Shotgun Chokes Explained

hello everyone Bob gazecki here today with another edition of our free video series and introduction of yet another free workbook today we're going to talk about a hot topic that frankly has been requested by numerous of our followers based on the current regulations here in Canada with firearms as well as some general confusion around the topic today we're going to talk about shotgun jokes my hope is to simplify what's often thought of is too difficult to detailed or even too confusing with the information I hope to show you today combined with our workbook hopefully we can shed some light for you on this topic if you're interested in shotgun shooting and you want more on target success in the field or on the range you need to understand chokes so stick around and let's dig in so in order to understand the function of the shotgun let's talk a little bit about the basics first first let's do the basics of a shot shell the shot shell is the ammunition used in the shotgun to understand how choke works we need to understand the components of the shot shell so a basic 12-gauge shotgun shell this is the finished product this is what it looks like when it's finalized and crimped it's made up of several components the shot shell case with the base here's a cross-section of it showing where the primer goes which is at the base the primer is just a small cup that contains a mixture that causes a flash when the flash takes place the powder which is between my finger and the primer that little bit of powder burns when it burns it expands and forces this plastic piece which is called a wad there it is in its full size forces it out the barrel the wad cup itself contains a number of pellets we'll talk about the numbers and the sizes in a little bit so a chain reaction takes place when your firearm is discharged or you pull the trigger the primer is struck ignites the powder pushes the wad out of the barrel containing the shot downward of the barrel so shot is many projectiles it comes in many different sizes and here you have an example of shot here's an example of what come in many different sizes and shapes over here you see a shotshell unexpanded and expanded this becomes important because in order for you to understand the components of the shotgun where the forcing cone is you must see the end of the shot shell when it's crimped and then when it's UNCHR imp you can see the length is quite a bit different so what happens is these crimps fold upward and the projectiles leave the barrel this is a two and three-quarter inch here's three inch and here's three and a half so the basics of the shot shell are these components the shot are these small pellets that leave the barrel so a shotgun barrel is a metal tube through which rapidly expanding gases convert stored energy to kinetic energy and it pushes the shot or a single projectile mite which is known as a slug out of the open end of the barrel so basically a shotgun barrel is little more than a tube with one closed end and in shotguns this device the barrel controls the tightness and the quality of the pattern now most shotguns have smoothbores which means there are no spiral grooves cut into the metal called rifling now these smoothbores usually have a constriction about two inches from the muzzle which is known as the choke there's a cross-section of the muzzle with the choke inside screwed into the end of the barrel two other important terms to help you understand how the barrel works on a shotgun there's the tapered portion of the action end of the barrel called the forcing cone and then finally the front end of the business end of the barrel is called the muzzle I mentioned slugs earlier a shotgun slug is a specific type of shotgun shell with a single piece usually of lead called the slug you can see it from the top there this is a saboted slugs this is a let's look this is in contrast to shotgun shells shot which are just round pellets the higher the number the smaller the shot size and the larger the number of pellets in the shot Jill let me show you that in a bit more detail so remember I said that the higher the number the smaller the shot size and the larger the number of pellets in the shot shell so as an example a large pellet SS jeez we move to bb's then - number two and you can see the size beginning to dwindle getting smaller number fours number fives sixes seven and a half's eight and nines so if you stay on nine and you think about the number of pellets that that particular shot would have in a normal one in one 8-ounce load there would be 658 pellets approximately in a 1 in 1/8 ounce 2 and 3/4 inch shotgun shell move down to number six and a number six would have 253 pellets so less pellets move down to number four and it would have about a hundred and fifty-two pellets quite a bit less and then down to BB and you'd see that it would have approximately 56 pellets in that particular load or charge the higher the number the smaller the pellet and the more pellets that will be in the actual shotgun shell charge it's important because chokes act differently on different sized pellets and if the objective is to place a large number of pellets into a pattern you want the largest sized pellet in the pattern for the distance that you're shooting so choke is dependent upon the combination of the choke size and the shot shell size which contains this varied range of pellet sizes let's talk about choke markings choke markings are used to identify different choke tubes the marks can be bands of color they can be stars or they can be notches unfortunately different manufacturers mark their choke tubes and differ waise beretta markings will be different to browning which will be different to pirat see and so on the amount of choke is usually stamped on the side of the shotgun choke tube or there may be thin slots cut in the exposed rim of the