Choke combo in 16 ga. sxs

I use I/C over I/C early and Full over Mod later on in a Citori GL 16. Your choice of chokes should be just fine for wild (not-penned) birds.
 
For wild birds with flushers......I would not complain I think. When I bought my 16 sxs it was like many older German guns, full and fuller. I had it opened to LM in both barrels and it works fine. On rare occasions I have thought maybe I should have left one barrel a little tighter. Oh well.

My Beretta 20 O/U is fixed IC and M and it is great on dove, quail, and decoyed ducks. Haven't had the chance to use it on pheasant yet but my guess is it will be fine.

Again, I would not have a problem with your choice.
BobM
 
M/F would work. But I've hunted with an old Sterlingworth choked IC/M with success. Older guns like mine tend to pattern a little tighter in my experience. I think its due to their being made to work with the older felt wad and rolled crimp ammo and our newer plastic wad ammo shoots tighter. I have a 12 ga Austrian gun that I've patterned extensively with and I have a load that shoots LM/ImpMod that is just about perfect.
 
I just recieved the gun yesterday. It is a Stevens 5100 with 28" barrels in excellent shape. From what I can find out about these guns they were supposedly made in the 1930's and 1940's. I checked the chokes with a choke guage and they measure Mod & I.M. I am sure they will probably shoot tighter with today's ammo. So what do you think, have the chokes opened or leave them alone?
 
Leave them. The perfect gun. One of the most durable guns. About perfect gauge and bore combination.

Treat it well and your great-grandchildren will be able to use it.

Congratulations.

:thumbsup:
 
870-Lefty said:
I just recieved the gun yesterday. It is a Stevens 5100 with 28" barrels in excellent shape. From what I can find out about these guns they were supposedly made in the 1930's and 1940's. I checked the chokes with a choke guage and they measure Mod & I.M. I am sure they will probably shoot tighter with today's ammo. So what do you think, have the chokes opened or leave them alone?
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I'd open the Mod to IC for an IC/IM combo if it were mine.

What kind of gauge did you use? Hopefully one that gives you the true measure of constriction by showing the difference between the diameter of the bore and the choke.

It would be a good idea to shoot some patterns at the pattern board and see what you really have.
 
Mod & Full would probably be just fine for wild birds when using flushers and shooting lead shot. However, no one has mentioned the issue of using steel shot in that gun. I'm sure it's a big no, no! I have a 1960 Sweet Sixteen that is choked IC and the use of steel in it is not recommended. So I'm not sure even if you open it up to IC/Mod whether you should use steel shot in it. I've bought some Kent Tungsten Matrix to use in my Sweet sixteen.
 
I am the odd man out here I guess...I tend to prefer more open chokes, and I also hunt over flushers...frankly, I am not a great shot, so the open tubes help me with those closer shots evidently. I have 2 16 ga. S x S guns...both are sk1/sk2...I have 1 20 ga. s x s ...it is IC/M....my last hunt of 2012, which was in late Dec., I shot a 20 ga. auto, and had a cyl. tube in...bottom line, whatever works for you. The late Michael Mcintosh suggested that most shooters were probably better off with virtually no choke at all...cyl was his suggestion, I believe....I have definitely noticed it to be helpful to me, but we are all different in our shooting. Good luck!
 
Dakotazeb said:
Mod & Full would probably be just fine for wild birds when using flushers and shooting lead shot. However, no one has mentioned the issue of using steel shot in that gun. I'm sure it's a big no, no! I have a 1960 Sweet Sixteen that is choked IC and the use of steel in it is not recommended. So I'm not sure even if you open it up to IC/Mod whether you should use steel shot in it. I've bought some Kent Tungsten Matrix to use in my Sweet sixteen.
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Zeb, I have a 16 ga. Citori I can use if I am hunting an area that requires non-toxic shot. I would also use the Citori if the birds were consistantly flushing closer since it has interchangeable chokes. I definately would not shoot steel through the Stevens. I bought the Stevens for nostalgia's sake as I had a Stevens 311A 12 ga. long ago that my father bought me for my first shotgun, but man that thing was a club! I also have a Ithaca model 37 in 16 ga. with 28" barrel choked Mod. I am 59 and the older I get the more I appreciate the older guns for upland hunting, especially in 16 ga.
 
