right choke for duck hunting

[Orange Dust]

Another thing to keep in mind. Range. With 2's mod will give you about all you can use. Tighter will usually blow patterns. Bigger shot behaves differently. With factory chokes sometimes less is more. With extended custom sometimes IMod is the trick. For decoying birds IC or LM will give a little larger patterns still thick enough to kill well and not put too many holes in your food. Tungsten and bismuth are both a whole different cat

 

[Roughrice]

I agree.
LM is the Carlson Mid-Range that I use.

 

[OldElkHunter1961]

Much as one must practice to build/retain perishable wing shooting skills, you also need to pattern your gun(s).

Select several possible loads, collect up your various choke tubes and try various loads through various constructions at the ranges you anticipate shooting.

Butcher paper over cardboard works well.

You will be surprised at which chokes pattern some loads best. Tighter is not aways better. You won't know until you pattern. Be prepared to be surprised.

Enjoy the process.

 

[HSmithTX]

I used to hunt ducks and geese really hard, 45+ days per season, usually (almost always) used high or ultra velocity #2 steel. I was really fortunate that my job allowed me to come in at 10-11 am and work until I was done, so I could hunt basically every morning. I patterned everything, and ended up with a full choke. Yes, I absolutely lost pellets out of the pattern, 20-30% sometimes depending on the load. The upside was I gained 15-20 yards of killing distance, to me killing distance is where I can maintain 3-4 of the #2 on a duck at least 7 out of 10 patters and no one pattern could contain less than 2 hits. The choke I used was a standard Browning/Winchester Invector Plus, regular old flush mount and the choke was damaged fairly fast with scarring showing in maybe 100-150 rounds and the choke was badly damaged in 800-1000 shots and replaced. Scarred up internally, never bothered the threads or the barrel at all in probably 3500-4000 rounds. You had to be accurate but if you were it would slay. I couldn't afford the steel alternatives in the quantities needed at the time so I never investigated them.

 

[qotsarock]

Light improved is my choice.

 

[longrange240]

Absolutely correct on this! /\ /\

We are serious duck hunters down here in South Louisiana.
Tight chokes for lead shot were/are great for nice tight patterns.
Steel shot act differently.
Too tight of a choke will bounce steel shot off each other and throw flyers everywhere. We have done pattern tests and found that the modified to improved cylinder chokes work better and create great patterns.
We did side by side tests of many brands of custom chokes and most are very good.
Several of us settled on Carlson Mid-Range chokes. They are very affordable and are made for several shotgun manufacturers and pattern with the best for "all around" hunting....(duck with steel, dove, rabbit and squirrel with various sized lead shot and power loads)

**NOTE** I strongly suggest NOT using ported chokes.
They pattern great but your buddy will hate you and throw you out of the blind!

Modified is my choice as well. The middle ground of all shot scenarios over decoys. Even a Carlsons sporting clays or briley modified will work fine enough for most duck hunters.

 

[GUNNNN]

I have a Remington 870 express super magnum 12 gauge 3 1/2" that has a modified choke and im not sure if that is a good choke to use for duck hunting. Most of my hunting consists of big game and varmints so I don't have a lot of experience with waterfowl. I will mainly use this gun for ducks and will be shooting Winchester xpert hi velocity steel shot #2. Thanks for the help

I started out shooting steel shot with a modified choke but eventually went to an improved cylinder I don't think I'll ever go back to a tighter choke, by the way I put way more ducks and geese on my lanyard now