How do you choke for trap?

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linderhof

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Shot a few rounds of 16yd trap and 5 stand last summer and decided i liked the game. Plan on doing more this summer. My 2 hunting guns ( 20g & 16g Feather Lightnings) each weigh in at 6lbs only so were pretty harsh to shoot. I am now shopping for a 12 O/U field gun. Not committed to serious play so a field gun it will be for now, thinking of a Citori Lightning with 28" tubes. This should put me @ the 8lb mark but give me the dimensions and ergonomics I am familiar with from my hunting guns.

My question is how do you choke your double guns? I typically choke at SK/IC to hunt over my Brittany and last summer used LM for the 16yd trap. What is the best setups for trap, Sporting Clays and Skeet? Although I don't think our club does a Skeet shoot.
 
MOD/FULL on 32" bbls for me from 16 yard. Could probably open up one choke on each, but like to keep it more interesting and like how hard it breaks clays.
 
For trap you won't go wrong with Full/ Full.... If you aren't squaring it up then you aren't squaring it up. When you start moving back or trying to get that second bird on doubles you want a bit more choke. Shoot a few flats worth of targets and you will see what works for you. I'm lazy and just leave the full chokes in there- I'm not competing and the inkballs are awesome when you square up a clay. There will be no end of opinions, but Mod or tighter would be where I would start. Funny story- but I started shooting trap with my Grandfather's gun that had a poly choke. Seems it wasn't set properly, so I shot my first 10 rounds with effectively a cylinder choke... Couldn't understand why I kept missing- and felt pretty stupid when I figured it out. Cylinder is definitely not advised for trap...
 
Anything from modified tighter is what the majority use, and most of the higher level shooters I know us a full choke or close to it.
Also, t here has been a trend in the past years by many doubles shooters to use IC for their first bird.
I don't shoot registered birds anymore, but I do use all my fields guns on the trap range when I do shoot to help keep in tune with them, and switch barrels when I am shooting, be it with a 12 or a 28 gauge.
Here's something to think about that will start a conversation - 7/8 oz of shot is what many on the 16 yard trap line use these days.
My 28 gauge load is 7/8oz , how many birds do you think I drop in a round compared to my 20, 16, or 12 gauge field guns?
I can tell you that the first 50 birds I cleaned in wobble trap were done with a 28 gauge using a modified choke!
As was already stated, if you are squared up to the target, you will break birds just fine.
Cat
 
" registered birds " are birds that are shot and registered with the ATA to keep your classification up for sanctioned shoots.
I haven't shot 1 1/8 loads for years, either 1 oz or 7/8 in my 12's, even my trap guns, and only 2 3/4
dram loads.
7 1/2 or 8 shot
Cat
 
Probably makes me sound like a dummy but I have never with the exception of my introductory season, when I experimented with more open chokes shot less than a full choke restriction, doubles excepted ,for 16 yard or handicap. I found simply breaking clays into a few good pieces as opposed to ink balling them left me with a lack of confidence in my shooting ability and gun/load combination. I have actually always been an XF constriction shooter primarily on singles and Hdcp. On doubles my best scores have come on an IC/F combination. And I am still a fairly old school shooter in that I prefer a 1 1/8 oz 3 dram load of 7.5's for trapshooting.
 
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Look at buying aftermarket choke tubes as many shotguns come with less than desirable tubes from the factory. At least pattern the chokes before you shoot them in whatever gun you buy. Make sure the gun is shooting straight. You would be surprised at the number of shotguns that do not pattern where they are supposed to. I've seen guns that shoot left and right of center and some higher or lower than they should.

IMHO, I feel that many folks over-choke their shotguns. I prefer the most effective pattern for the yardage I shoot at. So, try the different chokes and see what works best for you at the yardage you break targets with the ammunition that you shoot. Start with a full and then move to the improved modified and then modified. The most effective choke for me in my gun at 16 yards is modified (.020). Many folks subscribe to the though that full is best period and that works for them. You also need to consider what you hope to achieve .... better scores or smoke in the sky. How often do you get some dust off a target, but no piece (lost target) and perhaps a more open choke would have put a couple more pellets into the target and resulted in a broken target.

At 16 yards, my modified choke will make targets vanish in the sky. A full or improved modified choke will hang smoke, but there are often bits of orange left. I guess, from my perspective, you can shoot skeet with full chokes, but why would you? YMMV
 
the spank said:
Probably makes me sound like a dummy but I have never with the exception of my introductory season, when I experimented with more open chokes shot less than a full choke restriction, doubles excepted ,for 16 yard or handicap. I found simply breaking clays into a few good pieces as opposed to ink balling them left me with a lack of confidence in my shooting ability and gun/load combination. I have actually always been an XF constriction shooter primarily on singles and Hdcp. On doubles my best scores have come on an IC/F combination. And I am still a fairly old school shooter in that I prefer a 1 1/8 oz 3 dram load of 7.5's for trapshooting.
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No dummy my friend just the norm for many of us seasoned shooters ( sounds nicer than OLD LOL )that can still kick ass with the best of them today
What some could do with an old fixed choke model 12 or wingmaster was unreal looking back
Had your 26" fixed choke skeet barrel and a 30" full choke trap barrel and a bucket of 7 1/2 shells
No thinking about chokes back then just pick up the gun and shoot and shoot and shoot ink spots and hate to hear that terrible LOSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ;(
Cheers
 
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really depends on how the gun/choke combo shoots with a particular load.

I ain't a expert, but like a light mod for 16 yard and a improved mod for doubles and tighter for handicap. And my gun patterns tight (shooting AA and Kent)
 
It really depends on how fast you shoot. I typically use a full choke because that's what my Winchester SX1 Trap is fixed at but when shooting my Cynergy Trap, Citori XT Trap or one of my various 870s I've used everything from cylinder to full. For doubles with my 870 I use a Briley Helix skeet choke. For 16yd and first shot doubles I've used a 3/4oz @ 1200fps #9 shot reload or and Challenger 1oz @1200fps #8 shot factory load for everything else out to 27yds...I'm a 24yds shooter on ATA targets though.
 
catnthehatt said:
" registered birds " are birds that are shot and registered with the ATA to keep your classification up for sanctioned shoots.
I haven't shot 1 1/8 loads for years, either 1 oz or 7/8 in my 12's, even my trap guns, and only 2 3/4
dram loads.
7 1/2 or 8 shot
Cat
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I copy that, cat.
 
How do I "choke" for trap?
normally about 3/4 of the way through a clean 50 I'll start worrying about a hard left hander of station one- yup, that'll make me choke ,or be smokin' the hard angles and pick up a straight away off 3 you guessed it, LOSSST :>(
Cat
 
It depends if you want to see "Ink Balls" or just pieces and chunks. I like Ink Balls.
 
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