Stock 870 shooting clays?

G

guitardemon

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Jun 8, 2005
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I just picked up a Remington 870 express a few weeks ago and want to take it out this weekend to shoot some clays. Should the choke that it comes with work ok for this?
 
Should work fine...they've worked great for doves for years. However, if you're shooting with someone with skeet chokes (if you're shooting from standard skeet stations), you may be a little embarrassed. For sporting clays, is will work fine.
 
I would change chokes if I were you.

I've made this mistake myself.
 
So if im going to be shooting trap what kind of choke should i get? What is the choke that the gun came with for?
 
I really don't know much about different choke types, but the one that came with the gun works fine for me.
 
the choke restricts the diameter of the end of the barrel compressing the shot package and causing the shot to stay closer together further downrange.
The typical American choke designations of Full, Modified, Improved Cylinder and Skeet are based on the percentage of the shot they put into a 30" circle at 40 yards. These designations later evolved into measured constrictions of the bore by .035" for Full, .020' for Modified .0010" for Improved Cylinder and .005" for skeet. In other words, if your Browning has an internal barrel diameter of .729", an Improved Cylinder choke should have an internal diameter of .719" or ten thousandths of an inch of constriction.
Click to expand...

The "tighter" the choke (read more restrictive) the more shot you will get in a specific area downrange. For skeet shooting, it only takes one or two pellets of shot to break a clay, so competition shooters use a pretty wide open choke to cover more area. If you're shooting clays for practice for dove/duck/goose/woodcock/snipe season, shoot with the choke you're planning on using in the field to get used to where the shot will be going.

J-
 
Alot of the guys that I have shot trap with will shoot with a mainly full and sometimes modified choke - most shots are going away without a lot of lead. Its more of a "get on the bird and hit it" type shot - the farther back you are shooting on the trap field, the more you will need the additional range full choke will give you. The majority of shots in skeet - stations 2 through 6 and station 8 will require leads from 2-5'(station 4 is a bitch). The skeet choke will give you a longer shot trail giving you a better opportunity to put shot on the bird - remember to keep swinging. Depending on the course, sporting clays will require any and or all chokes - you will probably need to gauge the choke by the range and trajectory the birds are being thrown. As Homebru noted, full chokes restrict the shot pattern and skeet opens the shot pattern - this translates into range - full choke will hold its pattern downrange much better than skeet will allowing for a better shot pattern at greater distances. When hunting, the bird denotes the choke - read "range". Quail and dove are typically tight requiring a more open choke - geese are sometimes 50-60 yards out requiring full with as much lead as you can stuff in the shell. I'm not an expert but have burnt up a lot of powder on skeet and sporting clays as well as chasing that dapper little gentleman known as the bobwhite.
 
get the set of rem-chokes. I use modified for skeet/trap shooting. With trap I could go with the full choke. With skeet I could go with Improved cylinder.
 
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