I realize that we all come from different corners and are hunting different birds, but I must admit to being somewhat surprised at how many folks on here are shooting the more open chokes. We primarily shoot doves and ducks here in Louisiana, and for those jobs, I sometimes shoot a modified choke but primarily use full. I even have a 20 gauge that has an IC barrel, and hardly use it anymore because it is useless past 25 yds. I will say that for hunting pen raised quail however, that 20 gauge IC combo is perfect.
I've always thought and assumed that the more accomplished a shot you became, the tighter the choke you chose to shoot so that you could extend your range. One of my buddies dads was such a good shot, that he'd hunt doves with a full choke and kill them very close with darn near no head left and no pellets in the breast. I've aspired to being such a shot, though haven't nearly gotten there yet. I do understand that certain situations, like pen raised quail, allow for close and easy shots, and a solid hit with full choke would leave little bird. I go with that combo for woodcock also cause they're so dang hard to hit, and shots are never very far, at least in our terrain. Just curious what ya'lls thoughts are.

You need a 10 guage.

To answer your question you need to pattern your shotguns and chokes with the shells and at the distances that you anticipate your quarry to be. You may be surprised at how tight your patterns may be with your IC choke in your 20ga. For example the shotgun I use to hunt Woodcock and Grouse over my dog is choked cyl and ic as most of the shots are inside of 25 yrds with the avg Woodcocok shot inside of 15. When I patterned that gun I shot the right barrel at 15 and the left at 25 to give me an idea of the patterns with my load of choice. When I hunt pheasants over the dog I will go to tighter chokes not so much for the distances but the fact that I am shooting heavier shot and I want the pattern density. All factory shells will will not pattern the same, inexpensive promo loads because of their internal construction will pattern much looser than say a good target load.
Good luck with your hunting and shooting

Interesting thread and a topic I've been thinking about recently.

I wouldn't comment on my skill but I would say that as a wing shooter my preference is for as close as possible. Geese landing in the decoys, pheasants out from under my dogs feet working short feet away from mine, and ducks hovering overhead. I appreciate the skill of fooling the birds and getting way inside their comfort zone.

I prefer the open chokes. Sunday after church I took my trap machine out and shot 100 rnds with the skeet tubes at close passing targets. I've got a foot trigger for the machine that allows me to walk out in front or off to the side to shoot.

It seems a bit of an oxymoron to me to focus so minutely on camo, decoy and calling detail only to shoot out at 70yds.

Scott: I'm with you. I'm also not the world's best wingshot, so IC and M or M and IM are better choices for me in a double. Modified would be my first choice in a single barrel for waterfowl with steel, and IC with lead for grouse and quail.

Daniel, I think that the combination of guage, choke, shot size, and power is more dependent on the situation rather than how good a shot we are.

I'm another one who is hunting upland game over a pointing dog. These birds usually hold until I'm right up on them and then flush practically from my feet. The first shot is so close that a tight pattern with big shot out of a high-base shell doesn't leave very much bird for the bag. I'll admit, though, that I appreciate a modified choke on the second shot when the pheasant has set his wings for a long glide.

I'm an open choke kind of guy in general. My main gun is an Auto-5 Magnum 20 and it will never have anything other than I/C in it. I have shot quail and pheasant (all wild, with and without dogs) and never felt like I needed anything else. This with an ounce of 6s for pheasant and 7.5s for quail. There have been many times when hunting both birds that the 'wrong' shell was in the chamber but they never seemed to care.

I have only shot ducks over decoys and use a Mod 870 so that translates to roughly full choke with steel and I like it just fine. I either kill them or miss them. Ducks are awfully fast and my feeling is that with a more open choke I may wound one that's passing and miss on the second shot, leaving a cripple. I'd rather shoot twice (one missing and one hitting) to kill one bird, than shoot two or even three times and simply weight down a ducks ass as he is vacating the area.

I have an awesome Miroku Venture 12ga that is Mod over a tight full and it will be I/C over Light Mod soon.

_Baxter

If you use hard shot instead of that cheapo promotional dove and quail loads you can use a more open choke and you will miss fewer birds..