SwampTHING

Just hope you donthit anything at 20-25 yards,,, it will be plucked and gutted before it hits the ground!

I use modified for all my waterfowling and keep all my shots under 35 yards. People openning up at 45-50 yards will hunt with me once and never again. Steel does not have the energy for those long bomb shots. Im old enough too have hunted with lead,,, there was a major change in what acceptable ranges were once it became illegal!

"extra thick wad" will do nothing too prevent barrel damage, a shot string will come out of a shotgun in upto a 120 inch shot string, it isnt in the wad when it comes out of the barrel. the wad follows the shot.

You may not like this response but I really dont care,, ive hunted fowl long enough too know what I am doing. All these guys except one told you not too use a full choke. to me it sounds like these guys have been around the game long enough too know what they are talking about.

MinnFinn

I'm just shaking my head reading posts about people shooting steel out of anything more restrictive than modified choke.
Because your barrel doesn't "look" like it has been damaged from shooting steel through a full choke doesn't mean you should!
Shooting anything through any firearm that it's not specifically designed for is BIG "D". That's "Dangerous", not Dallas!

Haven't you ever bent a piece of sheetmetal dozens of times and seen it finally crack, then break? Well that's what your effectively doing by shooting steel or other shot that doesn't compress and put the choke tube under pressure and stress repeatedly it's not designed for.

Besides. What in the world do you need full choke for? You can kill duck and geese effectively with high speed steel and heavy steel and similiar shot material out to 40-50 yards. You don't need to be shooting beyond that range at any birds.

Colorado Luckydog

I agree with Swampthing and I want to go hunting with him. Swampthing if your ever in Colorado lets go duck or goose hunting! I shoot with IC on all of my waterfowl. IC or modified is all you will ever need for decoyed birds. If you need more than that your a skybuster not a hunter, no need for decoys or calling. Hell, just go get a 10 gauge. LOL!

fantail

I guess I'm the "one" that said to use a full choke with steel and I am still sticking to that. Most of my waterfowl hunting is for wood ducks on a river or flooded timber and I found out real quick there is nothing more frustrating than a crippled wood duck especially on a river even with a dog and a boat. The river that I hunt is 20 to 30 yards wide and they fly right down the middle usually just a few feet above the water and when I first started hunting them I tried IC and MOD but like I said got tired of chasing cripples. So I tried full. It works great for me and the folks I hunt with. I'm not saying use full or else just that it will work.



Oh yea as worc said it is best to use a full choke that is rated for steel.

Colorado Luckydog

Decoys? Learning to Call? Learning to hunt? Shooting them with their landing gear down?

scottr

Like a couple people have said here shooting steel out of a full choke is a bad idea. I have never seen a gun that said it was ok to do (I personally own Browning Citori, Benelli, and Franchi but have also shot Ruger, Remington and Berretta in the past) . I don't know about how other non-tox shot (Heavy Shot, Bismuth, etc) will do through a full but I think most of those matterials are harder than lead and should not be experiment with. I seem to remember that Remington says to not shoot Heavy Shot through a full on their web site.

Steel is a lot harder than lead and the pellets do not deform as they go through the barrel. With a choke tighter than mod you run the risk of bulging your barrel. Steel through a mod choke will pattern close to how full with lead would. The rule of thumb is to round up to the next choke when shooting steel. So actually a full would pattern more like an extra full turkey choke with steel. Now even if this was the pattern you wanted when waterfowling this is still not the issue as the main issue is gun protection and saftey.

fantail

Beretta full chokes say SP (meaning steel proof in the manual) on the choke tube itself. I use a cabelas hevi shot full choke that is rated ok for steel.

greenhead911

i shoot a full in a browning 3 1/2 gold hunter with a browning steel aproved ported choke tube i have shoot hundreds of shells thru it with no problems what so ever

i would not try it with a factory tube sent with the gun but get a after market tube that is steel aproved in a new gun not a gun that is 10 15 years old or older

thats my 2cents to back up fantail it can be done

coloradoprohunter

heres somethin that will make u think. i took an empty wad, filled it with a regular amount of shotshell BB and pushed it through the barrel filled up. and at the full choke,a few of the BBs were pushed forward (in front of the wad)and fit fine. so this should happen with a wad shot throguh the choke. shouldnt it?

SwampTHING

that wad and shot goes from zero too 1500 fps instantly.... do you think it stays in the same shape rocketting down the barrel? Im done arguing this one,, its not my gun or life your playing with!