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Guest

How are your "first shot" opportunities looking this year? I've been mentally recording mine and not one has required more that a cylinder or skeet choke. I hunt pointy dogs, so that of course is a big factor. The other thing I've noticed is a much higher percentage of my birds are coming down dead with wide open first patterns. IC choke with premium ammo patterns tight, and I was fringing a lot of close birds the last few years and wringing lots of necks.

The gun that started this was my Cyl/IC Merkel 200E 12 gauge. That Cyl barrel is wicked efficient and the top IC barrel was coming home clean most days. Then in South Dakota I shot my Beretta 686 starting with the IC/IM Brileys in place. When we got in a WPA I changed them to SK/LM for the tight-patterning nontoxic loads and they stayed that way for the rest of the trip. I might weld them in!

Mine was with a Superposed 410, skeet and skeet
No issues with downing the birds.
Mike

Member Joined: 30 Nov 2011 Posts: 1697 Location: Minnesota

I started using nothing tighter than Ic years ago( with flushing dogs) in my tubed guns. Have had fixed choke guns opened to usually IC/Mod and use spreaders in them early season. Just figured it was helping my generally poor shooting. Smile

Guest

No doubt Cyl and Sk chokes are making me look good this year, and why not when everything has been 25 yards or less? It's nice having that light mod or mod in the 2nd barrel though. Reminds me of myself back when I set up my deer rifles for that 3-400 yard shot and then realized all my deer were being shot less than 100. Idea

Member Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Posts: 2169 Location: Florida

Dave, what load are you using for your first shot in the 16ga?

Guest

Don't go hating me, but mostly hunting with my 12's so far. My Beretta 16 had a forearm latch issue and I just got it back. I'm about to cut loose with my Merkel 16 OU and that has a .005 under barrel.

I've had a couple 35-40 yd first shot opportunities, one with an ic choke that resulted in a winged bird, the other with a modified choke and a stoned bird.

Guest

I don't doubt you, Mark. Too many variables nationwide to make hard fast rules. I hunt midwestern pheasants and grouse with pointers, so a wide open first barrel is a no brainer. Until this year my "wide open" was IC, but forcing myself to use Cyl and SK this year on the open barrel of my doubles was an eye opener for me. It's been a less is more experience.

Joined: 09 Mar 2016 Posts: 754 Location: Mn.

Spent a week on the North Shore grouse hunting about a month ago and the IC choke in the 37 was actually a bit tight for many shots, but also came in handy for those longer flushes along the logging trails.

Spent 15 days in SD got back a week ago. Hunt with a flusher, sometimes the birds flush at your feet with the dogs nose in the grass and don't come out until he swats it with his paw. And other times groups of 50 or more birds were flushing a couple hundred yards out. Started out with the 16 ga. 37 IC and 1 1/8 oz. loads. One morning a friend who normally shoots a 20 said it felt like a 12 ga. day as we got out of the truck, he was carrying his 12. Few minutes later watched him down a rooster at 50+ yards with the Full choke. He reloaded and another rooster went up and he dropped it at 40+ yards with the Mod choke. Don't hate me either but the next day I switched to my 12 ga. 37 Ultralight and put in the LM choke with 1 3/8 of #5's. My life got better after that to be honest. Next year might take a 37 with Mod choke in 16 ga. but to be honest sort of torn. Forgot just how hard those bastages are to kill until I got back on the plains. Just saying. Grouse for me will always be the 16 and #6 shot.

Yardage and shots same as every year. Idea

C - IC....grouse/woodcock but I suspect IC would yield the same ratio of sandwiches and appetizers.
Choke can be overthought.

Modified in SW16 for Pa. pheasants...4s......all could have been swatted with 6s and IC or SK...I prefer 5s, I use 4s.....reckon that!
I do not feel any shame in that combo and no pheasants or sandwiches were lost in the use of a dozen or more.
I will soon use the same in Kansas.
Choke can be overthought.

Any choice of choke only needs one ...bad ending...to make us consider change.....and only one good ending to consider we have struck the best.

Guest

Been more than just a good day. It broke a frustrating pattern midlife handed me of fringing or whiffing these close birds with tighter chokes. This season has been different. Perhaps it's confidence, perhaps it's the right pattern for the range. Either way I'm running with it.

We hunted pheasants 2 full days and 2 half days in north-central Kansas Nov. 12-15. Bright sunny days but temperatures were in the mid-60's to mid-70's which is much too hot for dogs and hunters.

Our guide had two or three pointing Labs in the field (knee to shoulder high CRP and some cut Milo) at all times. One of our guide's dogs, a 4-yr old female yellow pointing Lab, was bitten by a prairie rattler! She will be okay and should be back to hunting in a week or two.

I started out the first day with my 16 ga. Marlin Model 90 with 26" barrels choked IC/Mod shooting Remington Express Long Range #6's. The all wild birds were not holding and the shots were longer than I expected. After crippling two, I started using the same model 90 with a set of 28" barrels choked Mod/Full shooting Express Long Range # 4's in the top (full choke) barrel and was more successful.

We went duck hunting on two of the mornings but supermoon-lit nights, warm temperatures and little or no wind early in the mornings did not make for good duck hunting. Only fired my gun twice and missed both shots.

Joined: 13 Oct 2015 Posts: 348

Hunting Gambel's quail here in AZ. No dog, and they love to run ahead of you. Most first shots, if I can get them to fly, have been 40 yds. I was carrying a 28ga with #7.5, but switched to my 16ga model 12, Mod choke, and 1-1/8oz #6.

Without a dog, AZ quail is a longer-range game, and I'm glad for my Mod choke.

Joined: 09 Mar 2016 Posts: 754 Location: Mn.

Thanks for the reminder I forgot pictures. Got drawn for waterfowl in SD but old man winter didn't drop his nuts on Kanadaa and push the ducks down, it was a bust unless you were into Snows, Ross, or Blues. Sky carp in other words. But the phez at 1.5 birds a day were still worth the trip. Far cry from years past but that is the norm anymore with the loss of CRP and weather conditions. Especially the early hail storms.

The pup seems to like to hunt for everyone else when we do a group hunt. So is appropriate with the group from Wi. that used to be our neighbors in Wi. that we still have a tight bond with. We have killed a lot of birds together over the years.

Guest

Good to hear and see that tighter chokes are still needed. I reckon I hunt pheasants about as much as anyone and I haven't had a first shot over 25 yards all year. The vast majority in the last few years have been in skeet choke range. This has held through 4 states. That said I'm sure now I've jinxed myself and my day is coming! Smile