Informal backyard choke experiment.

[Owen Sparks]

I inherited a Remington 870 barrel and a set of Rem chokes. Yesterday I brought home a big piece of cardboard and set up a test to see what different chokes will do. I used cheap WallMart #8 birdshot throughout. At ten yards the improved cylender threw the largest pattern. The modified pattern was slightly smaller. The full choke pattern was dramaticly smaller. Then it was time to try the turkey choke. Unlike the others, it extended one half inch from the barrel allowing the shot to be constricted more gradualy over a longer distiance. The core of the pattern it threw appeared slightly tighter than that of the full choke, but there were a lot of fliers that actually made the turkey choke pattern larger than the full. Could this be because the tighter choke was mashing the pellets out of shape? I did not use a proper turkey load. Could that have something to do with the results? An interesting side note, The tighter the chokes were, the closer the wad hit to the point of aim. With the turkey choke, the wad actually hit the dime sized dot I was aiming at.

OS

 

[Dave McCracken]

That's consistent with conventional wisdom, Owen. Turkey chokes oft cause flyers due to excess constriction.

As for the wad, not always does that happen. IMO, your chokes and bore are quite concentric. That's good.