Choke tube questions

M

Mitch B.

Member
I am thinking of getting a Patternmaster choke tube for my Remington 11-87 XCS, but I have heard good and bad things about choke tubes and steel shot. What is the best kind of choke tube to get or should I even get one?

Thanks for the help
 
Mitch, I guess it all depends on the time you spend at the range patterning the gun. I use a Modified thru my Benelli and both of my Remingtons. I don't use anything special, just the original equipment and get my best patterns from my Modified. I have tried other stuff, but was never convinced I was getting any extra "bang for the buck" so to speak. Hope this helps.
 
I do my best shooting through an Improved Cylinder choke which would be considered modified in steel shot. Also have my sweet sixteen in fixed mod and I hardly ever miss with that gun

I tried several different choke tubes when patterning my turkey gun. Extra full, super full and everything else.....The full choke that came with the gun always had the best pattern. You really need to shoot the gun at paper to see if there are any gaps. If you don't see how the gun prints on paper, you will probably just be throwing money away.

For duck hunting.....IC is usually best for decoying birds and mod and tigher is usually best for pass shooting and shots over 40-45 yards or geese shooting.

my 2 cents
 
Everything that I've read about steel shot and choke tubes says that you should use a modified. Anything else can be damaged by the steel. I use modified, but read the manual and look for a warning about using steel.......................Kevin
 
If you are shooting black cloud get the black cloud choke from either pattern master or carlson. I have never heard anything negative about pattern master chokes especially with hevi shot. I shoot the black cloud with the black cloud choke and it's deadly out to 45 yards. Anything over the decoys inside of 20 yards blows body parts off.
 
Its recommended to not use anything tighter than mod actually...but anything less than that is fine. Remember that the Patternmaster and the tubes of similar design strip the wad away and have no constriction or are constricted very lightly. The theory is that it throws the shot out in a tight column as there aren't any setback forces or wads to compress the load or a bunch of other ballistic jargon. I can tell you this, a bunch of my buddies shoot those expensive tubes and they seem to miss an awful lot and its obvious why; They are shooting at finished birds inside of 25 yards with a choke that is designed to send a tight pattern to increase effectiveness at longer ranges. It never ceases to amaze me how things have changed over the years. An entire generation of waterfowl hunters think they need a 3.5 inch 12 gauge with a patternmaster or kicks tube to hunt.

IC is about perfect and I actually had one get stuck in my Benelli last spring that had to be removed very forcefully because I had never changed it. Sometimes I go with Mod if I want a tighter core but often times the pattern gets blown a bit with the tighter tubes in my opinion...I've experienced that with 870's and Remingtons in general but not with the older Benelli/Beretta tubes that seem to pattern fine with the factory mod choke...probably as good as a pattern you'll get out of any waterfowl piece.

The other day I shot a skeet tube with 1oz Xpert 7's and my buddy shot a cylinder tube with the same shell at woodies and mallards inside of 20 yards. Devastating, though the birds reminded me of the old lead days when you had to really go over them to get the shot out of the meat.

On the other hand I have my old 870 20 gauge that has a permanent mod tube and I shoot that with 6's and 7's all the time at well finished birds and teal anytime and it works great. It'll throw a nice little deadly ball of 4's as well if you are on the mark. If my choke was lighter I'd be concerned about pattern density because there isn't much shot to work with when I use my 2 3/4 twenty.
 
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I use a patternmaster and have for the last three years. I shoot cheaper shells, usually Winchester Xpert.
It through a pattern about the width of a modified but is a cleaner more consistent pattern. Thats how its advertised. Thats what it does.
Your results may vary.

Compared to a factory Remington choke I noticed a moderate improvement.

Remember that steel is a bit tighter so shooting a factory modified with steel is almost like shooting lead full, in terms of dispersion.

As someone else said don't shoot Black Cloud out of it.

I guess if I was shooting out of a layout boat or consistantly shooting decoyed birds hanging 15 yards in front of me I would take it out.

I hope that helps.
 
I think I mis-spoke or should I say mis-typed. Wasn't recommending shooting steel in a choke tighter than Mod. I realize that in the orginal post steel was mentioned as the shell of choice but there are some other non-toxic shells where you can shoot through a tigher constriction than mod.

As Kevin said ....check you owners manual for safe operation. Remington makes choke tube that have the intended type of shot listed on the side. I have one that says hevi shot
 
I have been using the Carlson's extended tubes for the last several years. Mostly IC sized. The Mod is too tight inside of 30 yards with steel. The IC is useless pass 45 yards and wounds birds I have to chase down. The patterns are good and the tubes fit well. My Stoegy M2000 came with tubes that had poor machining and I was concerned they would get stuck in the barrel so I used the aftermaket tubes from my Beretta.

If you are thinking about using Black Cloud you have to go with an extended IC tube or a skeet tube or get a Black Cloud Carlson's tube. Any tube system that is made to change the behavior of the wad will make Black Cloud useless since the wad is the whole point of the Black Cloud system.
 
Asking how choke tube X will work with gun Y shooting load Z is the real question....all three drive the equation and changing one will affect the others. That being said, there are a lot of good rules already posted up, but I have missed my personal favorite.

get something and TEST IT....pattern that combo (gun/choke/load) and count pellets (tedious), look at the spread and then tuck those pages of butcher block away so you will KNOW what really works for you. If it doesn't do what you want, sell it online. its cheaper to sell a choke that doesn't work than to blow throw lots of steel shot figuring out you have a bad combination.....or even worse, you could waste 5 rounds of hevi-shot.

I personally run between three tubes:
Cylinder for layout hunting
IC for longer layout shots and good close decoying birds
Pattermaster for longer shots (for me, its about a IM choke)...its as tight as I will go with steel or a hard non-toxic.

Your results may vary...
 
I have a pattern master in my 870. I like it, it throws a good pattern with 3in 2's. Just don't shoot anything inside 10yds, there won't be anything left. Like Jay said, if you have dumb birds, you probably don't need it.
 
I shoot a Weatherby 12ga. Pump. I removed the stock gold bead sight and added a red tru-glo sight. Also a Cabelas Improved Cylinder Extended Choke tube for Hevi-Shot. I shot Federal, Winchester, and Kent 3" #2 through it and the Kent is what worked best for me. (Kent Fasteel 1560fps 3" #2, 1-1/8oz.)
 
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