Hastings Choke tubes

[blake_08]

Hello all. Years ago, i bought a very lightly used Benelli Nova for duck hunting and as a back up. The lady i bought it from had all the standard chokes for the gun, as well as 2 hastings extended non-ported chokes. I've never patterned the chokes and have no idea how old they are or how well they will perform. I know the answer is to shoot them, but i don't want to waste time and money if the chokes aren't very good. I know the constriction of one is .665 and i think the other is .655 or .675, i'd have to look.  I have a dedicated 870 sps turkey gun for myself, so this will be a backup/gun for when i take somebody so i'm not going to be too wrapped up in it, just curious if anyone has much experience with these chokes. Thanks for any help 

[RS]

A non-ported Hasting choke that was given to me by my brother is all I have ever used to kill turkeys with in my 870.

[allaboutshooting]

There is nothing at all wrong with those chokes. They have a very simple conical-parallel design with a short parallel section. They were made from unhardened steel and rated for lead shot. The company that made them has been out of business for many years now.

At one time they were quite popular and I'm sure that many of them are still in use today.

The .650 exit diameter Hastings choke did well with the old black High-Velocity Winchester shells with 1 3/4 of #6 shot.

I suspect that they might pattern just fine with the WLB shells but that's strictly a guess on my part, since I've never shot those shells with one of those chokes.

Thanks,
Clark