Choke Performance, pic

[farmer7]

At our local shoot we do a mixture of Sporting and DTL, after having sold my Browning XT to buy a 692 Sporter I wanted something else for trap so I've just bought a Remington Competition 1100 for trap.

Anyway about the only cartridges I can get a hold of easily are Express Power Blues, Hull Superfast and Hull Comp X. So I decided to do some patterning to see how things looked.

The attached picture is typical of every shot with Power Blues and Superfasts.As I've only really bothered with a pattern plate for gunfit and not judging pattern quality I'd be interested in any views or opinions. I patterned at 35 yards as I read that is about the distance the clay is broken in DTL. Also I read an edge on clay shouldn't make it through your pattern at that distance, is that correct? (It seems to me there are plenty spaces for an edge on clay to get through??)Any opinions,  is it a rubbish pattern?

If it's possible to achieve a pattern that an edge on clay cant get through would my next most likely move to achieve that be a high quality shell or an aftermarket choke? (The circle is 30") 

 

[Hamster]

That is a superb looking performance from a Full choke, obviously we just don't know if the top right overflow is representative of a string of 10 shots or not but bearing in mind it is the centre 2/3rd of the core that does most of the breaking, any clay caught anywhere there would have been all but crushed. 

 

[Ian Lawrence]

With a pattern like that, I don't see how you could possibly miss anything!  :wink:

 

[farmer7]

So its not worth my while looking for some "better" shells? As I said I've never bothered looking at pattern performance but I just wondered if it was a bit gappy for trap! 

 

[Ian Lawrence]

If you look for "better" than that, then you'll spend your whole life in search of greater excellence (and never find it!) Just get out and shoot, the patterns look after themselves.

 

[farmer7]

Thanks for the opinions folks, if you chaps reckon it's a good full choke pattern at 35 yards then that'll do me! Saves me travelling far from home hunting for fancy shells that aren't going to improve anything! 

:lol:

 

[Finners]

Do you have any other pictures for the other cartridges you mentioned? I'd be very interested to see how the Superfast did.

 

[farmer7]

Sorry Finners I dont have any pictures of the Superfasts, I did, but deleted them on Saturday! Typically I couldnt see much difference between them or the Power Blues though.

 

[MJJ]

That is a nice tight pattern at 35 yards. Just remember the shot does not hit in a 'flat' manner like the plate, but strung out front to back, appx 8-10 ft. A bit like a swarm of bee's.

I like PB's, they do kill very well at range (60+) and are very smooth to shoot

 

[Will Hewland]

That is a nice tight pattern at 35 yards. Just remember the shot does not hit in a 'flat' manner like the plate, but strung out front to back, appx 8-10 ft. A bit like a swarm of bee's.

I like PB's, they do kill very well at range (60+) and are very smooth to shoot

Yes, but given that the whole string will pass by a clay in way less than 1/100th of a second, its perfectly fine to think of it like a flat plate..

 

[farmer7]

I fired a few Power Blues through my 692 this evening just to compare against the full choke from the 1100. I dont have a full for the 692 so compared the modified and the improved modified.

This is what I got:

 

The outer circle is 30" and the inner 20". Percentage wise there is little in it between the 1100's full choke performance and either Beretta choke. I always felt by the kills the Beretta chokes tended to be tighter than marked. 

Patterns were shot at a measured 35 yards.

Just thought I'd post it up if anyone is interested. I think I'm going to have to do all the Beretta chokes now, I'm curious! 

 

[farmer7]

The Beretta Optima HP Improved Cylinder pattern! 

Seems a bit tight with the Power Blues, got three chokes patterning over 80% at 35 yards!

Cylinder and Skeet (which is supposed to be more open than Cylinder pattern at 50% and 55% respectively

 

[Hamster]

I've always said the IC Optima chokes throw way too tight, also Cylinder is parallel/chokeless, so usually it means that Skeet would be a tad tighter, some manufacturers play with words but that's the logical pattern.