Chokes for short barrels

[ElPasoWrangler]

I have a 18.5 inch 12 ga barrel in imp cyc and was thinking about having it fitted for screw in chokes. Anyone ever do this and how did it turn out? I was thinking about full, modified and improved cylinder.

 

[oneounceload]

Barrel length will make no difference regarding chokes. The same constriction should pattern the same regardless of barrel length. If you want more versatility, then choke tubes make sense. It really depends on what you intend to do with the shotgun

 

[Capstick1]

I have a Winchster 1300 Defender that I had this done to. There's a company in Houston, TX called Brileys Manufacturing. They also have a website. You'll have to ship your barrel to them. You'll also have to talk to them on the phone and let them know what kind of choke tubes you want for your shotgun.

 

[Gary A]

I'm not a great hunter but do like to do some upland hunting in the fall. In my state, many if not most hunting areas are now restricted to non-toxic shot and I usually use steel. Since steel tends to pattern more tightly than lead, and most of my experience and most of what I read of other people's experience indicates a fairly open choke for upland hunting, I see little reason to alter my fixed choke guns which range from cylinder to IC to Modified. My cylinder guns tend to pattern between skeet and improved cylinder and my IC choked gun seems to pattern close to modified with steel shot. Another gun I use that has removable chokes is now fitted with a Trulock Skeet 1 which seems to pattern close to around IC with steel. If I were hunting with lead, my preferences would possibly change but given the conditions for hunting around here, my fixed choke guns seem to work OK. Also, Dave McCracken on this forum has posted some great information on "what can be done with a cylinder choke"( which should be able to be easily adapted to an IC choke as well) regarding different loads to get different patterns. I hope this link works for you - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?threadid=1007

Of course, you may not be asking in regarding to hunting at all but I hope Dave McCracken's information is helpful to you anyway.

 

[natman]

I have a 18.5 inch 12 ga barrel in imp cyc and was thinking about having it fitted for screw in chokes. Anyone ever do this and how did it turn out? I was thinking about full, modified and improved cylinder.

You could do it and for all practical purposes the patterns would be as good as if you had a 28 inch barrel. The problem is that the swing dynamics wouldn't be nearly as good, so it would be a handicap for any kind of wing shooting.