Having just bought a new Silver Pigeon 28" sporter in 12g can anyone explain the opti chokes on them ie what's best for what, pigeon, duck, pheasant and geese. It came with 5 chokes which are all lettered not numbered.
This is nearly as bad as asking what calibre is best in a rifle!! There are lots of things which change what the 'best' choke is for a particular requirement i.e cartridge make, shot size, plastic or fibre... It all depends how a particular cartridge patterns in a your shotgun with your chokes. I find in my beretta I now always use 1/4 **** & 1/2 *** choke (1/4 in bottom barrel) for nearly everything as it works for me. As stated above - if it's a new gun to you it's well worth shooting a pattern plate with your chosen cartridge. Full choke will give you the tightest pattern, going down to skeet (cylinder) which will give you an open pattern. UK Guy[/QUOTE
As above. quarter and half. Had a multichoke once, stuck quarter and half in and left them.
Now shoot a fixed choke cos there is really no need to change chokes, just spend your worrying on pointing it in the right place and you can forget which chokes are in the barrel.
Get a pattern board go to the range you think you will most be shooting, get few different boxes of shells find what best patterns in the gun, ballistic products page have some good info on pattern testing.
Atb
Laird86
QUARRY | SHOT SIZE | DISTANCE | CHOKE(LEAD) | SHOT WEIGHT | CHOICE LOAD | ||
Down one size for steel | Grams | SHOT SIZE | LOAD | CHOKE | |||
GOOSE | 1 or 3 | 35 to 50 yds | ¾ to full | 36 to 56 | 3 Steel | 42 | ½ |
DUCK | 4 or 5 | 25 to 40 yds | ½ to ¾ | 32 to 42 | 5 Steel | 35 | |
PHEASANT | 5 or 6 | ¼ to ¾ | 28 to 32 | 6 | 32 | ¼ to ¾ | |
PARTRIDGE | 6 or 7 | 25 to 35 yds | ¼ to ½ | ¼ to ½ | |||
GROUSE | 7 | 7 ½ | 28 | ||||
SNIPE | 7 or 8 | Cyl to ¼ | |||||
HARE | 4 or 5 | ½ to ¾ | 28 to 36 | 5 | 30 | ½ to ¾ | |
RABBIT | 5 or 6 | ¾ to full | 28 to 32 | ||||
PIGEON | 6 or 7 | ¼ to ¾ | 7 ½ | 28 | ¼ to ¾ | ||
WOODCOCK | 7 | ¼ to ½ | ¼ to ½ |
QUARRY | SHOT SIZE | DISTANCE | CHOKE(LEAD) | SHOT WEIGHT | CHOICE LOAD | ||
Down one size for steel | Grams | SHOT SIZE | LOAD | CHOKE | |||
GOOSE | 1 or 3 | 35 to 50 yds | ¾ to full | 36 to 56 | 3 Steel | 42 | ½ |
DUCK | 4 or 5 | 25 to 40 yds | ½ to ¾ | 32 to 42 | 5 Steel | 35 | ½ |
PHEASANT | 5 or 6 | ¼ to ¾ | 28 to 32 | 6 | 32 | ¼ to ¾ | |
PARTRIDGE | 6 or 7 | 25 to 35 yds | ¼ to ½ | 28 to 32 | 6 | 32 | ¼ to ½ |
GROUSE | 7 | 25 to 35 yds | ¼ to ½ | 28 to 32 | 7 ½ | 28 | ¼ to ½ |
SNIPE | 7 or 8 | 25 to 35 yds | Cyl to ¼ | 28 to 32 | 7 ½ | 28 | ¼ to ½ |
HARE | 4 or 5 | 25 to 35 yds | ½ to ¾ | 28 to 36 | 5 | 30 | ½ to ¾ |
RABBIT | 5 or 6 | 25 to 35 yds | ¾ to full | 28 to 32 | 5 | 30 | ½ to ¾ |
PIGEON | 6 or 7 | 25 to 35 yds | ¼ to ¾ | 28 to 32 | 7 ½ | 28 | ¼ to ¾ |
WOODCOCK | 7 | 25 to 35 yds | ¼ to ½ | 28 to 32 | 7 ½ | 28 | ¼ to ½ |