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Choke tube taper & parallel designs.

5579 Views 9 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  dvice
With hundreds/thousands of knowledgable shooters on TS.com spending a huge amount of time and effort in seeking out the perfect choke tube design for the best shot patterns, which is the better design ? (a) short choke tube with the taper the full legnth of the choke tube. (b) short choke tube with the taper and then a parallel cylindrical exit diameter. (c) long choke tube with the taper the full legnth of the choke tube. (d) long choke tube with the taper and then a parallel cylindrical exit diameter (e) what would be the increase in the concentration of the shot pattern when using fiber wad cartridges in a straight rifled full choke tube as opposed to using the same fiber wad cartridge in a ordinary full choke tube or is it only that straight rifling reduces fliers. (f) in general terms do faster velosity shot strings with fiber wads produce a larger diameter pattern than lower velosity shot strings with fiber wads. (g) what are the advantages or disadvantages for shot string patterns when the use of plastic cup wads are compaired against the use of ordinary fiber wads. Just seeking your views and looking to find out your experences about choke tube design and the inter-action with the speed of the shot string and the choise of which type of wad is used etc. (bit long winded but you might have some knowledge about the above instead of tackling a crossword) Thanks and kind regards. Philip.
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Most of the makers are going toward long taper and moderate to long parallel length. Something about what they see during testing such as "more even patterns" convinces them they are correct.

Either that or they are going for sales. GAP
For the most part, there is no silver bullet. Most choke tubes throw patterns about like any other choke tube.

Personally, I think it is all hype.

Teague chokes are highly thought of worldwide, and they have no parallel section at all. Tapered all the way to the muzzle.

I have no idea what the taper length or parallel section length is on my fixed full choke in my barrel, but it absolutely obliterates targets when I center one.
They are going for sales. It's about marketing. If one type was truly better than the rest we would know about it by now.
Parallel lengths of some makers ....

Wrights ... no parallel

Briley ... 3/4"

Trulock & Angleport ... 1"

Carlson and Colonial Arms ... 1.1"

Vendel ... 1.25"
Teague has made a worldwide name for himself using taper-only chokes (no parallel section).
Thanks all, the point that Eurojoe makes is a good one, but most land owners with cattle, sheep and horses etc are a little bit concered about plastic cup wads, even just a few plastic wads in in the silage, hay or fodder etc. can be a very unlucky and expensive vet's bill, whereas a fiber wad will just passes straight through most farm stock, the majority of paid for shooting now insist on the use of fiber wads as part of their farming policy. Thanks Philip.
Philip, My quantitative testing didn't throw up any results to suggest one design of choke was better (or even different) to any other and I tested from long taper (Teague) to abrupt wad retarding ring design; no difference.

Fibre vs plaswad; again from test results, for most people most of the time, there's no practical difference. Plaswads can deliver slightly tighter patterns and for long distance targets (i.e. trap) these are superior and in the long run will give higher average scores but you wouldn't notice a difference from a casual test.

Andrew.

See link below for a taster:

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=272883&p=2332345#p2332345
Mike Stitt from Oakland Custom Arms (now retired) did a very involved test building every type of combination you could think of and came to the conclusion that the best choke built was the Browning fixed IM choke-.010 constriction per inch of length with .750 parallel at the muzzle. His complete test was published in Shotgun Sports in the mid 90's. I have had him do 2 guns and could not be any more satisfied with them
dave vice
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