buckshot through a turkey choke?
#3
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 42

i called a local gunsmith and ask the same thing i asked here, and he said only shoot buckshot in a modified choke. he said even using full choke could cause damage to the barrel if shot a bunch with buck shot. i had already tried mine with the full choke this morning and it patterned well with 3in. #1buck at 30 yards and after i talked with him i changed to my mod choke and it done just as good putting 15 pellets in the heart/lung area on a deer paper target. i moved back to 40 yards and the hits dropped to 3 pellets in the heart/lung vitals. lots of the shots hit the neck and liver and a few shots had pellets in the spine, but i was only counting on the heart/lung shots. my gun is a browning gold in 12gauge with a 30 in. barrel for some reason my rem870 with a 28in barrel will make heart/lung hits with the same 3in superx #1buck at 50 yards. its hard to think a $300 gun will out group a browning gold.
#6

for years I have used buckshot in my Mossberg 12ga with a extra full or full choke in and my barrel doesn't have not one mark in it and my choke is in great shape. no problems. I also have a xxfull turkey choke from carlsons that I was using during turkey season with the turkey shells and then I left it in and bought some new buckshot ammo to try out and used it while that new choke was in it and it patterned good and caused no problems. But basically now I use the Mossberg choke tubes for the buckshot and the carlsons turkey choke tube for the turkey shot. I will be getting a new carlsons buckshot choke to replace the original Mossberg ones. They are great choke tubes.
#7

I'd be surprised if you see barrel or choke damage in a modern sporting arm, but there's really no benefit to shooting anything tighter than a modified for 00 buckshot. In older sporting arms, it wasn't uncommon to hear about bulging barrels or seized (bulged) choke tubes from shooting buckshot that didn't want to fit out of overly tight chokes.
You didn't specify what size of shot, or what restriction of choke
As somebody that shoots a lot of buckshot, what I CAN tell you is that you'll very likely see worse groupings from an overly restrictive choke. Buffered 00buck tends to do 'decent' out of tighter chokes, but no real advantage over a modified. Non-buffered 00 buckshot will usually present gaps in your pattern from 'planing' because the shot can't fit out of the choke cleanly, and it malforms.
You didn't specify what size of shot, or what restriction of choke
As somebody that shoots a lot of buckshot, what I CAN tell you is that you'll very likely see worse groupings from an overly restrictive choke. Buffered 00buck tends to do 'decent' out of tighter chokes, but no real advantage over a modified. Non-buffered 00 buckshot will usually present gaps in your pattern from 'planing' because the shot can't fit out of the choke cleanly, and it malforms.
#9

Buckshot is supposed to "spread" out and go through brush and whatnot. Once you get to tight of a pattern and you try shooting farther than a buckshot is really made for then you might as well have a slug gun. Buckshot really should be for close range out to like 60 yards. Some guns and ammo are different so maybe more or maybe less but to tight of a pattern really isn't that beneficial. IMO