What is a good choke for grouse?
 

I have property in NY that has a pretty good grouse population and want to start chasing these great birds around. What is a good choke for grouse? I'm not using a dog just walking up on them.

Thanks in advance.

Modified is the best all around choke, unless your experience shows they are holding tight & getting up right next to you - in which case use a IC.

In a 12ga, 16ga and 20ga, I'd go with IC. Cover is usually pretty and you need to get on them pretty quickly. To much choke and you could be blowing up birds. In my 28ga, 3/4oz shot, I have mod/full. Works out well because of the less shot. Not so well on longer shots. You might get everything into a 30" circle with it at 30yds, I think that the distences they use. But less shot makes it a less dense pattern. I'm going to try my 410 this year on them too. Also M/F. 1/2 oz shot.

here in pa in early season with heavy brush, i use IC choke in my 12 ga.later when leaves come off and longer shots i go to IM .
if your gun does not use them, use CYL/MOD in place of those 2.
older guns usually came in those 2 chokes.
my beretta has 5 chokes from cyl/full/

i always use low brass 7 and 1/2 in early season and no.6 in winter when shots are 30 yds out or more
people like me that dont practice shooting need a wider pattern 12 ga.people who practice can use a tighter pattern and a smaller caliber shotgun like 20/28 ga .
so, using IC in 12 ga will get you more grouse.

I would use Improved Cyl/Modified.

WOW am I the only crazy one on here? I use full choke when the birds are holding tight and you can get fairly close to them without using dogs.. I like to knock them hard in the head then. This way you save the breast meat without getting many of the shot in it..

Now when I am running my setters I like Modified Choke for those wing shots.. There just something about wing shooting I love about it. I haven't been on the birds yet but plan on taking my son and the setters out for a great hunting day on grouse and wood****.. I have been seeing quite a few in the cuttings when going bowhunting.. My son can't wait for me to get those setters out..

Improved Cyl in a 26" barrel w/#8 for Grouse, Rabbitt and Timberdoodle.
Later in the season when the leaves drop I'll put #8 --> 7 1/2 --> 7 1/2.

Fairly thick woods, so 40 yard shots are a maximum, Grouse & Timberdoodle fall pretty easy with a good patterned load for YOUR gun.

Modified choke with 7 1/2 shots is good.
The more important thing is to practice skeet shooting with a gun that will come up naturally at the right shooting position.
You can shoot the same target shells using the same shots, that way your velocity is the same for instinctive shooting. Target shells have enough inertia for Grouse.
I shoot a single shot 20 gauge and it is a sweet gun for upland.
I don't find it fun shooting them on the ground or sitting on a tree.
Good luck on this.

"WOW am I the only crazy one on here? I use full choke when the birds are holding tight and you can get fairly close to them without using dogs.. I like to knock them hard in the head then. This way you save the breast meat without getting many of the shot in it.."

Yeah, we used to pretty much do that, except we'd use single shot .410's with 5 or 6 shot & aim a little high -- plenty of good meat.

if you dont practice shooting,use SKEET/IMCYL chokes.thats me.of all chokes i like IC the best for grouse/pheasants.
7 and 1/2 low brass for grouse and 6 shot high brass for pheasants.
as season goes on and shots are longer,6 shot high brass for grouse and 5 shot high brass for phea
sants.
then i move up to FULL CHOKE .
if grouse is close i just let it get out more before i shoot.

If you're not using dogs, the birds would be flush from a little far, so Modified choke would be fine.

Tankercheif
 

JUst a little hint that may help you...I hunted and grew up in NY; hunted without a dog 4 ever...learned this by mistake >>>if you can approuch a Grouse from the UPHILL side they will hold much better for you. I hunted this one old apple orchard all the time and always started at the bottom. It was pretty steep for an orchard well One day I swung around and decided to hunt from the top down...what a difference. I could almost step on them before they busted..really made a big difference...also I hunted them as quiet as I could, not quite like I was still hunting deer but on that style. Hope this helps

Great content and very helpful thank and keep up the good work.

