kansaswiderack

I have been thinking about shooting a tighter tube on geese. My general understanding is that you should not go tighter than modified with steel shot. I have heard their are tubes out there that are full with no restrictions on steel shot. Will this harm the barrell? What about non toxic shot other than steel?

ice man

This is true story. A friend of mine that hunts every now and then with me was useing a full choke in his benneli shot gun, we had talked about the different kinds of chokes before but never talked about useing a full choke in a shot gun for waterfowl, we use 3 1/2 bb for geese. When we got to the spot we were going to hunt we had everything set up,waited for a while and in come the geese, I called them in close to us and yelled out take them, we both started to shoot and then I heard a strange noise from his gun, we looked at it in side and out but never looked at the end of the gun. We sat down in the blind and upon putting our guns in the rack I noticed that the end of his berrel looked different,we took a closer look at it and found that with useing 3 1/2 bb with a full choke it pulled the choke out of his gun. ruend the berrel of his gun, I then ask him what were you useing in there, he said a full choke. Well I then went to a gun smith in the naborhood and ask him why, he then said the full pattern of the choke and using 31/2 bb was just to much for the choke. We now know by a very expesive misstake that you should not use a full choke tube with steel shot at all.It would have been different with led but I have used them for years and nothing like this ever happened to me. Well we found out the hard way. The morral of this is do not use full choke on steel bigger than number 2 like bb,bbb,t and f. We just can't see how it pulled the choke out of the gun, the gun smith was puzled a little with it and said its a big shot for a little hole. A fellow on a different site said that it can bulge the berrel to. So you might want to check with a gun smith and ask questions.

Bud Light

Buy tubes meant for steele. I have a super full steele that is comepletely inefective for shooting over decoys but simply outstanding on 50 yard geese. Can stroke the ducks even further if I wanted. Have killed cripples near 60 on the water. You just have to pattern your chokes and different shells. But an older gun, full choke is bad news shooting steele. Steele does not compress like lead. Check the gun forum and you can get some specifics on what is really happening to the shot and your barrel. And furthermore, the guy with the benneli probably didn't have his tube tight or it worked loose.

PSEPhoenix

ice man, your friend needs to learn to read. on the full choke for the benelli it says "no steel shot" on the choke tube. If he wants to shoot a different choke tube for a tighter pattern try the patternmaster. They are good. good luck and good shooting.

Buck_Buster

I have read that you can use the same chokes for tungsten polymer as you use with lead

duckaholicman

If the choke is marked lead only, NEVER use steel shot in it. Like someone said earlier, steel shot does not compress like lead. Consider Brwoning for example. A modified choke for lead is a full for steel shot, while improved with lead is modified with steel. Bismuth and tungsten polymer can be used in any barrel choke combo, where as Hevi-Shot should only be used in chokes safe for steel. If you are having trouble getting large steel shot to pattern well, you might consider droping down a degree of choke.

Bud Light

If you want a very tight steele pattern, the tube you buy will extend beyond the barrel. There are many aftermarket varieties that work great. They are not abusive on your barrel if it is designed for steele shot. The stock chokes don't even come close. They are just a size bigger for steele. They will specify lead or steele.

Howler

PSE hit the nail on the head. On the Benelli choke tubes, there is writing that states whether the tube can be used with steel or not. The Benelli mod. choke is the tightest choke that is OK for Steele shot. The full and improved mod. chokes are not to be used with steele shot. Look closely at the side of the tubes, you will see this writing.