I shoot mostly Beretta 20s at sporting clays. I leave mine as I would shoot in the field at quail with a skeet bottom and IC top. This is a Silver Pigeon IV with 26” tubes. I also shoot a hodgepodge of ammo. All dove/quail from 7.5-9 because that’s what I have.

The guys o shoot with use dedicated competition guns.

I shoot fairly well with what I’ve got, but are the Briley and Muller chokes worth the money? I may switch to some that give me more range, but I’m still out there farting around. Sometimes, there are money games.

Should I get better chokes or just get a dedicated 12? Obviously, huge price difference.

Only the patterning board will tell. From what I have read and seen most of the claims made by the choke mfgs. are all advertising b.s. People tend to believe what they want to believe.
C.G.B.

Thank you.

I guess I had envy of these guess reaching out with their guns in 12 with long barrels.

I may get a lesser grade 12 with long barrels just to hang or shoot better with my upland gun. Either way, it’s fun to burn powder.

If you want to really get into this check out 'Sporting Shotgun Performance' by Dr. A.C.Jones. Also checkout the choke tube tests on 'Surviving duck Season' on YouTube.
C.G.B.

I have Bettinsoli O/U 12 gauge 3 1/2". I bought 3 H2O Muller chokes for that. For field hunting pheasants and hares with lighter loads, I use Decoy and Passing. Those two you can use also with slugs for wild boar hunting. For almost anything else, I use Passing and Ufo. It includes everything from 24 or 28 g loads for trap shooting, standard 12 gauge 2 3/4 hunting loads up to heavy 3 1/2" and also TSS.



BTW TSS pattern is here: https://forums.accuratereloadi...1103014/m/2391047552

tl;dr: I recommend Muller chokes.

Jiri

I’ve had good results with Briley but it does really depend on the gun and the load.

My main waterfowl load uses bismuth shot and steel shot wads. It patterns quite well. Using the same gun, choke tube, shell length, powder, and shot amount was radically different (worse) with the usual lead shot wads that Lyman recommends in their manual.

What was weird was a straight card and fiber wad in a paper shell with bismuth shot and a discontinued powder (SR 4756 if it matters) patterns beautifully, albeit requiring more choke in this gun. So the gun likes totally unprotected bismuth and heavily protected and buffered bismuth, but doesn’t like plastic lead wad bismuth loads.

Hi Marcus.

If I had seen this post earlier I would have suggested you talk to a few of the gun dealers at the DSC show such as Krieghoff, Blaser, Fausti, etc.

My two cents- worth one cent- is that if you want to be more competitive go with a 12. Gun and price range are clearly up to you. I think it's telling that most of the competition guns with fixed chokes today come in Modified and Improved Modified. That combination seems to be appropriate for most target presentations.

As far as what brand choke. Who knows? Some pattern more consistently than others, but they all get you there. I have never been able to shoot the difference among various brands.

BTW. Is that Beretta Silver Pigeon IV the case-hardened model? Field forearm? What a sweet, sweet little gun. Getting hard to find at reasonable prices these days as I don't believe they make that model any longer.

Best.....TWL

Tom,

Thanks for the advice. I didn’t make it to Atlanta. Our main booth was there and packed up early and left Saturday and it wasn’t because our calendar was full. I ran a booth for the TTHA/SCI show here in Dallas. We were fairly busy.

I’ve got a buddy I shoot with at Dallas Gun Club who will let me try some of his guns. I definitely think 12 is the right call to be competitive.

That’s the same Beretta. I’ve always liked that contrast of the case hardening with gold inlays. I guess you could say I inherited it from my father NIB. After a year, I finally decided to shoot it. It is a gun that I wouldn’t sell, not because of sentimental value, as I have plenty of those my father actually used. My main hunting shotgun is an old Browning upland, but the safety gets stuck between barrels due to use. I need to look into just having it welded to one side.