Choke Choices Made Simple

Falconflyer said:
Ok maybe just a teeny weeny bit of Digweed in me from time to time! Lol

My above mentioned Mx8 doubles gun with full over mod is only a hundred bucks away from being a mod over mod sporting gun.... it's tempting but then I'd lose my fav doubles gun.
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That mx8 is a classic I would cut my fingers off before I would modify it in any way. The barrels and balance of that gun was and still is as "SWEET" as they come.
 
In case nobody recognized him, thats Mr. Digweed…presenting a trophy to my son Andrew (little skinny guy in the middle). lol

I remember watching George shoot when they held the ‘Worlds’ in Ontario a few years back. I believe Andrew was having a good day on Saturday and was ahead of George who was having a bad day. Sunday Mr. Digweed got it together and left everyone behind in the dust. Top shooters are like machines. Amazing to watch !!
 

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warzaw said:
That mx8 is a classic I would cut my fingers off before I would modify it in any way. The barrels and balance of that gun was and still is as "SWEET" as they come.
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Your right about that, it has handling characteristics like no other gun I've owned, my High Tech is close but not quite there. And this Mx8 is completely rebuilt, good for another few hundred thousand rounds!
 
I’m surprised with the love for porting. I notice a big difference with ported barrels or chokes vs non ported…they are significantly LOUDER. Especially when we are shooting out of the 5-stand heated house in the winter. I hate shooting next to them 5-stand or even on the trap range. Skeet or sporting isn’t quite as bad as you are well behind the shooter.
 
In sporting clays obsessing over chokes is a fool's game. While another shooter is fretting over which choke to install I'm looking at targets to determining flight path, when it comes into focus, background, hold point, foot position, eye hold, insert point and move to the second target.

As long as I have enough choke to reach the target I don't care what constriction is in even if it's a little tighter than I might choose otherwise. In my o/u with selectable barrels there's a skeet in the lower barrel and a mod in the top. In the o/u without a selector it's light mod and light mod and I might go weeks without reaching for the wrench.
 
I have five target guns that are ported I can live with them but if I got the chance to do it over again I would not. The science is there but in real life porting offers little gain for me and comes with negatives that out way positives. As to choke tubes they are not all good the short tubes do not pattern the same as the longer opti type tubes but I still prefer a slim light fixed choke barrel . As stated chasing chokes can be a fools game I have done that more than once.
 
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I for one only marginally believe the science behind barrel porting. Well, it's not that I don't believe it as much as it's been over hyped.

I've written about this extensively over the years so I won't go into a lot of detail but the design of the gun itself will mitigate or increase muzzle rise. The relationship of the thrust line of the barrels to the center of the recoil pad basically dictates how much muzzle rise you will get.
A browning Citori with it's under lug action increases the depth of the receiver and in doing so increases the height of the thrust line in relation to the shoulder. A Beretta with it's side lock up has a more shallow receiver and gets the thrust line closer to the shoulder and in doing so mitigates barrel rise. Barrel porting might help the Browning a bit here and that might be why Browning still offers it on target guns.
Years ago, my friend and I had identical Beretta 686 sporting guns and I decided to port mine as it was all the rage at the time. We shot those guns side by side and could observe absolutely no difference in muzzle rise, mostly because there was little to start with on the bottom barrel, if you shoot this barrel first then muzzle rise on the top barrel matters little anyway.

If you've ever watched someone shooting an old humpback Browning and look closely you will see a lot of muzzle rise. This is because the barrel is so high above the thrust line. More modern semi auto manufacturers made efforts to lower the barrel in the receiver to mitigate muzzle rise and this is apparent on modern semi's with the belly in front of the trigger guard which was necessary to accommodate the magazine. These guns still have some muzzle rise but nothing compared to the old designs. Porting might help muzzle rise somewhat on these guns.