tube at the muzzle end of the barrel opening with the number of slots for example that has one slot this has two three four and five this one slot should not be confused with these for larger slots that are used to place a choke to bridge inside in the event that a choke becomes stuck so the four two notches that are large are made to fit the actual choke to bridge they have no relationship whatsoever to the size of the choke one knotch in this case means full in the case of fixed chokes which means the barrel or barrels do not have interchangeable chokes but there is a specific amount of constriction that's set the choke is often marked on the tang of the barrel and that becomes exposed when you remove the forearm if you examine the underside of the block near the chamber there's going to be markings there that can refer to this specific manufacturer in this case a Browning BT 99 there's one star there and it shows one star one notch or full one star full choke for this particular browning shotgun sometimes you're going to have to measure the boar eggs at the diameter of the choke tube to determine precisely which choke is in the firearm to do that specialized tools are required such as a micrometer or a barrel reader that's for another video and it's pretty detailed process I want you to refer to the manufacturer of the firearm you're using and see their system of markings there are many so as we've learned choke is merely the constriction at the end of the barrel that allows the pattern of pellets that's discharged through the barrel to stay tight or to spread further apart there's lots and lots and lots of different types of chokes and I call choke junkies the people that have to have one for every purpose for the different light for the different clay target for the different distance of the bird for the different blowing of the breeze and so on so a lot like fishermen who believe that they have to have a hook for every single color the change in time fish hooks are often designed to catch fishermen not fish while chokes can be compared that way so having said that that makes it extremely confusing for a beginner to understand what chokes are so there are basically three types of chokes let me describe them for you the three types of chokes that are the basic ones the first is full and as we learned earlier this tight constriction delivers a narrow or dense spread the second of the most common types of chokes is a modified choke and it has less constriction and therefore delivers a wider spread a medium width if you will and then the third most common is the improved cylinder which has even less constriction and delivers a wide overall pattern so the three common ones are tight medium and open full modified and improved cylinder there are many in between and on each end and we'll describe those for you a bit as well so let's talk about each of the chokes individually and let's start at the top of the chart let's start off with a negative choke so this negative choke which is minus point zero zero five is called a diffuser or often a spreader choke it's a choice for skeets low targets that are coming towards you or sporting clays rabbits for example some of the springing teal Clark targets that are close but a negative choke has an inside diameter greater than the barrels bore so what does that mean that means that the inside bore of a shotgun barrel is approximately 0.7 3:01 thousandths of an inch the inside diameter of the diffuser choke is even tighter than that or more than that I should say - point zero zero five so it allows for a very quick pattern to be spread and allows you to connect up close and personal on those targets that are really right close to you the next one is the cylinder choke and the cylinder choke has basically no constriction so that means if the bore of the shotgun barrel is point seven three zero cylinder is about the same there is no constriction on this joke so it allows for an open pattern as well and ultimately this choke allows once again post skeet targets like station eight or a low house birds that are on sporting clays lost birds on station one and two and skeet and it allows for this rapidly expanding pattern and I'll help you hit those targets that are basically the poppers are the close ones that we've talked about earlier those pesky bouncing rabbit targets for example in sporting clays cylinder choice is a good one for that particular target so the next one down in our chart is skeet and it has a measurement of the choke diameter point seven two five one thousandths of an inch so this one is a pretty popular choked with skeet shooters hence the name skeet or the abbreviation SK on the top of the choke tube skeet guns have two barrels that allow skeet shooters to shoot pairs so when a double-barrel shotgun is equipped with this joke it makes a great choice for the second shot at the close stations when it's paired with maybe a negative or a cylinder choke for the first shot for shooting pairs at the farther stations like number three year through number five skeet choke is an excellent choice you might consider trying a skeet joke for that first shot if the targets approaching you and maybe shifting to a tighter choke for the second shot the target is traveling away from you the skeet joke can also be used in sporting clays or upland game bird hunting but basically this is designed for that closed in comer or a pair in sporting clays where the incoming doves near water hall or a speed eto that's passing by really close skeet job chokes will get the job done for that ticular cause now this improved cylinder is one of the more common chokes and it has one of the more common choke constrictions it's a choke often carried by shooters and used by many many many people choice is basically to use this choke for everything from 16-yard trap to the second shot on skeet pairs it