Choke selection for skeet and sporting clays

[dave3006]

I have a 12 guage and my son has a 20 guage.

For skeet, we have been using an IC choke.

For sporting clays, we have used our Modified chokes.

Does this sound right? Are these good choices?

 

[PJR]

Not bad choices but a little too tight IMHO.

I use a cylinder choke for skeet and either IC or Lt. Mod. for sporting clays depending on the course.

Paul

 

[Dave McCracken]

Paul nailed it, but there's plenty of latitude. Most shots fall under 30 yards, I'd try different tubes with your Load Of Choice and use whatever gave me 24" of high density pattern at 30 yards. Adjust as needed.

 

[TrapperReady]

PJR is right. For the game of skeet, you want your chokes about as open as you can get them, since the shots are relatively close. For sporting clays, it all depends upon the course. If I'm shooting an unknown course, I'll either ask in the clubhouse, or check with the trapper to see what they think most folks use.

Typically, IC is the best bet, although I've run into a couple of courses where the difficulty is provided primarily through longer shots. On those, Modified may be a better choice. I've yet to see one which requires much more than that.

In any event, I try to avoid the "change chokes every station" mentality that some gamers use. I've shot with people who do it... and I don't think a single one of them has outshot me. What I will do is use a couple different types of ammo. For example, I may use #8.5 shot for most targets, and reserve some #7.5 for longer shots.

 

[sm]

Agree with 3 folks above.

Agree with TR on the shot choices, I too "stack" loads. We didn't always have removable chokes - we did "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome tho'...

I miss the Peters brand shells , great trap load...them blue hulls were 'special' .
Less snickering than the lavendar Fiocchi's .

 

[ysr_racer]

When someone asks me what choke to use on a sporting clays course I always tell them, "the right one for the target".

15 yard shot? skeet. 40 yard shot? mod.

I "usually" shoot IC in the bottem barrel and Lt. Mod in the top. It works on most of the courses I've shot on.

For skeet I use skeet. For 17 yard trap I use IC. But note, 99% of the time when I miss, it wasn't because I had the wrong choke in.

Good luck and have fun.

P.S. I wish I had gone shooting with my dad when I was a kid.

brad g.

 

[TrapperReady]

ysr_racer - Your reply about "what choke to use" was similar to the one I made to my buddy last week. He's shot a lot of skeet and normally outshoots me on the longer crossing shots. Anyway, I'd cleaned one station consisting of two singles and two report pair. As I stepped back out of the box, he asked "How much lead did you use?".

Since our scores were pretty darned close at that time, I answered "Enough".

He missed the first two targets, which happened to be the exact difference in our scores at the end of the round.

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Not like we were keeping track or anything.