My First O/U, need help with chokes

Last year was my first and was defiantly bitter sweet. We did late season and didn't have too much luck, but the hunt is so much different than anything I have ever done before, some had a lot of fun learning. You'll enjoy it but it's an ass beating, plus birds are doing a lot better this year
 
Texankevin said:
Unfortunately we won't have any dogs this year. We will be hunting some private land and some wiha. There will be 5 of US hunting. Should I put the tighter choke on my second shot for more distance.

Also what are the benefits of using steel shot over lead, last year I used Remington pheasant loads 2 3/4 5 shot because my Beretta only shot 2 3/4. Should I switch to 3 inch now that I can shoot them???

I really appreciate y'all s help on this.
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There isn't a benefit to using steel instead of lead. The law demands it if you are in a WPA or that may vary according to your locale. Steel is lighter than lead and slows (loses momentum) faster than lead. those are minuses. On the plus side it does not deform in your barrel (it deforms your barrel!) maybe some if you shoot it through a tight choke. I found testing mine that steel performs better in an open choke than any choke at all! I don't hunt geese any more but I tested it because I wanted to hunt geese. After trying to eat one I decided I did not need any more. I shoot a twenty gage O/U with skeet as first shot and I.C. second shot. Have done it the same with and without a dog. Never felt undergunned, but these days it might be different with fewer birds and tales of them getting very wary. I much prefer to have a dog....er my dog along for the hunt.
 
Texankevin said:
Unfortunately we won't have any dogs this year. We will be hunting some private land and some wiha. There will be 5 of US hunting. Should I put the tighter choke on my second shot for more distance.

Also what are the benefits of using steel shot over lead, last year I used Remington pheasant loads 2 3/4 5 shot because my Beretta only shot 2 3/4. Should I switch to 3 inch now that I can shoot them???

I really appreciate y'all s help on this.
Click to expand...

First shot more open choke; second shot tighter choke. Put the more open choke in the bottom barrel, your first shot, for less barrel rise than when you shoot through the top barrel. I would echo what others have said about steel shot - shoot through more open chokes like cylinder or skeet first shot and skeet or IC second shot.
 
I shoot a side by side and my chokes are skeet and modified, I hunt NW Kansas over my English Setters.

The best thing you can do is order and read religiously the late Bob Brister's book, "Shotgunning: The Art and the Science". It is arguably the best book available on shotgun ballistics and performance. His wife is one of the bravest women ever born.
 
many hunters would be surprised how good of a shot they are with the cylinder bore tube.
tight chokes became less important when plastic shot cups were invented.
long shots require more lead than most realize (including me).when i miss a longish shot i believe its because i shot behind the target not because of too loose of a pattern.
though i do notice in dove shooting ,because i'm in a target rich envoironment for a day or two that i can "see" the distance envelope of the choke i'm shooting.i can tell after a several hits where the pattern seems the most effective.
patterning the various tubes is helpful and might help one to understand what the differences are between the 5 tubes are.
good luck with your adventures
 
pointshoot said:
tight chokes became less important when plastic shot cups were invented.
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Less important, but not unimportant. Pattern density in many cases will make the difference between a single pellet strike and multiple pellet strikes in a vital zone for clean kills. With very open chokes you cannot always achieve that unless very close to the target. Yes, you'll kill some birds, but you just might cripple as many once the distance gets beyond the useful range of say a cylinder choke.

I think we both would agree however, that choke is secondary to putting the gun in the right spot in the first place. All you must do is ask yourself what is the longest distance that I will take a shot and choke accordingly.
 
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Texankevin said:
and also should i switch from 2 3/4 to 3 inch now that i have a gun that will shoot them???
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2 3/4 inch 1 1/4 oz. loads of 6s (first shot) and 5s (first and second shot) will do the trick. I think 3" shells in a 12 ga. are unnecessary.
 
birdshooter said:
I think we both would agree however, that choke is secondary to putting the gun in the right spot in the first place. All you must do is ask yourself what is the longest distance that I will take a shot and choke accordingly.
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I have been helping my wife with learning to shoot in the last year. She was asking about chokes and shot size, load, etc. My general reply was - putting the gun in the right spot is the cake, chokes are the icing. :)

FWIW - I have a 26" Winchester 101 Field. I shoot either Skeet or IC and Modified at the beginning of the season. Toward the end of the season when birds are more savvy, flushing way out, I use Modified and Full.
 
cylinder bore or skeet 1 would mostly be too loose for western kansas/eastern colorado pheasant hunting ,especially this year,with the drought. judging by some the reports and from a little wandering in eastern Co.,it sounds like most of the cover pretty is thin and would lead me to believe the birds would probably flush kinda long.
i use a briley ext. choke improved cylinder for steel and lead and just try to keep the shooting inside of about 40 yards. i just leave it in the bennelli or the stoeger a-2000 and just try to concentrate on wing shooting form.
any success i have with wing shooting seem directly related to the amount of clay busting i do in the spring and summer.
another thing that seems true is the more game you shoot at ,the better one gets at hitting them.
 
Good point. Birds flushed long in NE due to thin cover. Needed tighter chokes.
 
I would leave your top barrel in IM. If you can get a second shot in, it's almost always right at the edge of range. I like either knocking the bird down hard or missing it entirely with a long second rather than wounding with a loose pattern. For the bottom barrel, I used to go improved in early season and modified in late season, but I've been sticking with modified recently. I've got a bad habit of taking a quick, bad shot with my first, then a good shot with my second. For whatever reason, shooting modified first makes me wait for an extra half second so that I don't destroy the bird, then make a good first shot that hits the bird hard at ~25-30 yds. Lead out of modified more or less patterns like steel out of improved anyway. Also, pattern your gun with the load you'll be using. Black cloud, for example, patterns like IM out of my improved choke.
 
3"....

Just my personal opinion but 3" shells don't give me any advantage over 2 3/4" and I don't need the added cost or recoil. If I can't bring a rooster down with 1 1/4 oz of #5 it's my shooting that's the problem, not the shell I'm using. Just MHO.
 
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