Good Shells and Tight Chokes

Over the years I've made some long shots. I've made the longest shots I've ever seen. I've made the longest shots that any of my hunting partners have ever seen. I take some of the credit, but mostly it has been proper selection of shells and choke.

About a million years ago I read old Stoegers Catalogs and a few sporting magazines and got interested in the ballistics of shotgun shells. I have an old book "The Complete Encyclopedia of Hunting" that I read back then and used to help hand load my first shotgun shells. Dennis Chaney and I used some really primitive means to arrive at our end. For example: using a rat-tail file to open up the powder and shot holes in a MEC reloader bar and catching the metal filings and weighing them and recording the data. Then we would go pattern the shells we loaded and look for a killing pattern. Then back to the filing. Over and over until the pattern was blown. Then, start all over again and stop just short of where we had blown the pattern. First with the amount of powder, then the amount of shot. Of course all the while we kept within the 'safe limits' of a reloading manual that my Father had. When we were finished we knew we had the maximum load that we could shoot through our 870's and have a perfect pattern. Years after that I got the opportunity to chronograph the loads and they were screamers by the standards of the day. 1300 fps with 1 3/8 ounces of #5 lead shot. For most ducks it was all I ever needed. We also developed a load for #6's and a load for #4's. So then we were covered from Teal Season till the late season Mallards and Blacks. Other than some truly hand-loaded #4 Buck that Dad fixed up for geese, I always shot factory 3" #2's on geese. I preferred the
1 3/8 ounce load, but the 1 5/8 ounce load was easier to find. The heavy 1 7/8 ounce load was just too slow for the way I was accustomed to shooting.

I shot those old loads until steel shot became mandatory. From the beginning I looked for steel shells that had good velocity. My first favorite was the Winchester Supreme. #3's for Bluebills and #2's for big ducks. After a while I switched over to Kent Fasteel because of the price. That is what I still shoot on a regular basis. If I go on a high-$ guided hunt I generally shoot Heavy Shot. It is probably the killingest shotgun shell I have ever used. But expensive to buy and expensive to replace choke tubes that wear out ahead of schedule.

I have shot a Full choke ever since I got my 870, 40 years ago. I will continue to shoot a Full choke as long as I hunt ducks. I like having the little extra pattern density out at long yardage. The steel shot era took some getting adjusted to. When steel shot first came along, all the "experts" said to shoot an open choke. Improved Cylinder or at least Modified. They told all these stories about steel shot not "flowing" through the choke like lead shot and too tight of choke would ruin your pattern. In my own mind I am convinced they talked that trash to keep people from ruining Full choked barrels on their favorite guns, and turning on the shell industry.

I shot steel for about 15 years in my 870. It still measures .685. My 870 barrel is strong. I think all vintage Remington barrels could handle steel shot just fine. When the arthritis in my elbow forced me to start using my Benelli, I started eating choke tubes. I admit, I have never bought the top of the line, mega-$ chokes tubes, but I didn't buy el-cheapo's either. I think in particular, Heavy Shot shells really work on a choke tube. I don't shoot a lot of that stuff, but since it hit the market, I wear out choke tubes faster. But I'm sticking with a Full choke.

I recently read 2 really good articles about some extensive research that was conducted to explore the benefits of a 'short shot string'. I know the concept originated with John Olin, and the shells that we shoot in this country all have a decently short shot string. That is when they are fired through a barrel with a good quality choke. I do concede that these 'wad-stripper' choke tubes they are making these days do seem to help keep a nice pattern. But the bottom line of the research that I mentioned was that a Modified choke made a better killing pattern.

I tend to disagree. I can hold my own in mathematics and physics. So I set up some equations of my own to take the aforementioned test results to a little higher level. I used ballistic data straight from the shell manufacturers. I used some equations I found on the Internet to factor in the tangential effects of wind speed, wind direction, and the speed of the duck. I used accurate measurements (I dissected the Bluebill) to see how large of an area the 'killing zone' is. I used actual pattern density tests that my Dad and I conducted some years back. So I was not working with ball park figures on what a Full choke produces versus a Modified choke. I had the specific data.

Sure enough, you get a shorter shot string with a Modified choke. Just like the magazine articles said. But, now for the rest of the story. For an average sized Bluebill, flying at 45 mph at a range of 45 yards the difference in the length of the shot string between a Modified and Full choke is one side of the story. The increased pattern density of the Full choke is the other side. By my calculations, the number of pellets actually entering the killing zone of that Bluebill at the split second when you want to kill that bird is higher with the Full choke. Granted, there is less for room for error with the Full choke. But I have contended all my life that the reason hunters used a more open choke was not about "not wanting the meat all shot up" but rather to make up for slight shortcomings in their wingshooting ability.

So, you can safely shoot birds at 35 yards and smack them down good and hard with your Modified. You can sit there in the blind and be one of the guys. Or you can reach out and touch a duck that nobody else even thought about shooting at. Ever go off to a foreign country and sit down to your first meal with a group of total strangers and when your name is mentioned have another hunter set down his fork and say he had heard about your shooting from other total strangers?

Screw a Full choke tube in your gun and be that guy.