Chokes: Hunting and trap

[Barony]

Just a quick question. What chokes do most people use for 1) hunting and 2) trap shooting. I'm looking at getting 2 improved-modified (choke between full and modified) for the o/u to use for both. As you can tell, I don't shoot a lot of trap.

[slotlimit]

I use a Patternmaster choke for hunting and just the modified choke that came with the gun for trap.

[gspman]

What species do you hunt?

[Barony]

gsp,

I'm almost exclusively pheasant. I bought the o/u for trap and upland. If I grouse hunt, I have 2 improved cyl. chokes that came w/ the gun. As mentioned before, I am looking at adding a couple of chokes between the full and mod.

[gspman]

It kinda depends on how you hunt pheasants and what kind of loads you use and whether you use lead, steel, or some other non-toxic. My advise assumes you are using lead or a non-toxic that's similar to lead. If you have no dog and/or a flushing dog, or use large shot - #5 or bigger - I'd probably go with a mod choke. If you hunt over a pointer you could use #6 and IC if you were disciplined about shot selection. For pheasant I think a 12 ga with 1 3/8oz #5 shot and Mod choke is good for most folks.

For chokes I'd get a Light Mod choke and an IM choke then you'd have the spectrum covered from Cyl-Full.

[mamohr686]

I find most hunters are too concerned about chokes and don't pay enough attention to gun fit. For trap/skeet you want a more open choke and smaller shot size to give you a better margin of error to break more clays. Pheasants can be tough late season but if you ever walk off your average shooting distance you will be suprised that most of your shots (impact of the bird, not where it falls) are within 25 yards. IC and Light modified (or Skeet II depending on the maker) are the best all around chokes for hunting and clays. It is much more important to have a gun that hits where you are looking.

[Leif]

I hunt a lot of pheasants too, I use two different tubes for my over/under. I like to have the top barrel either improved modified or modified for the first shot because you don't need to be as accurate the first close shot, the second barrel I have a full choke tube in for the longer shot its just my personal preference. You could use a modified shot for a longer shot so you don't have to be as good of a shot but I have lost some birds that way. As far as trap goes, if you are shooting for a competion you would want to use imp cyl its the most open. But I like to shoot with the choke tubes I hunt with. I really don't see the point of using a choke tube you are not planning on killing any thing with. Its much better practice.