Chokes explained?

[beastie050]

So I have a Ruger Red Label 12 gauge, and it has 5 chokes, full, modified, improved cylinder, and 2 skeet's. What are the different ones for? I just had both skeet ones in for shooting skeet, but I was curious what the others are for.

[AAShooter]

A shot pattern spreads in a conical pattern as it leaves the barrel. Depending on what you are hunting, you need a certain shot density (shot per square inch/foot) to be effective. If you are hunting dove, you need a fairly dense pattern of the bird will be able to fly through your pattern. Alternatively, if you are hunting geese, your pattern can be less dense.

Chokes allow you to control the spread. So you have some control over shot density at a particular distance. So in skeet, the shots are often close so you want a much spread as possible (still leaves sufficient shot density) so you have the greatest possibility of hitting your target. If you use skeet chokes for duck/goose hunting, the shots are often much further away so your pattern would be so spread out that the shot density would not be effective. Many people use full chokes for that type of hunting.

Turkey hunting is an different example where most hunters just want to hit the head of the bird to preserve the breast. So they use a full choke or extra full choke to give maximum shot density for a head shot.

For shooting doubles trap, the clay birds are thrown at a fixed position like skeet. So you can position your gun and shoot the first bird very quickly so many will use an open choke (skeet or improved); however, by the time they can shoot the second bird, it is further out so they often use a modified choke. This is one advantage to an over and under since you can have two chokes installed in your gun. When shooting handicapped trap, the shooters are much further back so they will often use full chokes to make sure they have good shot density at the clay target.

This is why you pattern your shotgun with the ammo you plan to use. Shotgun patterning is the similar to sighting in a rifle and is a essential step to understand what pattern you have and where it might be effective. Here is a reference for checking point of aim (POA) vs point of impact (POI) as well as patterning: http://www.browning.com/customerserv...ail.asp?id=290

Finally, the choke does not substantially affect the distance the shot travels. So even though the effective range of your shot may be dramatically affected by the choke selected, realize the distance that shot travels is substantially further and the cause of many hunting accidents.

[beastie050]

excellent! and where do the skeet chokes fall into that range?

[cgates]

they dont typically have specific uses - its more about getting the right pattern density at the distance your targets will be at. A more full choke will keep your pattern dense for longer distance. With skeet the distances are relatively short so you want that pattern to open up sooner. A cyl choke, skeet choke or IC choke will usually do the trick. If you are shooting something out to 40 yards, you will not be likely to hit it with very many pellets if you use a cylinder or skeet choke. for what its worth, skeet chokes are only constricted about 5 thousandths in comparison to a wide open cylinder bore. There is lots of info about different chokes and designs....theres some voo-doo and mythical tales about chokes and what they can do but in the end the battle is between you, your gun, and the distance.

[beastie050]

sounds good, thanks for the information

[AAShooter]

In the old days of fixed chokes, barrels typically cam in Cylinder, Improved, Modified and Full chokes. Now with removable chokes, there are a lot more intermediate chokes. I might note that cylinder choke provide no constriction. There are essentially just a straight pipe. Skeet provides a little constriction and is one step up from cylinder.

Here is a table showing the various ones:




If you want some fun, try your full choke on the skeet field. It will make the game more challenging but when you are on the bird, you will smoke it.

[AAShooter]

This chart is nice to show you where you might use different chokes when shooting clays in the various clays sports: