Bible_Man

Just got my wife a Mossberg 500 Bantam 20 ga. It has a 22" barrel. She will be taking it dove hunting in the coming days, and I wondered what the opinion of some of you would be as to what choke should be used with the shorter barrel. Modified or improved cylinder? Thanks in advance for any input.

Bernie P.

Just pattern it at 30yds with both and go from there.

Sheridan

....and there you have it !

huntingkidPA

how good of a shot are you? i made the mistake of not changing my choke once grouse hunting. i dont shoot clays that much and had in a full. big mistake. i would got improved cylinder.

HatchieLuvr

I'd recommend the mod. choke especially for a 20ga and with a child/wife or beginner shooter (forgive me for the assumption, you're wife might be the state skeet champ but I'd assume you then wouldn't be asking) I'd also stick with 7.5 or 8 shot. 9 takes some solid shooting to reliably drop birds all day. Nothing worse than having occasional hits fly 100-200yds away and dropping in the woods. #9s, IC choke, 12ga in the hands of a good shooter IS great, but we're not talking about that here are we?

Good luck,
HL

Bible_Man

She is not a state skeet champion, but not a bottom of the barrel beginner either. She has killed some doves in the past, but always using a 12 ga of mine. After getting tired of the recoil she decided to step down a bit. She likes a shorter gun, which is why we got the Bantam. After patterning a few shots yesterday I feel the modified may be the best option...little difference. Main reason for asking is that I have never done any wing-shooting with a barrel shorter than 28" and with this one being 22" I wanted to feel out what experience others may have had with a similar setup. Thanks for the input! Got 4 boxes of #8's shot sitting in the truck ready for her to shoot at some birds this evening!

Runawayjon9

Go with the improved cylinder i think.

bronko22000

For doves, improved cylinder and #8 shot.
BTW the barrel length has nothing to do with choke. The amount of choke in a shotgun is determined by the percentage of shot it can put into a 30" circle at 40 yds.
But that being said, I have had some shotguns actually shoot a tighter pattern with turkey loads using a full choke than with an xtra full choke.

cjwink

Im gonna go against the grain here.. Dove hunting is my passion and I have been doing it for over 30 years... When I go dove hunting I load up the skeet choke. I rarely pack anything over a 20 guage and I use either 6, 7 or 71/2 shot.. Dove are not big tough birds, one or two pellets is enough to bring them down.. Most of my shots are close, fast shots where a bigger pattern is desired, but I can reach out and touch them also..

Mojotex

Bernie P. has it. Just for grins, sketch out a "dove" and try at 30 yards. I'd go with whatever puts a good number of BB's in the bird .... try 3", No. 8 and No. 7 1/2.