AmateurHunter44857

My brother and I will be shooting sporting clays for the first time saturday. We are planning on going on a guided pheasant hunt so we want to become better shots. My hunters education manual says to use a Modified or Full choke on pheasants. Should i use the Modified or Full choke for sporting clays or should i purchase another screw in choke?

GSPsnFORDs

A Mod could be a good all around choke for sporting clays, but I change chokes quite often...depends on the station and the scenario though. Honestly, if you want to become a better shot, I say hit up the Skeet field. I think it can make you a little more disciplined by it's repetitiveness...hence you should be able to pick up on your bad habits, be it not following through, not keeping your head on the stock, etc. Make it even more like a hunting situation and shoot it low gun (that's what I did when I first started shooting skeet) and I still do it today. Albeit, sporting clays is fun but I think if you are trying to hone your shooting skills, skeet would be a much better way to go about it.

As far as your hunt is concerned. You say you're going on a guided hunt? Are you hunting with dogs? Are these wild birds or pen-raised/planted birds? The type of birds you hunt will probably dictate which type of choke you use.

AmateurHunter44857

We will be using a guides dog as my dog is an idiot and gun shy :-p The first couple hunts will be pen raised and then we hope to go off into a public wildlife area in our area that has pheasant in it, but unable to use a dog. So i should take my improved cylinder, full and modified with me saturday?

daleh

Shooting Skeet is a great idea. It is more like typical wingshooting. The Skeet field will teach you allot including following through with your shot and never stoping the gun. Trap would also be a good idea as most pheasants you shoot will come up right in front of you and go away.
Sporting clays is so far removed from actual hunting situations. The clays are faster than anything you will ever shoot in the wild. The leads on breaking some of these targets are exagerated to 10-14 ft.
Remeber no matter what you shoot trap/skeet/sporting clays. What it takes to break a target will not necesarly kill a bird. Always be in front of your target
For shooting preserve pheasant you can use a skeet or IC with no problem. Don't even have to use high powered shells. Dove loads will get them just fine.
When wild pheasant hunting use your IC with a high power load
3 3/4 1 1/4 #6 besides, hopefully you want be shooting at anything over 40 yds away.

GSPsnFORDs

AH, no I wouldn't bring all chokes with you...it couldn't hurt just in case you don't like or don't feel confident with the one you're shooting. Shoot a modified...it's the middle ground...it should serve you just fine. By the way, what kind of gun are you shooting??

I would have suggested trap b/c that is more of a typical pen-raised pheasant scenario but trap just doesn't challenge you enough, IMO. And, birds are birds, they have a mind of their own (pen-raised or wild), they'll flush right into your face or away from you like a trap target. Skeet's the way to go when talking about practice...give's you plenty of angles at likely distances.

Sporting Clays can be beneficial though. There have been times where I'm in a slump on the skeet field and resort to SC in order to relax a bit and get away from 'the basics.' However the basics simply cannot be ingored on SC. I shoot for fun but take skeet a little more serious than other courses. When I shoot SC, I take it seriously but I always notice I'm a little more relaxed than usually...probably b/c I feel like it's a breather from the skeet fields, haha. But, in all honesty, it can help b/c you can beswinging on targets with bigger leads, smaller targets, obstacles mixed in and when you go back to the skeet fields it seems like a piece of cake.

I completely strayed off topic...sorry AH...hopefully some of my rambling will help.

AmateurHunter44857

lol beleive me i don't mind the ramblings, i do the same thing. Remember i'm a beginner so everything your "rambling" about is advice to me. I'm using a Mossberg 500, my brother unfortunely is using a single shot. Its my old gun, i got him interested in shooting and hunting after about a 17-18 year lay off and he wanted something simple to start out with. I think we have decided to go to a public hand trap range about 30 minutes away from us saturday instead of sporting clays, i told him that with only having 1 shot he will hopefully become a very good shot. I love to shoot trap, i find it very relaxing and fun, even if i miss everything.

ipscshooter

Wow, I'm not sure where some of you guys get the idea thatsporting clays won't help in the field. I can still recall my first two dove hunting weekends. I had been shooting trap for quite a whileprior to my first dove hunt at a co-workers ranch in Southwest Texas. That first hunt, it took me about two boxes of shells to nail my limit of 8 birds a day. I spent the next year shooting sporting clays every weekend. Sometimes both Saturday and Sunday. The next year, I'd nail my 8 bird limit with a half a box. I've shot hundreds and hundreds of rounds of clays. Tens of thousands of targets. I think sporting clays is a great simulation of hunting. But, it simulates a lot of different scenarios, and isn't as limited as trap, which is all outgoing shots or skeet, which is predominantly crossing shots. Sporting clays gives you a lot more angles and variations, different target sizes, even rabbit targets that roll and jump across the ground. Give it a try, and I guarantee you'll have a LOT of fun and it absolutely WILL help you in the field.

Edit: Sorry... In answer to your question, you can usually leave your full choke at home when shooting clays. Modified is generally plenty tight for the targets you'll see. If you've got an Improved Cylinder, you might want to take that along as well.

springerDIVA

Shoot as much as you can, whatever you have available to shoot as often as you can. If you can before you head out afield, pattern several different pheasant loads out of your gun, find out what set up works best for your gun and buy a lot of it.
Happy Hunting.