Choke selection 12ga trap/skeet/sporting clay

I shoot a 20/24 fixed choke O/U for all the clay games and never spend any time pondering choke selection. But I am a recreational shooter. While good for Sporting, a serious skeet or trap shooter would not select 20/24.
 
Like shooting teal in the fog ,only 1 shot and man you better be on them :)

I haven't shot a teal in well over a decade. Don't hunt water any longer and Teal don't generally come to a grain field unless there is sheet water on it. They are safe around me. Besides at the price of ammo these days I'm not wasting any on something that takes half a limit to fill one taco! :p
 
I wouldn’t trust IC for first shot in doubles let alone singles.

Well don't take this the wrong way but if you don't trust an IC choke for the first shot in doubles then you probably don't set yourself up for the first shot properly and are taking way too long to shoot that first target. Most doubles shooters have that first target busted within 2 yards of either side of the 10 yard height setting stake meaning you are taking a 24-28 yd shot and an IC choke will absolutely inkspot a target at that distance. When I shoot doubles with an O/U I shoot IC/IM or IC/F. And not that I am a great doubles shooter but I rarely miss that first target and when I do it's because I have a computer glitch and wait until it appears above my barrel to chase it instead of shooting it as soon as it disappears under my gun on its flight path to my hold point.
 
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I shoot a 20/24 fixed choke O/U for all the clay games and never spend any time pondering choke selection. But I am a recreational shooter. While good for Sporting, a serious skeet or trap shooter would not select 20/24.

There’s nothing wrong with having fixed chokes. Some of the top sporting clays and FITSC shooters use them and mostly they choke tight and shoot far and close targets alike with them. That takes away some of the more popular excuses for missed targets such “aw shucks, I should have changed my chokes for that presentation” one just has to be more precise on the close targets.
Having fixed chokes allows the muzzles to be a bit lighter than if they had choke tubes, not much lighter but when the weight is at the end of 30 inch barrels then it does make a bit of a difference. My sporting gun is 9 lbs and has 31.5 inch barrels, I didn’t want to add a bunch of weight to the muzzles so elected to use Muller Featherweight tubes that are actually aluminum in order to avoid adding too much weight to the muzzles and they have worked out well.
Probably the nicest thing about fixed chokes is that they simplify things, no pondering what choke you should use, no worrying about them coming loose, no cleaning, no stuck tubes if you neglect them, no spending hundreds of dollars on aftermarket tubes, the list goes on.
 
Well don't take this the wrong way but if you don't trust an IC choke for the first shot in doubles then you probably don't set yourself up for the first shot properly and are taking way too long to shoot that first target. Most doubles shooters have that first target busted within 2 yards of either side of the 10 yard height setting stake meaning you are taking a 24-28 yd shot and an IC choke will absolutely inkspot a target at that distance. When I shoot doubles with an O/U I shoot IC/IM or IC/F. And not that I am a great doubles shooter but I rarely miss that first target and when I do it's because I have a computer glitch and wait until it appears above my barrel to chase it instead of shooting it as soon as it disappears under my gun on its flight path to my hold point.

a very accomplished doubles shooter told me that he had tried every choke from IC to XFull for his first target and never saw any difference. He would destroy the first target as soon as it cleared the top of the house. The patterns are all the same at that range.
 
Well don't take this the wrong way but if you don't trust an IC choke for the first shot in doubles then you probably don't set yourself up for the first shot properly and are taking way too long to shoot that first target. Most doubles shooters have that first target busted within 2 yards of either side of the 10 yard height setting stake meaning you are taking a 24-28 yd shot and an IC choke will absolutely inkspot a target at that distance. When I shoot doubles with an O/U I shoot IC/IM or IC/F. And not that I am a great doubles shooter but I rarely miss that first target and when I do it's because I have a computer glitch and wait until it appears above my barrel to chase it instead of shooting it as soon as it disappears under my gun on its flight path to my hold point.

Have a 94.5 average on 1400 doubles targets last year. Tried more more then a few combinations for the first shot mod choke has given the best results. Phil Kiner has videos of targets flying through IC patterns for the first bird.

IMO the biggest problem people have with doubles is they don’t shoot enough of them in practice and they don’t watch what the targets are doing.
 
Do you mean their first pair at each station?

Have a 94.5 average on 1400 doubles targets last year. Tried more more then a few combinations for the first shot mod choke has given the best results. Phil Kiner has videos of targets flying through IC patterns for the first bird.

IMO the biggest problem people have with doubles is they don’t shoot enough of them in practice and they don’t watch what the targets are doing.
 
Hi
I’m trying to improve my games and new at it with my browning Citori
What are your guys recommendations for chokes and shot size.
Right now I’m hitting about 10/25 in trap. 7-10/25 in skeet and 15-20/100 in sporting clay.

For
Trap-
Skeet- I’m guessing skeet choke or improved cyclinder.
Sporting clay course-

I have 7.5 and 8 challenger target loads both 1 1/8 oz

Thank you

I was shooting the same score as you, but when I switched the gun I went to 80%+. In my case I used a Stevens 555 and Benelli nova and for both the comb was too high. I switched to a browning 725 field and my accuracy improved immediately
 
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