Favorite choke for buckshot?

[jhunter77]

Just curious what everyone likes. I know every barrel is different but figured I would ask. Thanks

[wlc]

I use either cylinder or improved cylinder. Then again, I'm not hunting with it either. Buck for me is for home defense.

[centershot]

Improved cylinder choke seems to work best for me. I haven't tried a full choke tube but I'm not optimistic about running 00 buckshot thru that much constriction!

[6pt-sika]

Nothing I shoot buck in has screw in chokes . So it's gonna run what ya brung ! I have one old LC Smith 10 gauge that is M/M and it seems to like 000 , 00 , 1 and 3 buck . I have a Ithaca NID 10 gauge that's full and fuller that loves 000 in the full barrel and #3 in the "fuller" . My W&C Scott 10 gauge is also full and full but it seems to prefer 00 . I have six or seven 12 gauge side by sides and they all do well with single 0 , some are IC/M some are M/F and a couple are F/F . My 16 gauge SxS' s and drillings all eat #1 in various chokes . I have a pair of Fox Sterlingworth 20's I shoot #3 in the IC/M gun doesn't do as well as the M/F gun go figure !

[centershot]

That's really interesting, 6pt! I never thought a full choke would give any kind of decent pattern with the larger diameter buckshot pellets, I'll have to give it a try on my next range trip!

[6pt-sika]

That's really interesting, 6pt! I never thought a full choke would give any kind of decent pattern with the larger diameter buckshot pellets, I'll have to give it a try on my next range trip!

You also need to take into consideration I only shoot patterns at 25 yards . Also when I hunt with buckshot 90% of the time I am up a tree and have a rifle and a shotgun with me . So if a deer comes up within about 30 yards of me and offers a good shot I'l pop it with buck . Otherwise I use a rifle . The last two years I've been hunting a day or two at the end of the season with some old friends that have a sort of family hunt club and at the end of the year they wanna kill some deer just to thin their herd a bit . They do alot of man drives so when we do that I use a shotgun with buck as well .

This was three or four years ago with my circa 1881/1882 W&C Scott 10 gauge . I lasered her before I shot her she was exactly 25 yards .




This was this past season with the LC Smith shooting #1 buck and she was 6 steps from the base of the tree I was in .It was also the first day of dove season in Virginia as we have Damage Control Permits .



This was a couple days later killed the first one with a circa 1910 Parker 16 gauge also shooting #1 buck at about 10-12 yards then plowed the other one with a 444 Marlin shooting a 425 grain bullet .



And the next to last saturday of this past hunting season I plowed this one while doing man drives with my old friends . Used a circa 1920 or so Ithaca NID 10 gauge #3 in one barrel and 000 in the other . Deer took the #3's head on at about 20 yards , turned and took the 000 right behind the shoulder at about 25 yards then made it maybe 40-50 yards back into some very thick stuff and we found him dead .



You see all four deer I've ever killed with buckshot in my almost 53 years of life . I've fired two other times at deer with buckshot in my life not cutting a hair either time . Well I did finish a cripple this past season with the Ithaca NID 10 gauge , one load of #3 as it jumped and tried to get away dropped it like a sack of potatoes .

So then as you can see 1 1/2 of the deer I've taken with buckshot have been taken in the normal sense that people use buckshot .

[GBertolet]

For maximum pattern density with 00 buck at distance, I found that a modified choke works best for me. For more up close uses, the I/C would be more desirable.

[375RUGER]

I usually shoot 00 through a modified, full sometimes depending on how tight I want to keep the pattern.

[too many things]

drop the shotcup and use the old fiber/card system . they work much better. Before bluedot. Herco was the main choice for buck loads. I still like it
BUT iam an old fart now

[w5pv]

My old Fox Double will handle all the buck shot from 000 to #4 with full and modified barrels. I pattered it at 40 steps on a ten '' paper pie plate.I ended up shooting 00 because I could put more of the 00 in numbers than the 000.The old Fox will get meat on both ends.I still shoot it but with heavy lodes it is getting to much for me.I use the light field loads now when I hunt not as mad at the Bambi's as I use to be.The only buck shot I have reloaded was # 4 for goose hunting before they banned the lead on water fowel.

[ksfowler166]

That's really interesting, 6pt! I never thought a full choke would give any kind of decent pattern with the larger diameter buckshot pellets, I'll have to give it a try on my next range trip!

