Choke and cartridge anomalies!

Shot the Premier League 100 reg sporting at AGL on Saturday and what an enjoyable round it was. However thought I would give my DT10 sporter a run out as I normally shoot the trap version with fixed 5/8s chokes. I wanted to try out some Kicks smoke chokes I bought second hand recently.

It wasn’t until the next day when I cleaned the gun I realised I had put the chokes in the wrong way ie. the 15 (3/8s) in the bottom barrel and the 5 (skeet) in the top barrel. So I had been shooting the more distance stuff with skeet and the closer with 3/8s!!.

Can honestly say it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to my score, I shot an 81 and any I missed I think I would have done anyway.

Also I normally used three different shot sizes, 9’s for close stuff, 8’s for anything showing a bit of belly and 7’s for edge on targets. Ran out out 9s and 8s so shot the last stand 14, a diagonal looping dropper and a r-l below the feet, both fairly close targets with 7s and smoked all six targets.

So there we are, think sometimes we try and read too much into chokes and cartridge combinations.

chesterse said:

Shot the Premier League 100 reg sporting at AGL on Saturday and what an enjoyable round it was. However thought I would give my DT10 sporter a run out as I normally shoot the trap version with fixed 5/8s chokes. I wanted to try out some Kicks smoke chokes I bought second hand recently.

It wasn’t until the next day when I cleaned the gun I realised I had put the chokes in the wrong way ie. the 15 (3/8s) in the bottom barrel and the 5 (skeet) in the top barrel. So I had been shooting the more distance stuff with skeet and the closer with 3/8s!!.

Can honestly say it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to my score, I shot an 81 and any I missed I think I would have done anyway.

Also I normally used three different shot sizes, 9’s for close stuff, 8’s for anything showing a bit of belly and 7’s for edge on targets. Ran out out 9s and 8s so shot the last stand 14, a diagonal looping dropper and a r-l below the feet, both fairly close targets with 7s and smoked all six targets.

So there we are, think sometimes we try and read too much into chokes and cartridge combinations.

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I have just recently gone to a dt11 and have put IC in both barrels and shoot 7 1/2 or 8 plas wads and so far it has walloped anything i have put it in the right place for regardless of distance.

It is interesting all the chat about chokes.  On Sunday I was shooting with some friends. one had a B525 SK & Cyl, another a Nikko SK & SK, another MK38 1/4 & 1/4 and I had a B725 with Teague SK & 1/4.

We all shot the same fibre cartridges and our scores were very similar and whatever the choke the more distance clays were killed,  in my very humble and simple brain it is all 90% a head game. Appreciate very fast distance or edgy clays benefit from tighter chokes.

Jonny English said:

I have just recently gone to a dt11 and have put IC in both barrels and shoot 7 1/2 or 8 plas wads and so far it has walloped anything i have put it in the right place for regardless of distance.

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I have used that combination in my 725 and my MK10 before that,  for a good number of years and NEVER felt undergunned  !

The posters above might want to read the forum rules. 

section 6 item 3A 

Using or posting or commenting on choke with a constriction of less than 1/2 or 20 thou is not allowed and will result in a warning followed by a ban if continued.

l recently after a break shot my local sporting with what l thought was 1/4 & 1/4 and shot 45 ex 50 wasn't till l got home and realised l had 1/2 & 3/4 chokes in, used at a more difficult shoot some weeks before! As the old saying goes "If you are on em you are on em!" So it does make you wonder!

Chokes = headgame

Oldblaster said:

l recently after a break shot my local sporting with what l thought was 1/4 & 1/4 and shot 45 ex 50 wasn't till l got home and realised l had 1/2 & 3/4 chokes in, used at a more difficult shoot some weeks before! As the old saying goes "If you are on em you are on em!" So it does make you wonder!

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With 1/4 and 1/4 you would have hit 48 and won it.

chippy said:

With 1/4 and 1/4 you would have hit 48 and wo

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Its never happened yet but l live in hopes!

chesterse said:

Shot the Premier League 100 reg sporting at AGL on Saturday and what an enjoyable round it was. However thought I would give my DT10 sporter a run out as I normally shoot the trap version with fixed 5/8s chokes. I wanted to try out some Kicks smoke chokes I bought second hand recently.

It wasn’t until the next day when I cleaned the gun I realised I had put the chokes in the wrong way ie. the 15 (3/8s) in the bottom barrel and the 5 (skeet) in the top barrel. So I had been shooting the more distance stuff with skeet and the closer with 3/8s!!.

Can honestly say it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to my score, I shot an 81 and any I missed I think I would have done anyway.

Also I normally used three different shot sizes, 9’s for close stuff, 8’s for anything showing a bit of belly and 7’s for edge on targets. Ran out out 9s and 8s so shot the last stand 14, a diagonal looping dropper and a r-l below the feet, both fairly close targets with 7s and smoked all six targets.

So there we are, think sometimes we try and read too much into chokes and cartridge combinations.

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I've deliberately held before commenting but there are plenty of clues in your experience which in all honesty doesn't strike me as particularly unusual or unexpected. FWIW I too have had occasions when I've found I was shooting (and crushing) closish crossers with open chokes perfectly well but I have also most definitely had occasions where poor breaks and even misses could be attributed to mistakenly leaving very open chokes in. In essence open chokes WILL break some very testing clays but it's the manner of the break that evidence suggests forces people to use tighter chokes all the same, this also applies to cartridges incidentally as few will argue even so called cheap shells will break clays well but again it is the manner (and to borrow an orrible phrase, "authority") with which they break which gets people to cough up a bit more (within reason). The manner of breaks is what carries your confidence through to the next shot and onto the next stand. 

1) Here it all kinda depends quite how far these particular stands were because there is no real reason why a Skeet choke shouldn't break most face on clays well even out to 40+ yards, 3/8th is in turn not really all that tight so why wouldn't it cope well with closer shots ? To get conclusive assessment we'd have to have shot those same targets you tackled with Skeet, with say 1/2 or tighter, in all probability the only difference would have been visual and not translated differently on the score card.  

2) There is plenty of evidence that suggests an 8 or 7.5 will cope just as well with close targets as 9's will, the argument for 9's is density and lets face it there is no density issue in close targets. 

3) See above, there is no density issue up close so the fact you smoked those using 7 shot is not surprising, what the pattern lacks in density (compared to 8's) it makes up for in individual pellets extra kinetic energy. 

4) I agree, most people are better off sticking with the one choke(s) they trust and get on with and do likewise with one shot size, it IS possible to squeeze an extra 1 or 2 birds out of a round by thoughtful use of very open chokes or wise use of 7 or even 6.5 when the situation demands it but an 8 or 7.5 won't let you down nearly often enough to worry about. 

Well said Hamster.

9's will break close Skeet type targets, 8's will break most targets found on a Sporting Clays course especially fullface ones , 7s will break EVERYTHING.