also works on many of the clay target presentations thrown on the sporting clays call it courses the next one on our chart is the light modified and a light modified choke has a restriction of 0.7 one five so the L M stands for light modified and it's starting to get a little tighter light modified has become very popular among shooters of all types and all targets from waterfowl to upland game birds to even clay targets this is the one that's used by most of those people that don't want to fool around switching chokes at every station light modified also provides a great all-around choice for a sporting clays it's more forgiving than modified yet provides denser patterns than the improved cylinder and if a person had to choose one or two chokes to be used for all-around shooting with the exception maybe high flyers something like geese and some of those really high clays this would probably be the choice the next one is the modified choice and it's em on the abbreviation or mo D on the actual choice choke itself now this one is actually point zero to zero or modified on the barrel scale would be about point seven one zero so modified is often thought of as the best choke constriction for traditional shooters it's considered a pretty dependable standby for many of the target choices so if you're gonna use a handicap trap or tall tower shots and sporting clays or even for seeing some of the prairie birds at the longer distances like a sharp-tailed grouse you might consider fine-tuning and using even more restriction or constriction prognosis on the trap range and especially in the field has been heard where the modified is as tight as you dare when shooting steel shot but in today's world of specialty aftermarket jokes you can go tighter and we'll explore that a little bit later so the next two in our chart are the lightful or point zero three zero so when you look at light full on the barrel constriction side it's about point seven zero zero one thousandths of an inch illustrated by the LF on this particular brand this is a winchester choke and it shows the LF abbreviation for lightful so lightful is a choke that is one of the newer offerings it's not really used by that many just yet but lightful or LF is beginning to be used by confident handicapped rap shooters it also has a pretty good effect on as a waterfall choke some of the longer distances many of the past shooting goose chokes labeled full actually measure closer to this lightful into constriction which you know brings up the point of measuring your chokes to see if they match the seller's claims again best methods include trial with your shotguns and a patterning board which i'm going to describe a little bit later the high-flying snow goose tend to be a challenge for most of people and the light fall gets the job done thinking is the result is maybe fewer cripples and more birds on the ground and in the pot so do yourself a favor and try to pattern to test your shotgun on your shell combination with light fall on a BB or a triple B steel shot you may find this a better option than modified the next one is the full choke and full choke on this particular choke this is a Briley choke tube and it has an F on it the abbreviation it's the last of the three common chokes full finds its niche basically on the trap field and it's used by I don't know triple A's and double-a shooters and in the field when chasing after some of those late season pheasants who seem to be able to spring up from unbelievable distances or wide open prairie sharp-tailed grouse this is a standard choke and it often comes with a new gun the full choke often recommended for field birds such as turkeys but there may be even better choices for pursuit of maybe a Thanksgiving meal like a turkey and I'll talk about that but again pattern tester shotshell and your choke combination to see works best at the distance that you want your pellet mass to appear so the last two on the chart are extra full and super full sometimes super full is referred to as a turkey choke now extra full which is point zero four five of a constriction or as it relates to the choke diameter point six eight five one thousandths of an inch this is a bradley choke too but it has XF marked on the extended choke curls so that you can remove it with your fingers but a very tight pattern while some would say that choke doesn't have many applications in the target target sports this this particular joke extra fall is considered to be the go-to option on a really windy day by lots of trapshooters it's also thought of as the right medicine by many turkey hunters but there are numerous factory extra fall extended choke tubes produced and one shouldn't rule that out as an option the next one is super full or sometimes called turkey choke this one says turkey XF but the actual dimension of this joke is actually 0.675 one thousandths of an inch so whereas the extra full was 0.45 this is point zero five five so it's fifty five is tighter than point four five this is about as tight as they get if your objective is to lay a large number of pellets over the vital head and neck area of a turkey that may hold together up to some 40-yard marker or and maybe even a little further than the super full choke or the extra full turkey choke is the objective so are you confused yet well hopefully not but let's talk about the difference between now extended versus flush so here's an example of two chokes that are extended from the barrel and two chokes that are flushed to make the decision just a little bit more complicated for you all the chokes that we've talked about so far come in flush which they don't extend beyond the end of the muzzle and they also come in extended which as the name implies extends beyond the muzzle it's worth considering when choosing tope tubes one school of thought is extended chokes often patterned better than