What porting on shotguns does not do is mitigate recoil as some claim. Shotgun barrels are so thin that it's basically impossible to redirect gasses other than 90 degree's from the barrel therefore no recoil reduction occurs as it does on a rifle barrel which is thick enough to direct some thrust back towards the shooter. Heavy recoiling rifles such as the 50 BMG use brakes with gills that provide a lot of surface area to redirect the gasses because just the barrel thickness isn't enough. Also, shotguns run at approximately 11,500 psi compared to rifles which can run as much as 60,000 psi or more, more pressure enables better recoil reduction if you can redirect it.

The weather is too crappy to shoot today and I have to paint a bathroom, I seem to be having trouble getting motivated....
 
(you've ever watched someone shooting an old humpback Browning and look closely you will see a lot of muzzle rise. This is because the barrel is so high above the thrust line. More modern semi auto manufacturers made efforts to lower the barrel in the receiver to mitigate muzzle rise and this is apparent on modern semi's with the belly in front of the trigger guard which was necessary to accommodate the magazine. These guns still have some muzzle rise but nothing compared to the old designs. Porting might help muzzle rise somewhat on these guns.) So FF if this is a your reasoning and I'm in agreement then under barrel singles would have less muzzle jump than over singles as the barrel is set lower in the receiver ie also bottom barrel o/u shooters would exp the same, am I following your train..
 
reddog said:
(you've ever watched someone shooting an old humpback Browning and look closely you will see a lot of muzzle rise. This is because the barrel is so high above the thrust line. More modern semi auto manufacturers made efforts to lower the barrel in the receiver to mitigate muzzle rise and this is apparent on modern semi's with the belly in front of the trigger guard which was necessary to accommodate the magazine. These guns still have some muzzle rise but nothing compared to the old designs. Porting might help muzzle rise somewhat on these guns.) So FF if this is a your reasoning and I'm in agreement then under barrel singles would have less muzzle jump than over singles as the barrel is set lower in the receiver ie also bottom barrel o/u shooters would exp the same, am I following your train..
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Precisely Reddog!

Under barrel singles have the thrust line closer to the center of the recoil pad and shoulder so the muzzle jump is less that it would be with the top barrel or over single which obviously is higher up. This is also why most shooters fire the bottom barrel of their over and under first. The only thing is that with a trap over single there is no quick second shot so muzzle rise isn't an issue.
The advantage of an over single is that guys who cant their gun slightly generally will shoot better than they do with an un single due to the rib height above the bore.
 
As an experiment I shot a round of sporting switching between two borrowed Beretta 390s that were identical in every respect other than one being ported. There was no appreciable difference in recoil or muzzle rise. The ported gun was a bit louder.
 
The chaps that insist on porting being somewhat of a benefit are shooting 800 plus rounds per week. Maybe with that amount of shooting they perceive a reduction in recoil however slight, as an advantage. I personally think ported shotguns are ‘rude’ on everyones ears but thats life at a gun club. I have 2 ported shotguns. A Browning 425 in 12g that I don’t enjoy to shoot anymore but can’t part with it. I prefer all my various 28g shotguns instead but question why my latest acquisition was ported. A Benelli 28g Sporter. I think companies think porting looks tactical cool and it aids marketing and sales. 28g recoil is like the gentle kiss of a fair maiden already and with the porting I have to be careful not to fall forward everytime I pull the trigger. Cheers
 
This is great information. I shot my first round of trap this week with 20 inch barrel with modified. Hit maybe 20%.
Next round I’ll use the cylinder bore. Maybe modified was too tight for my first go at this but thought with the short barrel may be beneficial. Perhaps not.
Was fun regardless
 
ERprecision said:
This is great information. I shot my first round of trap this week with 20 inch barrel with modified. Hit maybe 20%.
Next round I’ll use the cylinder bore. Maybe modified was too tight for my first go at this but thought with the short barrel may be beneficial. Perhaps not.
Was fun regardless
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Longer barrels promote a smoother swing. For trap stick with your modified choke. Cylinder is better for skeet.
 
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