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Brewster11
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:16 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 1301
Location: Western WA

I am looking into acquiring a M37 barrel specifically for skeet. A skeet choked (opened up) barrel would normally seem appropriate, but I am questioning whether skeet choke is too open and leaving holes since I use 7/8 oz. I wonder if IC might be better.

I harbor suspicions that my skeet choked 16ga guns with 7/8 are sometimes shooting around (missing) edge-on targets 3H and 4H&L. The reason I say that is I find 3 and 4 easier to splatter with my M37 Mod barrel than with my skeet choked 16ga guns.

The toughest for the M37 Mod are the close second shots on 1 and 7, given the pump delay and tight pattern.

Any thoughts?

TIA
B.
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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:34 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

B - had my best score in a while with my SX1 choked cyl and 7/8oz 12ga loads . Always liked just a touch of choke (2/3 thousandths) best . The bird I missed , I KNOW exactly where I missed - wasn't the load ! (or gun) Don't know there's much diff between SK1 and IC .

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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:36 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

Pump delay is a misnomer ! I can shoot my M12 faster than my 1100 any day !

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bigblue
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:39 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 30 Sep 2020
Posts: 181
Location: ont canada

I shoot a (sk2) light mod (.015) with 3/4oz loads a 7/8oz load with a i/c (.0.10) should pattern well and as stated by 16gaDavis a slick model 12 or model 37 is not a major handicap for a seasoned pump gunner.
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Citori16
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:13 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 309
Location: Too far south in New England

Have you patterned the gun with your chosen load?

I use 3/4 oz for practice, 1 ounce for matches and Cyl chokes on both barrels, 16 ga only. After patterning, I was very confident in my load/gun combo and realized my misses were operator error. I typically break at the stake for all except doubles & station 8, further if I want more pattern, or before it if the wind is moving clays and I am feeling good. I’m not great by any stretch, but my point is I think choke really boils down to pattern, practice & preference.

Best guy on my team shoots a Baretta Excel400 in 12 ga with modified choke. Crushes them before the stake & consistently gets 24’s & 25’s.

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hoashooter
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:20 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 3436
Location: Illinois

Put the shot where the target is going.I have run straights w/a 48 and cylinder choke using 3/4 oz loads.
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MSM2019
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2022 6:23 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Mar 2019
Posts: 1819
Location: Central ND

With 3/4 oz. loads I don't change chokes. I have a Skeet 1 choke with .005" of constriction that I use. Sometimes with the lighter loads, the pattern tightens up, not the other way around. At least with all the shotguns I own.

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Hammer bill
PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 4:39 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Feb 2015
Posts: 815

Several years ago when I was a skeeter I went 127 straight with my browning 42 mod choked. I always believed it's your timing on lead and not so much on pattern.

When the citori's 525 came out by that time I was only shooting trap games. I acquired a 525 32" 16ga. Being brand new I took it to the range on a Saturday morning.in the fall, cold, cloudy,damp, windy as hell. Just for the heck of it I screwed in the IC choke and shot from the 23 yd line. Them targets were jumping all over. To my surprise I was breaking targets that to my ming should have never been hit. I ent 25 straight. Got back in the clubhouse and the guys asked what in the world was my load and choke. I told them 1oz 7.5 and look at the choke. IC. I know mostly to my mind it was mostly pure dumbass luck. But it sure got a person thinking about choke. To my mind I think most are over choked. Course that goes against what the big timers say. When I'm on the line shooting for prize I still use full choke. The brain may know better but I still don't have the confidence of the IC choke . Just saying.
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Cold Iron
PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 6:13 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Mar 2016
Posts: 746
Location: Mn.

Hope it is 7H not 7L, would hate to have to carve your name on the inside of the low house door for missing 7L Very Happy

I'm not lucky enough to own a factory 37 Skeet barrel. But my 37's IC in 16 normally run .008 and Mod .012 or a bit tighter. Don't really care what Briley says about constriction for the 16 while the .012 is more a LM Briley would call it an IC. I always go by constriction not labels.

In testing done by Neil Winston a fixed choke barrel at the more open end will pattern ~.005 equivalent tighter than a gun with tubes. Kolar at one time, not sure anymore, would recommend .006 in all gauges for skeet. I still like that constriction for skeet although have a few in 20 and 16 for skeet at .004 and they work. For me.

More than a few will shoot 7/8 oz. in a 20 for the 12 ga. event in registered events, sometimes even doubles. The only thing they are giving up is recoil. 7/8 oz. is fine for skeet. 16 ga. 37 Full choked barrels are common and if I was looking for a dedicated skeet barrel for one of my 37's I'd take one and open it to .004-.006

For my 37RVD 16 I had Briley install thinwalls in the full choke bbl. and use .004 for skeet



The 26" 16 field grade above it is choked .008 (marked IC) and also works for skeet but will really smoke 1L and 7H targets with 7/8 oz.

MSM2019 wrote:
With 3/4 oz. loads I don't change chokes. I have a Skeet 1 choke with .005" of constriction that I use. Sometimes with the lighter loads, the pattern tightens up, not the other way around. At least with all the shotguns I own.

Mine do the same thing Mark.
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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 7:30 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

CI & MSM .... +2 on the tightening thing ! The core just doesn't seem to loosen . The only real thing I think about with the 2/3 thou chokes is to just touch the outside pellets in and leave the core alone . Farthest range for a reg skeet shooter is probably 27 yds , so an even pattern is the goal .... HB - been finding the same thing with trap . A good , fast shooter is probably shooting 32/33 yds . Not as much choke needed as what the trap community sez/thinks ! Also , in conjunction is the core not changing with the lighter loads . Played with my Red Label , mod choke and 5/8 oz 8.5's . Me and an interested kid broke 9/11 shots . Not smoke balls , but breaks non the less

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Brewster11
PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:38 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 1301
Location: Western WA

Quote:
Hope it is 7H not 7L

Yes Cold Iron it is 7H of course, my typo. However one of our perennial club champs confessed to me that he missed 7L to lose a 100 on TWO occasions!

The M37 stock is original with excessive pitch as was common in early models. So the muzzle jump is significant, not so much an issue on 2 and 6 but trouble on 7 because the target is very close and descending, and the muzzle is up from racking the pump and muzzle jump. I hesitate to modify the stock so I will have to learn how to live with it.

B.
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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2022 9:02 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

B - I know/here ya about changing the stock config . If you don't already have a recoil pad , you need one . If you have one make sure you keep the butt fresh so it can't slide easily . If you don't have a pad , you might consider one of the crescent shaped trap pads - they grip and don't slide easily . The sliding on the report from the 1st shot is the bane of doubles shooting . Just watch someone shooting an old 1100 with a hard butt on it - can't help but slide and wreck your 2nd shot . May want to consider a face pad too . help keep you solid on the 2nd shot also . This may help even if you don't mess with the butt , and can be removed someday if that becomes necessary . good luck !!

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lbrown
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:01 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 06 Jan 2017
Posts: 83

I have an 0 frame Parker VH, chokes opened to .003/010. I've shot a couple straights with it. I use the tight barrel on the outgoing birds and the open one on the incomers. I also have a more recently acquired Bland 16ga, .002/.012. Haven't gone straight with it yet but I have hopes! (Shooting pretty crappy looking 7/8 oz Rem reloads.)

I think those chokes are fine for grouse and woodcock as well, and also for pheasants early in the season. Shooting 1 oz RST's for ringnecks.
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