Educate me on chokes and skeet shooting

[FullAuto]

I got a call at 1PM today from a manager in Dallas and was told I was volunteered to go to some kind of corporate skeet shooting thing on Thursday because I was the "gun guy". The manager that called me will also be going but he's not a "gun guy". The two of us will be attending this thing representing our company with a lot of other companies, many of whom are our customers. We were told to bring our shotguns and they supply the ammo.

The problem here is:
1. I have never shot skeet.
2. I hate shotguns.

I shoot pistols, rifles and machine guns. I have a few shotguns but they are novelties like a Street Sweeper, a 14" bbl w/ pistol grip AOW and a couple of tactical/police pump shotguns. So I drive 45 minutes to Gene Sears before they close because I know they stock that kind of stuff and pick up a new shotgun. Now I have this over/under and it came with 5 chokes. They guy at the store was saying something about putting different chokes on different barrels. I don't really know what any of this choke stuff is. Some explain these to me and what I'm about to get into with this event.

 

[dlbleak]

Put the skeet choke and improved cylinder in. Won’t really matter what barrel you put the in a skeet ranges. It’s a hella fun game! It’s all about timing and lead. Sounds like a good time.

 

[Jlingle]

If I were a wealthy man, I would buy something in Gene Sears everyday. I love that place. The people are unbelievably knowledgeable, helpful, and they have always been kind to kids when we’ve been in there. If my son wanted to fondle the shotguns, nobody corrected him. If he had questions, they had answers. Nobody was impatient, nobody was speaking down to him.

I deeply appreciate the way we’ve been treated in there…..

Last time we were in there, we almost left with a Browning o/u. I think it was a cxs? It was used and super slick.

 

[Firpo]

If you have two skeet chokes that would be my first choice. What you want are the most open chokes you have.

 

[Okie4570]

First find out if you're truly shooting skeet. Some folks use that term interchangeably for skeet, trap, sporting clays, 5-Stand, etc. Skeet/skeet or IC/IC or a combo of the two is fine for skeet, sporting clays or 5 stand. Mod or full if you're actually shooting trap on a trap range.

 

[jackary]

Cylinder widest pattern, then goes skeet, improved, modified, full. This is the general basics, as someone said above you probably can’t go wrong with the skeet choke in one barrel and the improved in the other. Okie4570 pretty much hit the nail on the head.

 

[panayoti]

I have been to several of the Tulsa pipeliners association events. Once at Tulsa gun club and several times at a sporting clays place north of skiatook. Most people are not super competitive at these events. It's fun and you might get hooked. They have rafles and usually some good eats.

 

[FullAuto]

I brought a Browning Citori 725. It came with chokes marked 1-5. Currently, the 2 is in the top and 3 is in the bottom. These are the Improved Modified and Modified. So I should be switching these to the 4 & 5? Those would be the Improved Cylinder and Skeet.

 

[Okie4570]

I brought a Browning Citori 725. It came with chokes marked 1-5. Currently, the 2 is in the top and 3 is in the bottom. These are the Improved Modified and Modified. So I should be switching these to the 4 & 5? Those would be the Improved Cylinder and Skeet.

If shooting skeet or sporting clays, yes I would.

 

[OKCHunter]

Okie4570 and others have nailed it. Here’s a link to a summary on chokes.

http://info.okcgunclub.org/shotgun/choke_article.pdf