flush-mounted chokes since extended chokes usually have a longer taper they stick out longer so you get that extra distance to assist with the patterning and they supposedly pattern better than flush mounted chokes the distance and the amount might be immeasurable but if you're looking for that 1/100 bird difference it might make a difference so the longer taper on the parallel section of the extended choke tube in which the constriction can occur more gradually and uniformly as opposed to the more abrupt constriction in the shorter tubes maybe on your side additionally extended chokes take very little effort to remove and can often be swapped out quickly by using your fingers instead of choke tool tools so this makes it handy and quick for those choke duct junkies that I talked about earlier even though they have knurled edges at the end they sometimes are so tight a tool is required to remove them regardless they're certainly popular popular in the clay target sports field Gunners often like them because they can remove quickly while wearing gloves when those high flyers seem to be all that approach the decoys regardless of what you use never ever change a choke on a loaded gun check to ensure that the firearm is unloaded once you're certain it's safe then and only then can you place your hands near the muzzle and remove the choke put a little bit of lubricant on the tube threads and some on the barrel threads because removing a stuck choke is no treat nopperz requires a gunsmiths assistance the patterning board practical patterning takes place at whatever distance you intend to shoot basically it's a simple process of taking a large piece of paper in this case it has a turkey target on it but take a large piece paper about 40 inches put your choke on the shotgun and discharge it test it count the pellets take a look at the pattern watch the spread and then determine the distance that you're going to be at in that 40 inch circle perhaps it might be a 20 circle and determine if the number of pellets in that area is tight enough for the target that you've chosen that the distance you've chosen but practical pattern testing is vital you've seen all the combinations of shot chokes that we've got there's six common ones and another dozen or so not so common ones test your pattern on the board to make sure that you know where your pellets are going to shoot so I've taken a couple patterns that I've used to determine whether my shotgun was shooting where I wanted to shoot with the choke combination and the shell combination in skeet so I've taken a twenty inch circle and I've counted the pellets the red dots are the first count and the black dots are the second count so I could be sure so shooting at twenty yards which is the distance that I expected to shoot most of my targets at on that particular shotgun with a ski choke and I was using number nine pellets I counted about six hundred and fifty pellets in the shot shell that is actually loaded and of those only 33 percent of them actually were inside the target zone so you ask yourself if at twenty yards is there an escape hole for a clay target in that pattern there could be no pattern is perfect but the distance that you're going to break the target on you want the largest concentration of pellets out by changing the type of choke using this particular combination in that shotgun with the original brand prace choke in my proxy mt6 I changed to a tee joke with the same shot shell the same number of pellets the same size and the same distance and I went from about 33% coverage in that combination to as much as almost 58 59 percent coverage which means there was less escape holes or a blown pattern that could possibly exist this particular tee choke on this shotgun worked better the thing to remember about patterning and about chokes as I said earlier all chokes are not created equally the same brand from the same manufacturer when shot at the patterning board will tell you if it's been truly manufactured and exactly what you're expecting when you buy it not all jokes are created equally and be careful just because you spend more doesn't mean you're going to get better okay so that's it you have to understand that a lot of Science and Mathematics are involved in creating the perfect job for a shotgun there's so many factors that go into making good jokes such as the length of the shotgun barrel the material of the choke the geometry of the choke the milling or the manufacturing the choke the final interior and exterior finish the choke oftentimes you get what you pay for and it's not uncommon for different valued chokes to shoot in different places even though they bear the same constriction unfortunately it's also not uncommon for - chokes from the same manufacturer and the same constriction to shoot in different places it's less likely with some of the finer or premium brands and models of chokes that are currently made but the bottom line is more money does not always mean better so please be careful shotgun choke can make all the difference to your shooting so it's well worth your time and effort to take this seriously use this video and the accompanying workbook learn exactly what shotgun choke is what it does how it affects your shooting and which you should be using test it and be sure the patterning board is going to reveal many secrets and dispel many of the tales that are heard around the shooting benches the goose blinds and the coffee shots so good luck with your shooting have fun testing and perfecting your choke combinations please please be safe and we'll see you in the field or on the line Cheers

Channel: Alberta Hunter Education Instructors' Association (AHEIA)

Views: 34,867

Rating: 4.9325461 out of 5

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Id: Bygai4nQaQo

Length: 25min 56sec (1556 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020