I think the CYL choke is too open.
When I got my Xplor Unico, I shot poorly with it until I bought an IC choke.

 

My uses a Briley IC choke and it smokes the targets hard to 40 yards - that's with 3/4oz reloads, let alone factory 1 oz loads

 

I love the Beretta HP chokes! I patterned the Beretta against 2 of the "big brands" IC chokes at 40 yds. The Beretta IC choke had the most pellets inside a 30" circle. I consistently broke the 50yd crosser in the corn field at the Empire Cup on Sunday. It was the Beretta IC choke with 1oz 7.5 at 1260fps with my Xcell 400.

 

I agree the HP I/C choke is so good I bought a second one from Brownells and use I/C in both barrels of my SV10 for almost everything except rabbit shooting when I switch to I/M in the top barrel.

 

{hs# I got the :roll: itch and bought a large $$$ Muller U2 for my UGB 25 XCEL. After last night's shooting from 16 yd, I am forced to report that my Beretta Optima HP modified tube is :lol: The Thriller Killer of clays! :?:
Anybody need a Muller Optima HP U2 :?: $55.00/shipped insured.
olde 8) pharte
ML Johnson

 

I have the suspicion (observing target breaks) that my factory extended mod Optima HP is hot core and perhaps a bit tighter than what a "typical" mod would be. Afraid it will ruin the mojo if I put it on paper

 

I shoot the factory Optima HP IC choke in my A400 Xcel Sporting about 99% of the time. It is so effective I posted this issue several months ago to see if other shooters were having the same success with their HP IC choke!

 

My A400 Xplor uses a Briley IC choke and it smokes the targets hard to 40 yards - that's with 3/4oz reloads, let alone factory 1 oz loads[/quote

Brain fart post here.......... :mrgreen:

 

My A400 Xplor uses a Briley IC choke and it smokes the targets hard to 40 yards - that's with 3/4oz reloads, let alone factory 1 oz loads

I am not questioning what you saw, but consider this math. At 40 yards, an IC choke should throw 50% of the pattern into a 30" circle. With 3/4 oz load of 8s, that would be 154 pellets. In a 30" circle, that equates to a single pellet per 4.6 sq. in. A standard target face on is 4.25 sq. in. If you go to the Shotgun Insight Pattern Optimizer website - http://www.shotgun-insight.com/PatternOptimiser.html - and play around with the program, you will see that the probability of a one pellet strike in that situation is ~20%, and a 3-pellet strike (likley the minimum to "smoke" a target) is close to zero.

So either that choke has a hot core (which means you are losing something at the edges - and maybe you don't care because it sounds like you can reliably put a hot core on a target at 40 yards) or Beretta is marking a Mod (or perhaps tighter) choke IC, in which case hitting close targets would become more challenging.

Someone reported recently that their Guerini chokes measured 0.005" tighter than marked (meaning an IC is really an LM). I suspect manufacturers are making chokes tighter because shooters like to see hard hits when they make contact, and are more likely to suspect their shooting rather than the choke if they hit fewer targets as a result of being overchoked.

 

Why would Beretta ship a Cylinder, Modified and Full with the A400 Light instead of IC, a Mod and the Full?
What's the Cylinder good for? Slugs?

 

Why would Beretta ship a Cylinder, Modified and Full with the A400 Light instead of IC, a Mod and the Full?
What's the Cylinder good for? Slugs?

Lot of Skeet shooter use Cylinder.

 

In the interest of science I figured I would add a piece of information to this thread.

The bore on My Beretta A400 Xplor light is .732
and the Beretta (flush) IC choke is .723 which is .009 and pretty close to IC

 

IC or Mod for all around shooting?

 

IC or Mod for all around shooting?

Mod for me. Haven't used an IC for years. The most open choke I ever use is LM and then only rarely.

 

I have used the IC choke 90% of the time to shoot sporting clays with great results.

 

I use IC and Mod all the time. For Skeet I use 2 Cly.

 

I have the suspicion (observing target breaks) that my factory extended mod Optima HP is hot core and perhaps a bit tighter than what a "typical" mod would be. Afraid it will ruin the mojo if I put it on paper

I have patterned the HP factory chokes and you are dead on correct about the modified. The core is extremely hot. Cylinder on the other hand is too open for anything other than close range but does well with steel. The best all around constriction in the factory tube is the improved cylinder if you are a one and done type person.

I shoot Pure Gold in my HP choked beretta's and have a full set due to the fact that I am a Pure Gold dealer. The constriction I use most is the .005 with the .010 coming in a close second. I have broken clays on numerous occasions out to 65 yards with .005. The .010 turns most into smokeballs. .015 is for the longbird and practice.
I recently patterned a minus -.005, .005, and .015 at 32 yards using my 1oz load of 8's with a duster wad and Clay Dot at about 1225fps. I then drew a circle around the entire pattern and measured the avg. diameter.
-.005 = 32 inches and getting thin. A bird might sneak through at this range
.005 = 23 inches A little thick in the middle but good dispertion throughout the diameter.
.015 = 17 inches My factory ext. mod and this choke pattern similarly Tight cored. I will probably shoot some more patterns as time permits

 

After patterning a new Beretta 692, using factory Beretta chokes that came with the gun, I found that the skeet choke was more openned than a cylinder; rendering it useless on a standard sporting clay course. I had learned that Beretta ships a European Skeet in their standard package. However, I was able to purchase an American version which is a bit tighter.

