What is the tightest choke you can safely shoot 00 buckshot out of. I plan to hunt coyotes with my shotgun but i dont know what choke to use. I have a 12g 3in chamber.

Not to stir up controversy but cylinder bore will give you the best pattern for 00 Buckshot. That is why riot guns come cylinder. Go to improved cylinder if you have to. With buckshot you are not shooting a tall birdshot column that you can shape. It acts more like smoothbore musket. Nuff said.

Each gun will prefer something different in the combination ofchokes and types of shells. The tightest chokes are sometimes not the best and the more open chokes are often the worse. Law enforcement does not want tight patterns, they are looking for a large area of coverage at short range. It just comes down to trying difference choke/shell combinations in your gun and keeping good records. I use an SBE for my buckshot hunting and it prefers the Patternmaster choke, it measures inbetween IC and modified but has little fingers that slows down the wad and lets the shot exit the bbl. on its own. Works real good in my gun but your mileage may vary, get it from Cabelas and if it does not work, send it back..

Doug

you can shoot it from any choke.....but IC or CYL is best for patterns.

I personally like Improved Modified.

I have used shotguns for deer almost all my life as for state restrictions. And I have always wanted the tightest pattern I could get as to hit the deer with as many pellets as possiable. And the advice that Doug gave you is100% correct. I have never had two shotguns pattern the same, some shoot tighter with Mod choke some Full. The same gun will shoot different brands of buck shot tighter with a different choke Never imp cyl or and open choke you want to put as much led into that dog as you can so keep it as tight as you can. As far as safety goes You can go out to full choke using a extra full choke is not reccommended it is so tight it could blow off the end of your barrel. Mike

To further add that choke is dependent on gun, I shoot an 870 Wingmaster and with a Winchester 3" magnum 00 load the modified choke patterns the best. Your best bet is to get a box of as many different loads as you can afford to try, some freezer paper or something similar that you can shoot patterns at, and go to the range. Try each load with a different choke until you've exhausted your possibilities, then pick the best one and stock up on that load.

I conducted some tests about ten years ago and found that, in some guns, an improved cylinder choke gave the best pattern and, in others, it was modified. One thing, though. Coyotes are very difficult to kill with 00 Buck on a body shot. The folks I know who do this with a shotgun all use either BB's or 2's and shoot for the head/neck area.

if you want the tightest pattern possible get ya a box of hevi shot dead coyote and shoot those with a modified choke, a modified choke is the equivalence to a steel full choke or even better get you a full hevi shot choke which is specifically designed for hevi shot.

With the 3.5 inch dead coyote load which has 54 T shot size pellets, from my mossberg 835 with a steel full choke topped with a red dot scope shoots 25% patterns at 100 yard targets which means im getting on average 13 to 14 pellets inside of a 10 inch circle at 100 yards.

Ive shot a few coyotes with this load from 25 to 75 yards and one right near the 100 yard mark. the one at 100 yards ran about 20 yard before expiring with 3 pellets in the neck area and 7 pellets in the rib cage area 4 of the pellets passed completely through. my others had the majority of the pellets between the neck and rib cage with obvious pass through wounds on the otherside.

These may not be the way to go if you want to save pelts but if you want the most range from a shotgun then its deffinately the way to go.

Hevi shot also offers a 3 inch t shot load and recently come out with two 00 buck loads in 2 3/4 inch and 3 inch.