Turkey Shoots - Hot Barrels, Hot Chokes

As a judge of a local meat shoot, and over 40 years' experience shotgunning everything from league trap & skeet, birds and you-name-it, I have a question I hope someone here will have the answer to. Let me explain to the best of my ability.

Given that the shoot is a "legal choke (.675 and higher)" shoot as advertised, we get a great turnout by guys with everyday shotguns and it's hugely popular. It never fails that a few guys will show up, usually together, with shotguns that pass a (6 inches long) choke check, but shoot entirely too tight to be a standard barrel / choke combination. Sometimes a hot gun will be obvious to the eye and that's a no-brainer to disqualify them. BUT, we're seeing more and more guns that have been worked so professionally that you can't tell it with the naked eye, even when pulling the barrel off and doing a visual check. I'm not trying to offend anyone here with a "hot" gun, because I have a 34" 1100 myself that's been heavily modified -- and I shoot it in unlimited shoots because it won't pass a choke check and it's obvious the gun has been worked over by a pro. My fundamental problem is this: My gun is hot and I'm honest when talking about it at a shoot.... but there are these guys that effectively lie, playing everyone as idiots, trying to pass these hot guns off as unmodified, legal rigs. Not very honorable imho. To the hosts of a shoot trying to keep it a level playing field, the confrontation gets ugly as those guys get louder and louder (can we spell 'many beers later'?) and they're told their guns are being disqualified because they're hot. It holds up the shoots, and frustrates folks with regular shotguns -- honest guys go home while the cheats make a fuss. I'm tired of the lying, cheating and BS -- and next week when they walk on they're simply going to be told to go to another shoot and try to push off their hot guns to someone else less suspecting. We will accommodate them with an unlimited shoot if they want to shoot on another range, but we're not going to let them shoot against normal full choke shotguns owned by everyday guys just trying to win some pork steaks for the grill. Sorry that took so many words to explain -- I did my best. I just really dislike liars... and it seems that cheat guns trying to be passed off as a normal shotguns sets the owner up as something less than honorable.

Here's my question: I know about chamber work, backboring, swedging and all those technical ways to make a shotgun shoot tighter... but how in hell are they making barrels shoot so tight that they 1) pass visual tests and 2) defy the common sense test that, at 65 feet, there isn't much left of the target card to even judge? How can you detect a heavily modified barrel? These guys were shooting patterns as dense as my tricked out 34" 1100 but there is NO way I could detect any work had been done on them. What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experience.

To JamesLovesJammie

First, I appreciate the comments. Thanks.

to JamesLovesJammie - who had never heard of a turkey / meat shoot, here is a link with basic rules: http://www.turkeyshoot.net/Rules.htm

It -IS- fun. Briefly, you have a card with a circle and X crosshair bullseye, and you hope that at least one of your pieces of shot cuts the center X. It's essentially a target shoot for shotguns that are aimed (rather than pointed or moving, such as clay bird shooting) like rifles. In the Southwestern Illinois region, there are lots of shoots held on Sundays and turnout can be 30-50 shooters at each one -- sometimes moving from shoot to shoot to see who's offering the 1) best selection and quantities of meats to the winners, and 2) see who's moving along the best (usually based upon what type of a target changer is being employed). Nobody likes to stand around for an hour waiting for their shot -- so home-made target holders that increment after each shot moving the next target card in to place is a big help in speeding things up... as opposed to the "old" days where a guy stands behind hay bales and manually changes the target card after each shot.

On a good day, using an automatic target incrementor (sounds like something requiring an acronym!) starting at noon, we can get about 30 rounds completed... with only 15 shooters in each round. We charge $2 per shot (and furnish the shells), and the winner of each round is awarded a package of brats, T-bones, rib-eyes, bacon, pork chops, pork steaks, sausage or ham valued at about $20. How fairly the cards are judged, based upon the judge's experience and how well they're known and respected by the shooters, can also make one meat shoot more popular than the others. We also offer free soup and mulligan, 50 cent bowls of chili and hamburgers... which hits the spot on chilly Fall days.

You'll also find some shoots charge $3 or $4 a round, meaning they're making much more money from the shooters -- which have a problem holding enough shooters to sell out the round as the day goes on and the "lucky" shooters win over and over... turning off the guys who haven't won and simply decide to go home and hope next week they're a little luckiers. Having a TV on with the regional football team playing isn't a bad idea to hold your shooters there, also...

It's a fun thing to do with the family on Sunday afternoons in the Fall in this part of the country. In the St. Louis area, there are unlimited shoots held that you can bring ANY kind of shotgun (nicknamed Outlaw guns) -- where you'll see 5 foot long barrels welded together, crazy chokes, scopes, and other combinations that defy description. Until you've seen a shotgun shoot a 4" clean hole in a 5" card, completely blowing out the center of the card, AT 75 feet, you haven't lived. You definately don't want to eat a rabbit that one of those shotguns have hit.

I hope you get an opportunity to visit a meat shoot sometimes. It's really fun when kids and their Moms win -- and a safe, well-structured firing line for a Dad to start his young son in shotgun target shooting. I've seen 7 year old girls beat old experienced shooters... always bringing the hoots and hollers, laughs and celebration with the win -- and an ear-to-ear grin on the little winner.