To port or not to port

[SSteve]

To port or not to port Winchester Long Beards, that is the question. Do long Beards need or have to be fired from a ported choke? Can Long Beards be fired from a non ported choke without subtracting from accuracy or pattern? Has anyone tried both ported and non ported, and found a difference in the mechanics, as apposed to the sound difference? I'm curious if there is anything more behind Winchester using only ported chokes to do their advertisement campaign for the Long Beards. Opinions? Educated guesses?

SSteve

[mbowyer51]

I shoot LBs in my mossberg 500 with a nonported  sumtoy and it does pretty well. Here's the pattern
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,69989.0.html

[Daniel703]

My newest choke is ported so I will soon find out but my current carlsons .650 non ported choke was averaging 180s in a 10 inch with 5s and the 6s were always in the 210 range. I just bought a more open ported choke that it want to try with WLB so really I won't be able to give an accurate assessment on whitch is better or worse considering my 2 chokes have different internal geometries and constrictions.

[taylorjones20]

I shot the longbeards when they first came out using a non ported Rob Roberts choke.  It produced excellent patterns.  I don't think I ever shot those through a ported choke...

[The Woodsman]

I shoot non ported. No issues. Great patterns too.

[Ihuntoldschool]

Non ported will work fine.   You have to remember the biggest factor in choke performance is the constriction.  Ported/non-ported, internal geometry, parallel section length, choke design are great catchy buzz words for selling you more chokes but play a small minute role in performance difference compared to the constriction.