Page 1 of 1
Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:43 amby Duplex Lover
OK
See if you can fallow my twisted thought line on this.
You all know I use and love my 870 supper express 12 gauge, and use it extensively for ducks, geese, and coyote. I kill MANY of each every year. There is a side of me you don't know as much. I do hunt grouse and on rare occasions pheasants. I put a pistol grip stock on for coyote and liked it so well I'm going to try it for wing shooting too. I have tried it on clay pigeons, hand tossed, and it seems to work well. What I'm thinking is this... I normally go to a mid range modified choke to shoot my lead 5x7.5 - 1 3/8 oz. shot shells, AKA "bird shot" Why?
I use an extended range ported supper full choke for every thing else. Am I hampering my sell? Every thing I see says use an open choke, there again Why? A duck moving at 60 mph sideways in the rain with gale force wind I shoot a pattern around two feet around. But a grouse flying a blistering 25 MPH straight away in sunny calm weather I feel I need something slightly less then a Blunder Bust pattern to bring it down. This is JUST opposite of what makes sense to me. I get wonderful patterns at 30 to 40 yards with my supper choke and lead 5x7.5 loads , with hundreds of hits in a two foot circle. Why not just keep in the tight choke and extend my range to 50 or 60 yards, I don't hunt behind a dog. My Modified choke also get very good patterns at 30/40 yard but ,like it's suppose to, it's a 4 foot pattern and the OMG range is shortened to 45 yards.
Just have to do my part and get on target but I'd have a lot longer time to do it.
Am I just chasing my tail?
I just cant help to think I would shoot better using the set up I shoot the most. 
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:59 amby The Duck Hammer
I use a factory modified for everything. I've only hunted doves, never grouse or pheasants. but they are at a lot shorter range and would be absolutely destroyed with a full.
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 10:12 amby DeadEye_Dan
Shoot what you have confidence in.
I never take the Briley X2 Mod out of my gun, when I'm shooting skeet and I get to #8 it makes for some impressive puffs of smoke - lol
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:32 amby Duplex Lover
DeadEye_Dan wrote:Shoot what you have confidence in. lol
That's Kinda what I'm thinking. I shoot HUNDREDS of water foul and coyote shells a Year and just a few boxes of upland, got to do what I know. 
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:05 pmby sws002
DeadEye_Dan wrote:Shoot what you have confidence in.
I never take the Briley X2 Mod out of my gun, when I'm shooting skeet and I get to #8 it makes for some impressive puffs of smoke - lol
I don't switch chokes when hunting upland, but my go to choke is a Kicks Vortex Mod. My take on switching chokes isn't for the long range pattern, but the short range. With pheasants (and any other upland) you are very likely to be presented a ton of shots at 20 yards and less, which a full choke will make absolute mince meat out of whatever you are shooting, provided you connect.
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:19 pmby jarbo03
Unless the wind is significant, or I know ranges will be extreme, I use the same chokes for everything. In my O/U, I use a LM/Mod. In my auto, it is a LM 90% of the time. My best pheasant load regardless of range is 1 1/8oz #5.
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:22 pmby Duplex Lover
[quote="sws002]
With pheasants (and any other upland) you are very likely to be presented a ton of shots at 20 yards and less, which a full choke will make absolute mince meat out of whatever you are shooting, provided you connect.[/quote]
Pheasants Maybe, there kinda stupid here, but almost never on sharp tail 30 yard yes lots of 40 and over.
Miles and miles of grass and brush. When you hit one you want it DEAD and a good feather trail or you'll never find them.
One is not to bad but when you knock down two or three in a flock EACH you loose track where they fall. The feathers still falling help mark the spot...
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:35 pmby jarbo03
Duplex Lover wrote:[quote="sws002]
With pheasants (and any other upland) you are very likely to be presented a ton of shots at 20 yards and less, which a full choke will make absolute mince meat out of whatever you are shooting, provided you connect.[/quote]
Pheasants Maybe, there kinda stupid here, but almost never on sharp tail 30 yard yes lots of 40 and over.
Miles and miles of grass and brush. When you hit one you want it DEAD and a good feather trail or you'll never find them.
One is not to bad but when you knock down two or three in a flock EACH you loose track where they fall. The feathers still falling help mark the spot... [/quote]
Long shots are to be expected with sharptails, thankfully they are nowhere near as tough as pheasant. Most birds I've hunted in MT have seemed to be a little stupid, not the same pheasant I hunt in KS for sure. I had no problems with 1 1/8oz #5 through a LM while chasing sharptails.
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:52 pmby Duplex Lover
jarbo03 wrote:Long shots are to be expected with sharptails, thankfully they are nowhere near as tough as pheasant. Most birds I've hunted in MT have seemed to be a little stupid, not the same pheasant I hunt in KS for sure. I had no problems with 1 1/8oz #5 through a LM while chasing sharptails.
YUP What he said !!!!
I like my 1 3/8 oz. 5X7.5 with any choke for anything I can legally shoot with them. 
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:02 pmby 3200 Man
I've hunted Sharptail Grouse/ Huns after a mornings Duck and Goose hunt in Sask , many times , I never had a
problem shooting a Mod choke walking up birds in hedge-rows , with shots out to 50 yds as well as some inside of 30 yds .
This was using 1 1/8 oz of 6's out of a Browning Gold or a Wingmaster 30 " fixed IM choked barrel .
All I can tell you is , I ran-out of leg tags !
Re: Why do I change choke tubes for upland hunting?
Posted:
Tue Aug 26, 2014 4:13 pmby NuffDaddy
sws002 wrote:DeadEye_Dan wrote:Shoot what you have confidence in.
I never take the Briley X2 Mod out of my gun, when I'm shooting skeet and I get to #8 it makes for some impressive puffs of smoke - lol
I don't switch chokes when hunting upland, but my go to choke is a Kicks Vortex Mod. My take on switching chokes isn't for the long range pattern, but the short range. With pheasants (and any other upland) you are very likely to be presented a ton of shots at 20 yards and less, which a full choke will make absolute mince meat out of whatever you are shooting, provided you connect.
That depends...I know late season in the snow and when I'm hunting the oak ridges for grouse they will bust out 30+ yards even with a dog. Which leads to a lot of 50 yard shots. When I think the shots will be long I put in the full choke. Grouse go down pretty easy, but they are have a small kill zone. When I'm in the thick pines I'll put in the skeet or open choke because you can't see past 15-20 yards.