what a difference an inch and a choke tube make

[DaMadman]

To start off I have always shot an 870 for sporting clays and trap and skeet and do right well. I have gotten in the low 40's with some practice. Not bad in my opinion for a pump gun in the sporting clays field.

However I have owned an 11-87 long before I ever started sporting clay shooting and almost never use it because I was not good with it. missed a lot of birds?? never could figure out why, just alway attributed it to the fact I was used to using the pump.

Anyway this past weekend I used the 11-87 but I put a recoil pad on it that extended the LOP abut an inch or so and also changed from the Imp Cyl choke that everyone tells me I should use to a Modified choke and what a difference it made.

I shot a 23 in skeet and shot a 37 on the Sporting Clays range.
While 37 isn't my best score it is a lot better than I normally do with that gun. With that gun I used to have a hard time getting in the low 30's.

Just goes to show ya shoot what you are comfortable with (I have always user modifie in my pump) and also the fit of the gun means a lot whe shooting a shotgun

[Adam Helmer]

DaMadman,

I just saw your fine post; I agree that for far too many years I was over-choked. Back in the 1950s, when I began hunting (we had no money for clays shooting), we always went to the FULL choke because "it hit harder", "more gun for the money" etc. Now when I shoot trap or clays, I swap out chokes and find the best setup for my style of shooting. I like IC on some guns and Mod on others; I let the gun help me decide on the amount of choke I use. Length of pull is another factor often glossed over. Proper gun fit is very important.

What can I say other than: "Too soon old, too late smart. Be well.

Adam

[fabsroman]

Good posts guys.

Luckily, I have learned my lessons a little earlier in life. I got the gun fit thing straight when I was about 22. That is when I started shooting trap and I bought my first Beretta o/u. You can bet that I made sure it fit me. That was an o/u double/single combo. On the 16 yard line I was using full choke to dust the birds, because I was told to use it. A couple years later, I figured out that modified works just fine.

Bought another o/u when I got into skeet and sporting clays, and that was about 5 years ago. I had been using an o/u field gun and the new o/u didn't make that much of a difference. Anyway, I had been shooting an auto for hunting and did pretty well with it, so when Beretta came out with the shiny new Teknys I decided to get one for sporting clays/skeet. I couldn't believe the difference. With the o/u, I was shooting in the high 30's, low 40's, but with the new auto I was shooting in the 40's all the time and had a best score of 48. Nowadays, it is pretty rare for me to drop out of the 40's. I ended up shooting my first 25 straight in skeet with that gun that year too. What I noticed is that I am very sensitive to recoil. Not only did the action on the auto reduce the felt recoil, but the gel-tek pad, and the recoil reducer in the stock made a huge difference. The recoil between the auto and the o/u was noticeably different. After that, I went from shooting 1 1/8 oz. loads for sportings clays to 1 oz loads of #8's for almost everything except for the really long shots. I also installed a recoil reducer in the stock of my hunting gun (i.e., SBE) and now I don't get back aches anymore.

As far as chokes are concerned, I change them up when I am shooting sporting clays and it usually ranges anywhere from skeet to improved modified. About the only time I have used full in the recent past was about two years ago when I had to shoot 3 pairs of mini's at a clays shoot. DaMadman was there for that one.