in your patterns for all but the closest shots, you also run the risk of injuring birds and not making clean kills. Pheasant are tough birds and one or two pellets are seldom enough to bring one down. Once on the ground, they make amazing use of cover and are difficult to locate unless you have a dog to help locate them.

(I once was baffled looking for a pheasant that my dog insisted was there. Eventually I figured out why I couldn't find the bird and why it didn't break cover with me so close by. Turns out the pheasant was so well camouflaged that I was standing on it's tail without realizing it was even there.:redface:)
 
I just wanted the gun because it is a 1958 browning superposed in very good + condition. I love old brownings however I was unsure of the skeet chokes since all I shoot is backyard trap and pheasants. I love my full and modified choked guns and was just wondeing how different the skeet chokes would be. Do you guys think its good for backyard hand or machine thrown trap?
 
It would be okay for hand thrown birds but not the trap range, I found that skeet chokes tended to wound more game with the wider pattern, when shooting at tough birds like ducks at the outside of 30 yds. Tighter chokes tend to kill cleaner or a clean miss at those ranges...IMHO
 
I support what has been said, so far, that skeet chokes are ideal for skeet, but not for trap singles. My Citori seemed to prefer IM for singles in trap and I've ended up using modified for the first shot in doubles (IC works too in my gun). Interestingly, I was watching a DVD created by the Ash's which a friend graciously loaned me. In the DVD they recommended skeet chokes in many situations in sporting clays for shots up to 25 yards. So, this is another nice application for skeet chokes, but not being able to change chokes would probably be a serious disadvantage in some presentations. The Ash's also said that the trap target is a difficult one to break because of how the bird flies in relation to the shooter, i.e. quartering or straight away with the top of the dome presented. As a result, one wants somewhat more choke to shoot it. In some ways my experience seems to back this up because I've picked up quite a few clays on our trap field with two or three holes in them that didn't break.
 
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sharp shooter said:
I am thinking about buying a O/U with fixed skeet chokes. How do you guys like your skeet chokes, I have never used one. Can I still hunt pheasants with it. What range is a skeet choke good for when shooting trap and skeet. I usually use red dot 1-1/8 oz loads with 7.5 or 8 shot. Let me know what you think about the skeet choke!

Steve
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I use open chokes for pheasants in my 28's and have absolutely no problem picking them up, my sons first birds were with a skeet gun that was tubed with 28's and skeet chokes as well, but for trap I like a tighter choke.

I also use SKT1 and SKT2 in my 20 gauge for geese and ducks, but my birds are decoyed and normal shots are inside 40 yards and coming in or crossing, not going away like a trap bird is.
I would NOT shoot steel out of that browning if it were me however!
Cat
 
"59 Superposed Skt & Skt

PA150106.jpg
 
sharp shooter said:
I am thinking about buying a O/U with fixed skeet chokes. How do you guys like your skeet chokes, I have never used one. Can I still hunt pheasants with it. What range is a skeet choke good for when shooting trap and skeet. I usually use red dot 1-1/8 oz loads with 7.5 or 8 shot. Let me know what you think about the skeet choke!

Steve
Click to expand...
 
Excuse me, but I don’t know if I am posting this in the right place. For many years, I have been a traitor on this site. I don’t know what happened but sometime ago my site disappeared. I had a lot of trades and a very high trader rating, but it is all gone Currently I have put up a new site under my name Mike Hartzman. I cannot post anything and I am unfortunately unable to use all the things I like using on the site. Is it possible to perhaps help me find my old account and get it going again. Hope you can help. Thank you, Mike.
 
This is a fantastic Skeet Gun. They’re very well-made in Belgium. Quite famous actually. It would be a fabulous Skeet gun for you, but it would not do for trap. Hope this helps. Michael.
 
Skeet chokes work well for skeet, and if you hunt over a pointing dog, and can get close shots, they can work on upland birds. For trap, skeet chokes are totally unsuitable, and they are no better for upland birds past 30 yards or so.
 
Buy it you are in Ontario not out west two different worlds they choke tighter out there for there wide open conditions . Lots of gunners hunt birds and rabbits with skeet chokes in the woodlots and ponds in Ontario If you handload you can tighten the pattern with the shot charge and wads if need be but skeet chokes will serve you well. Trap not a great choice but a really fast reactive shooter can get by on the 16yd line.Even a old fool like me can break few with a 410 at that distance on a good day. But if you are a serious trap shooter nothing can relace a proper 12 gauge trap gun.
 
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warzaw said:
Buy it you are in Ontario not out west two different worlds they choke tighter out there for there wide open conditions . Lots of gunners hunt birds and rabbits with skeet chokes in the woodlots and ponds in Ontario If you handload you can tighten the pattern with the shot charge and wads if need be but skeet chokes will serve you well.
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I dunno Warsaw, everyone I hunt with out here shoot pretty open chokes , if they are shooting a pump.or semi and can change chokes they usually go with IC if they can, regardless of the gauge .
We do shoot over good dogs however 🙂
But I do agree for ATA trap, skeet chokes are far from desirable!
Cat
 
iron cat said:
I dunno Warsaw, everyone I hunt with out here shoot pretty open chokes , if they are shooting a pump.or semi and can change chokes they usually go with IC if they can, regardless of the gauge .
We do shoot over good dogs however 🙂
But I do agree for ATA trap, skeet chokes are far from desirable!
Cat
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Only hunted in praires one time years ago it was all open country no dogs and those crazy chickens flushed at extended ranges. Most of the posts from the west seem to be tight chokes are the norm ? In all my years a skeet choke never kept me home killed plenty birds with them. I do shoot tighter chokes in my sub gauge guns.
 
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