There has been this misinformation spread since the 1940's that tight chokes will ruin patterns. That is not the case this guy got 9 out 14 OO buck pellets in a deer sized target at 80 yards with a super full choke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeW6oAsMudA

[6pt-sika]

I have very recently done a little patterning with 000 , 00 , 0 , 1 and 3 buck in the 10 gauge LC Smith thats mod and mod . I tried all the mentioned in both barrels at 25 yards . And I also did the same thing with them all with buffer added . The buffer seemed to tighten the 000 , 00 and 0 up noticably (not that it was bad without buffer) .

This past sunday I took three 12 gauge side bys out and tried them with 0 buck handloads that were un buffered . First gun was IC/M , second was M/F and the last was F/F . they all did well enough for out to perhaps 35 yards . I wanna load some more with buffer added and see if it tightens them up in the 12 gauge guns as well .

Incidently in my 10 gauge LC Smith I got no noticable difference with #1 and #3 buck .

[flounderman]

Every gun is different. I have opened up adjustable chokes to about improved modified and I shoot a patternmaster made for large lead. Lot of choke and strips the wad so it doesn't blow into the back of the pattern as it leaves the muzzle. Triple o in a tight choke is a long range deer killer, but you have to test because every gun is different. cylinder bore and improved cylinder is just a short range combination

[Outpost75]

Back in the 1980s the NRA published an extensive article on buckshot, firing hundreds of patterns with all the common loads and chokes. It is worth going through back issues to find it. As I recall, best results were with improved cylinder or modified, but it mattered whether the loads were buffered or not, and if the buckshot were hardened.

Tightest patterns were with hardened, buffered buckshot.

[Bullshop Junior]

I use a modified.

[RMc]

There has been this misinformation spread since the 1940's that tight chokes will ruin patterns.

Consider this:

Through most of the first half of the 20th century Full Choke for 12 gauge guns represented as much as "40 points of constriction". Then the introduction of one piece plastic wads in the early 1960s led to a general relaxing of choke constrictions at the tight end of the scale. Today a full choke is nominally represented by a .700" exit diameter from a "standard" 12 bore or .030" constriction. So there was a modicum of truth attached to older concerns about large buckshot and tight chokes

The introduction of plastic shot collars and granulated plastic buffer in the Mark V buckshot line by Winchester around 1964, along with a reduction in production line pellet diameters, (00B from .33" to .323"), rocked the buckshot world. Then the introduction of offset pellet stacking (spiral stacking) in the Federal Premium Buckshot line some 15 years later, made tighter chokes truly "buckshot friendly." Today, Flite-Control type wads are again changing the choke picture, for conventional buckshot sizes, by building the "choke" into the wad.

[6pt-sika]

Consider this:

Through most of the first half of the 20th century Full Choke for 12 gauge guns represented as much as "40 points of constriction". Then the introduction of one piece plastic wads in the early 1960s led to a general relaxing of choke constrictions at the tight end of the scale. Today a full choke is nominally represented by a .700" exit diameter from a "standard" 12 bore or .030" constriction. So there was a modicum of truth attached to older concerns about large buckshot and tight chokes

The introduction of plastic shot collars and granulated plastic buffer in the Mark V buckshot line by Winchester around 1964, along with a reduction in production line pellet diameters, (00B from .33" to .323"), rocked the buckshot world. Then the introduction of offset pellet stacking (spiral stacking) in the Federal Premium Buckshot line some 15 years later, made tighter chokes truly "buckshot friendly." Today, Flite-Control type wads are again changing the choke picture, for conventional buckshot sizes, by building the "choke" into the wad.

For awhile Remington sold Hevi Shot 00 Buck factory loads in 2 3/4" 12 gauge . I got 10 boxes of the stuff . And at the same time I had a very nice circa 1956 Winchester Model 12 12 gauge Field DeLuxe that some goober had fitted with a Polychoke I assume when it was new . When I bought the gun it was like brand new . Anyway of the course of testing that gun when screwed down to full choke shot the best patterns at 25 and 40 yards with the Hevi Shot 00 !

[trapper9260]

I shoot 00 buck in 410 full and patten good.Just like i shoot it any other ga that I have with out any problem.It is all what you are mainly looking to do with the load.

[izzyjoe]

I was raised up in a shot hunting family, and I allways thought a full choke was the only way to go for Buckshot. Many years ago a friend and me got into a debate about chokes and buckshot, so we gathered up different kinds of buckshot, and tested at different yardage. I learned that Mod. works best with pretty much any size shot, with the exception with #4 buck. We also tried several different shots, and the best shooter of the bunch was his 870 express with a 20" rem choke barrel. And that also blew my thoughts that longer barrels were better! The next best was my 1200 Winchester with 3" #1 buck with a mod choke.