Best choke for buckshot?
 

always thought full choke best for tight patterns at long range. But will imp cyl give tight patterns at 60-70 yds? no choice to swap chokes and pattern - IC all i got thanks

I've shot some 4B, 00B, and 000B out of imp, mod, and full chokes. I've shot some of the 4B out of my turkey tube. The 00 and 000 didn't pattern well enough at any range for any practical hunting use. I patterned the 3" #4 buckshot for coyote hunting, and 50 yards was the farthest that I'd consider it effective for coyotes. That came out of a full choke. The turkey choke was a close runner up. My mod and imp cyl chokes spread it out much too fast.

rw

Modified patterns best in my Benelli with 00 buck.

Take a good look at the energy figures for buckshot pellets. At 40 yards a 00 buck pellet carries about the same energy as a .22lr. Even with a tight pattern more deer are wounded beyond that distance and most experts will agree that 30 yards and under is even better.

I doubt you'll get much of an effective pattern at 60-70 yards, but you'll have to shoot a few to find out. Make sure you have some LARGE pieces of paper or cardboard (like 4' x 4') so you can see where the pellets hit. Until you get another gun, you're stuck with the IC choke, so find the range where most of your pellets stay within say a 10"-12" circle and call that your effective range if you are hunting deer. But better yet, if you get another gun, skip the buckshot and go to a slug gun.

If you can use slugs where you are, try some Federal Tru-ball style slugs. I hear they are good in smoothbores. You'll undoubtedly get more effective range than with buckshot. Aiming with a front bead sight only is tricky, so be consistent with your sight picture.

What size buckshot are you planning to use and what on?

Field&Stream Magazine actually did an experiment several years ago comparing a number of choke sizes for 00 Buck Shot at 50 yards using a life size target of a deer. Their conclusion was that Modified choke was optimal with the highest number of pellets in the kill zone.