Poly-Choke II and Truglo Titan

[AJumbo]

I had a Mossberg 20 ga with a Poly-Choke when I was a younger man, and in a moment of weakness, sold it to friend. I'm getting back into Sporting Clays and 5-Stand, and find interchangeable tubes are getting to be tedious. I'm looking at either the Poly-Choke II or the Truglo Titan. Both can be removed, so they won't permanently alter the look of my guns in case I need to sell them.

I know how the chokes work, and I know some of you don't like the look of them. I'm really looking for anyone who has used both, or who can comment on the Titan. I'm not really looking for "But they're so uuuuuuugggglllllyyyyyyyy....." I KNOW they're ugly, I just don't care.

 

[RPRNY]

Use a PolyII on my semi-auto, mainly for waterfowl. They work fine up to improved modified. Tighter than that and the patterns go to hell. Design flaw. The choke is too short to bring the shot together over such a short length.

Choke changing is 4/5ths psychological. I shoot low to mid eighties sporting and shoot nine out of ten stations choked ic/im. I suppose if I were to shoot a semi a poly might make sense but I'm not sure I'd be willing to accept the impact on handling and sighting, although I suppose a high rib would deal with most of that.

 

[AJumbo]

RPRNY- Assuming your barrel has a rib, does the RCII occlude the bead? My old Mossberg had a plain barrel and the bead was integral with the choke, so it wasn't a problem hitting what I needed to.

 

[RPRNY]

RPRNY- Assuming your barrel has a rib, does the RCII occlude the bead? My old Mossberg had a plain barrel and the bead was integral with the choke, so it wasn't a problem hitting what I needed to.

No bead on my Polychoke II. I never pay any attention to a bead once I've established a mounting position. But the Polychoke does exceed barrel diameter so for clays, on crossers, you might find it annoying. Or it might not matter in the least. I think that unless you're trying to get those three extra birds in a round, it probably won't matter.

 

[kudu]

Almost every sporting clays course I have ever shot in my area I/C was about as tight as you needed. If a little more oomph was needed I kept some hotter Nitro 27 shells in a side pouch for longer shots. Usually I shoot most of the courses with a skeet choke and an I/C for my over-under and an I/C in my auto or pump gun. Even when I shoot the occasional round of trap, I can crush targets with a mod choke at the 27 yard line with light 7/8oz and 1oz loads. Just about everything I shoot now in 12 gauge I use 7/8oz reloads, they hold a very even pattern for quite some distance.

I rarely see the really good sporting clay shooters change their chokes unless there is a substantial change in the way the targets are laid out. So yes there are times it is nice to be able to quickly change your choke setting with just a twist, you just need to ask yourself is it worth it for just an occasional change.

As for sight beads, they are mostly just there for decoration as long as your gun fits. I finished a registered skeet round once and never noticed that the front bead had fallen off my gun. One of the other guys told me that it had happened in the first 25 of 100 birds. If you are focusing on the target you are usually breaking the target. That said, I still like a Bradley white front bead on my shotguns just for ascetic reasons.

 

[AJumbo]

I rarely have any idea where my bead is in relation to the bird. My question was whether either of the chokes broke the sighting plane.

One of the toughest things to teach a new shooter is that the bead doesn't really matter much, and I generally have a hard time answering someone who asks me what the lead is on a given bird. I don't lead; I mount as I swing and break the shot as I swing through the target. When I was shooting a lot of skeet I could actually "spot" shoot a lot of the targets, but that's really not the way to score 25s. And yeah, I broke a lot of skeet targets with a modified or full choke.

I think I want an adjustable choke mostly to play with it, truth be told.