Help on Chokes
- Thread starter Woodeneye
- Start date
Full will give you the tightest pattern.
This link provides a good explanation of chokes and how they work.
http://www.briley.com/understandingshotgunchokesabriefexplanationbybriley.aspx
This link provides a good explanation of chokes and how they work.
http://www.briley.com/understandingshotgunchokesabriefexplanationbybriley.aspx
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While the Briley article provides a decent description as to how chokes work, they don't talk about how specific loads work in any given choke. The size and composition of the shot and the pressure they are fired at also plays a role in how shot is effected by the amount of barrel constriction. OO Buck shoots tighter through a choke with less constriction, steel birdshot often produces the tightest and most uniform pattern through a modified choke, and low recoil loads tend to produce more uniform patterns than high velocity loads.
It is important to pattern your gun with the shells you intend to use so that you know what to expect at any given range. The results you observe from a combination of shot size, wad, and load, will vary from barrel to barrel and from choke to choke. You will find that some shells pattern better than others, and that what applies on one gun may not in another. The dispersion of pellets is as important as the pattern diameter, if for example your full choke gun shoots donut shaped patterns with a large untouched area in the middle, you might find that a modified choke is better. If you are shooting with a cylinder bore, the shot string will be shorter than if you are shooting the same load in a full or turkey choke, and you may find it easier to hit moving targets with a longer shot string at the expense of pattern diameter. In any pattern, one pellet hits the target first and one pellet hits the target last, even though it takes place in a very compressed time frame. This distance between the first and the last pellet describes the length of the shot string.
It is important to pattern your gun with the shells you intend to use so that you know what to expect at any given range. The results you observe from a combination of shot size, wad, and load, will vary from barrel to barrel and from choke to choke. You will find that some shells pattern better than others, and that what applies on one gun may not in another. The dispersion of pellets is as important as the pattern diameter, if for example your full choke gun shoots donut shaped patterns with a large untouched area in the middle, you might find that a modified choke is better. If you are shooting with a cylinder bore, the shot string will be shorter than if you are shooting the same load in a full or turkey choke, and you may find it easier to hit moving targets with a longer shot string at the expense of pattern diameter. In any pattern, one pellet hits the target first and one pellet hits the target last, even though it takes place in a very compressed time frame. This distance between the first and the last pellet describes the length of the shot string.
Guns do need to be patterned with the specific load you are using. The Briley document shows "choke" is measured as a constriction. Choke is also measured as a percentage of shot pattern that falls within a 30" circle at 40 yards.
A choke with a 0.020" constriction is considered modified but it may not throw a modified pattern of 60 per cent. Shot hardness, size velocity, wad construction can all affect how a gun actually patterns. The only way to determine what works best in your gun is to pattern it.
A choke with a 0.020" constriction is considered modified but it may not throw a modified pattern of 60 per cent. Shot hardness, size velocity, wad construction can all affect how a gun actually patterns. The only way to determine what works best in your gun is to pattern it.
