choke restriction vs. choke design

[DirtNap647]

seems like it may just be the 670 constriction my mossberg  835 likes the pure gold 670 with 7's (usually always over 300)seems all roads pretty much end up at smaller the bb tighter the choke 6 shot shoots best out of my ic 675 choke im starting to wonder how much one choke is better than the other maybe its just the constriction. i have two star dots believe they are .676 and shooting 7's they dont beat my pure gold i mean i know not always true with every gun but you check and the majority seems to swing this way and everybody gets one shell that was just better than the rest but averages seem to hold true ...now i will agree my testing comes from pure gold, ic, star dot, tru glo, and jellyhead... im up in the air on this but how do you all feel on choke restriction vs. choke design like to hear your thoughts?

[ILIKEHEVI-13]

I get just the opposite.  My .676 original Star Dot beat the .670 Pure Gold choke I had for at least 10" patterns.  The .675 Indian Creek BDS I had would do about 300 in the 10".  The only choke that I have personally seen beat my Star Dot and not only did it beat it that cool 45 degree  day, but it smoked it, was the .670 TruGlo SSX.  It did 312 shot in the 10" the very first shot out the tube followed by 287.  The Star Dot didn't even do 250 that day.  I should of never sold that choke.  I'm gonna buy another though soon and see how it does against the Star Dot on 70 degree days.  That is when the Star Dot shines.  It has done 361, 360, 349 for best 10" patterns when the weather is warm. 

I do believe from my experience of shooting a lot of different choke tubes in this gun that .670 to .676 seems to be the magcal exit diameter for the 835 shooting Hevi-13 #7 loads.  .690 Jelly Head shot a great overall pattern, but not nearly as tight as what I like in the 10",  but nonetheless it was a great hunting pattern.  Any choke that gives you right at 500 shot in the 20" with Hevi-13 #7's is gonna kill any bird that walks at 40yd if it's centered over the head and neck of a gobbler.

Choke design I believe does play a part in the pattern results.  I have shot better patterns most all the times with some type of porting vs non-ported chokes.  Now as far as the internal wad stripper grooves that some choke makers use I can't say for sure how well that helps.  I would say the ports help strip the wad better than the internal grooves.  The Star Dot has no wad stripper feature, and it beats all the others on warmer days.   

[3" 870 Shell Shucker]

You know the funny thing is, most of the guys who use Cylinder through Full choke for target games swear that all chokes are the same; assuming that they have the same constriction.  It seems that XFull through Card Shooting chokes is where design starts to play more of a role, along with constriction.  Circular internal wad catchers do seem to help create a hotter core pattern.

[Nick_The_Tinkerer]

Interesting topic.....watching this closely 

[3" 870 Shell Shucker]

The target shooters are also using 1-1.125 Ounce target loads, not 1.75-2.25 Ounce Turkey loads.

[allaboutshooting]

It has been my experience that it's more about the "internal geometry" of the choke than it is strictly about the exit diameter of the choke tube.

There are several designs of turkey chokes but the most common is the conical - parallel design. It's a simple design in theory but it can be quite complex when the designer decides the angels and lengths of each of those sections.

The other pretty common treatments inside chokes are some type of wad stopper which you don't really want to stop a wad of course, parallel lines, rings, decreasing parallel sections and of course ports. Again, these can become pretty complex depending upon what the designer thinks works best or works best in his particular choke tube.

Crowned or notched muzzles, true muzzles and false muzzles can affect performance.

In some ways the exit diameter can be one of the least important design features. Constriction is an entirely different matter that depends upon the true inside diameter of the barrel and the exit diameter of the choke tube. To determine constriction, you'd need to measure the exact bore of a particular barrel and the e.d. of the particular choke. All will vary to some extent and some pretty greatly.

The good news is that there are many good commercial chokes on the market today qne custom markers who make good products as well. There are a variety of designs that can work.

We've come a long way from when I started in this sport. There were very few true turkey chokes out there. The expanding turkey population and still target shooting competition drove several manufacturers to develop better turkey chokes. Many of the top names today have their origins in that competition.

It's all a part of the great world of turkey hunting and shooting and there is room for lots of choke makers and competitors.

Thanks,
Clark