I would suggest an IC since the birds are smaller and it
won't take as much shot to knock them down. It really
depends how close the majority of your shots will be.
GoodLuck

So, you guys ground sluice 'em :action-smiley-099:

99.9% of flushed grouse will be flying away from you -- so you're not going to get any shot in the breast anyhow.



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When hunting them with out dogs the answer is yes we did.. We also never had the type of cuttings back then that we do today. With todays cuttings you can get some really decent shots off at them flying. Cuttings from yesteryear we never had that and I never had a dog. I did hunt a few times with another friend who did use an Irish Setter years ago. I guess having an Irish Setter as a youngster (never hunted) and hunting with a friend that once had one got me hunting with the Irish Setter from yesteryear.As well as the nature of them.

But to answer the guys question on walking and hunting for birds I keep it the same though I do not know the terrain he is hunting..

you are right.

i just got a FRANCHI AL48 20ga in 26 inch barrel for grouse.
my 12 ga beretta just is little heavy and with 28 inch barrel,little hard in woods.

i am using low brass 7 and 1/2 in this gun. but i have gone to full choke as leaves are off and shots are over 30 yds.
i plan on using the 1C choke in fall when leaves are on.

this shotgun is so light,it is a joy to carry.i may go to no.6 shot high brass in winter if the low brass 7 and 1/2 does not work.
high brass shells are going crazy on prices.
16 dollars a box.
i have shells i just looked at that are 4.95 for high brass,now 16 .

no wonder we are losing hunters ,lack of game and prices now are not good.

I've been hunting grouse for 20 years, and I am hard pressed to find a better choke than IC for grouse. If you are in tight quarters, you want it as open as possible. If it is a little more open, it doesn't take much to bring them down, so a wider pattern won't hurt (might even help). If its a wide open field where you might want a tighter choke, it won't matter, there's no grouse there!

you are right.
tests have shown that out to 35 yds IC choke puts like less than 30 bbs difference than FULL choke.this test was done with 7 and 1/2 shot.
most grouse if they are that far away you wont get them anyhow or you should let grouse go at 40 yds .
IC throws out nice wide pattern.
for grouse a low brass NORMAL load is fine because birds are not real hard to bring down if you hit head.
this also makes the SEMI-AUTO ,light one like FRANCHI AL48 ,20 GA with just a IC choke real contender vrs the famous o/u shotguns that have 2 different chokes.

i cant find test done with 3 chokes,IC/M/F .it opened my eyes on test.if you get say 300 bbs at 35 yds with IC and 320 with M and 335 with FULL ,i agree with you, go with IC .
i use IC all time for pheasants also.

pa game commission not long ago brought wild pheasants from china to here to see if they would survive and bring back our pheasants like it was 70 years ago.
HAWKS,EAGLES,OWLS killed them off .bobcats,fox,raccoons,coyotes would eat eggs of wild birds.
all old timers years ago would shoot as many of those predators as they could.

eagles will land in water and pick up fish and fly away.hawks kill every pheasant we stock if it is around a few days.
hawk even killed my pet squirreals in my yard .

sproulman---In case you aren't aware of it, the pheasants we have all over the USA, especially where they are doing well out through the midwest and plains states, were brought over many decades ago from China and found the countryside to their liking!!! It's too bad China doesn't allow their citizens to partake of shooting them like we do here. I have a pointer and there is no more fun than a pointer pinning down a beautiful ringneck cock before it bursts into the air over the dog!

invite me over ,you can use my BERETTA URICKA FIELD 12 GA. train your eagle to attack anyone that trys to take your gun rights away.also a good movie on how my family got FREEDOM from british is on tv. its called BRAVEHEART.


man, i would be heaven over there hunting.:biggrin:

they need WALLACE over there.very sad.

I would recomend imp cyl in the start of the season and then go up to modified later on

20 ga full choke #6 shot.

Pete

Choke Choice
 

I shoot a 12 gauge and my son shoots a 20. We both use IC for all our upland hunting here in PA whether it's farmland or woods.

modified choke user here...I got my bag limit yesterday :)