 

Quoting John H on this form. here please look at link below from Beretta's website. You will notice what I did that the labeling is not what it seems but the math will...

This is the basic choke constriction chart published by Beretta - its on the Beretta usa site under FAQ

http://berettausa.custhelp.com/app/answ ... ptima%20hp

The stated facts:
Optima HP Bore .732
EU Skeet: 0.759 = -0.027 ie blunderbuss/ diffusion (pulled from optima table since bore is same)

Cylinder: 0.728 = 0.004 which is hair less than skeet

IC: 0.719 = 0.013 this about a Muller U2 at 0.012( http://mullerchokes.com/pages/faq) hair less than LtMod favored choke on Sporting Field.

Mod: 0.712 = 0.020 Finally Currently Expected Constriction

IMod: 0.707 = 0.025 nail on the head correct.

Full: 0.695 = 0.037 That is very tight full choke... no wonder my A400 Xcel and 692 did not come with it.

I will say this to be clear so I don't get flamed, this is what it is suppose to measure. We all know mass production QC is not perfect. However this information helped me make some important choices. For sporting, I bought another IC factory choke. I will run the pair from now on unless the targets are : A) in my face ie: small office trash can range or B) out there ie: " go go gadget binoculars"

I hope this helps you make a more informed choice for dove hunting. It helped me with sporting.

 

Quoting John H on this form. here please look at link below from Beretta's website. You will notice what I did that the labeling is not what it seems but the math will...

This is the basic choke constriction chart published by Beretta - its on the Beretta usa site under FAQ

http://berettausa.custhelp.com/app/answ ... ptima%20hp

The stated facts:
Optima HP Bore .732
EU Skeet: 0.759 = -0.027 ie blunderbuss/ diffusion (pulled from optima table since bore is same)

Cylinder: 0.728 = 0.004 which is hair less than skeet

IC: 0.719 = 0.013 this about a Muller U2 at 0.012( http://mullerchokes.com/pages/faq) hair less than LtMod favored choke on Sporting Field.

Mod: 0.712 = 0.020 Finally Currently Expected Constriction

IMod: 0.707 = 0.025 nail on the head correct.

Full: 0.695 = 0.037 That is very tight full choke... no wonder my A400 Xcel and 692 did not come with it.

I will say this to be clear so I don't get flamed, this is what it is suppose to measure. We all know mass production QC is not perfect. However this information helped me make some important choices. For sporting, I bought another IC factory choke. I will run the pair from now on unless the targets are : A) in my face ie: small office trash can range or B) out there ie: " go go gadget binoculars"

I hope this helps you make a more informed choice for dove hunting. It helped me with sporting.

I sell quite a few Beretta's to customers and your post mirrors what I see in real world performance of Beretta's factory chokes. I have always told them that Beretta IC chokes tend to shoot tighter than many other companies factory IC chokes. Thanks for posting the actual constrictions.

 

Hello: I would just like to add that the Optima Euro Skeet choke actually measures 0.730" at the smallest inside diameter. Making it a 0.002" constriction. Like I stated this is for Optima chokes and is the actual measurement. Thanks, Eric

 

You guys are measuring these internal choke tube diameters with this type of caliper, right?

Not one of these (below), correct? They have flats on the measuring blades (upper left of below photo) which will lessen the reading of a curved surface.

This is the only type of caliper I have, I don't think I can use it.

 

My new 686 Sporting came with five Optima HP choke tubes; Cylinder, Skeet, Improved Cylinder, Modified, and Improved Modified.

The skeet choke is marked "SK", so is it European Skeet, or American Skeet?

Based on the info above, is my Cylinder choke actually tighter than my Skeet choke? That chart in the link to the Beretta website shows "N/A" for the measurements of both Skeet USA and Skeet European.

On the skeet field I've been using the CYL tube for the closer incoming clays and the SK tube for the outgoing clays, thinking SK was tighter than CYL. Maybe not?

 

I think I found my answer on this website. I see this has been batted around for many years...

http://www.berettausa.com/en-us/beretta-choke-tube-optimachoke-hp-flush-12ga/c620/

The table indicates the Skeet choke is more open than the Cylinder choke. I assume note (2) applies to the SK USA choke. At least they seem to list them in tight to open order, top to bottom.

 

If anyone has any comments on my post above, I'd appreciate any insight. I still find it hard to believe the SKT choke is more open than CYL.

I did shoot them today, reversing my barrel selector, shooting the CYL at the distant targets and SKT at the closer targets, the breaks did seem a little better - but it's probably just my wishful thinking.

This is using the factory, flush Optima HP chokes.