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I've been telling myself for a year now that I'm going to buy an AyA 4/53 in 16 guage, fixed chokes, and they're going to be IC/M. I like a more open choke typically. Murphy's law always comes into play though, when I've got open, the birds are far, when I'm tight, the birds jump at my feet. You never can win.

That said, what did I carry opening weekend in Kansas this year? 63 year old Ithaca 37 20 guage, choked extremely full. Every bird that was in range went down.
 
870-Lefty said:
Zeb, I have a 16 ga. Citori I can use if I am hunting an area that requires non-toxic shot. I would also use the Citori if the birds were consistantly flushing closer since it has interchangeable chokes. I definately would not shoot steel through the Stevens. I bought the Stevens for nostalgia's sake as I had a Stevens 311A 12 ga. long ago that my father bought me for my first shotgun, but man that thing was a club! I also have a Ithaca model 37 in 16 ga. with 28" barrel choked Mod. I am 59 and the older I get the more I appreciate the older guns for upland hunting, especially in 16 ga.
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Lefty, I to have a 16 ga. Citori White Lightning and switch back and forth between is and the Sweet Sixteen. As others have expressed, I prefer more open chokes for pheasants. IC in fixed single barrels and IC/Mod in my Citori. but if you want to keep that Stevens original the M/F will work just fine. Good luck with it and shoot straight.
 
benelli-banger said:
I am the odd man out here I guess...I tend to prefer more open chokes, and I also hunt over flushers...frankly, I am not a great shot, so the open tubes help me with those closer shots evidently. I have 2 16 ga. S x S guns...both are sk1/sk2...I have 1 20 ga. s x s ...it is IC/M....my last hunt of 2012, which was in late Dec., I shot a 20 ga. auto, and had a cyl. tube in...bottom line, whatever works for you. The late Michael Mcintosh suggested that most shooters were probably better off with virtually no choke at all...cyl was his suggestion, I believe....I have definitely noticed it to be helpful to me, but we are all different in our shooting. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Precisely put! McIntosh, EJ Churchhill, Jack O'Connor, and a host of great shooters and writers agree:10sign:
 
DON'T DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU PATTERN IT.
And try different loads and shells. You'll probably find some combo that will give you just what you want as it is.
 
I would leave the chokes alone untill I shot a season with it...that is sound advice which I did not follow on a Sauer 12 I recently obtained.
At M-F, I opened to .010 and .030.
Why go against my own thinking?...wanted to, knew that at those constrictions I could open further if needed and, especially, IC - F is a usuable combination for anything and anywhere with shell choice involved.
So, if you want to do whatever then do it with the understanding that you can't put steel back in a barrel.
Odds are, all will be as fine.

Re MM and Cylinder.
Shells have changed and Cyl will do fine to 30 yards and maybe farther on some birds, as the fragility of birds varies greatly.
Point tho is one must have the confidence to follow the decision to chop all the way to Cyl...that is the issue....confidence, not any particular constriction, will kill the most birds.
MM had confidence.

Actually, we all miss few birds due to any constriction 30" or so from the trigger...we miss from too much constriction under our caps.
 
The gunsmith I used to open up 2 of my 16 s x s's advised against going all the way to cyl...he said that having some constriction is helpful, hence why I went to sk1/sk2....you are right about the confidence thing--big factor!
 
The old idea was that true cylinder threw bad patterns...not sure I buy that today with today's shells but many opt for a couple thousandth constriction to help a suspected issue.
Having measured bores in choke tubed barrels and then ordered true cylinder tubes to match...I never found the bad or so-termed donut pattern from .000.
I have seen bad patterns, comparably, from many constrictions and really found much to like in a reverse choke in a Beretta skeet gun.
I have seen very few repeatable bad patterns tho, indicating that there are a passle of factors affecting pattern quality apart from any chosen constriction.

Basically, a little and a bit or a tad and a fair squeeze will work for most of us.
 
I read somewhere long ago, and have oft repeated that choke is measured in inches at the target. Misses are measured in feet! It is usually what is between the ears that causes most of my problems, not the bore/choke diameter.

BobM
 
I shoot skeet and IC. Use to shoot Mod & Full but made the switch this year and shoot a lot more birds. Im hunting with a flusher and have no problems. I think more people would benifit from a more open choke.
 
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