Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game 16 gauge with skeet choke

I have a 16 gauge Winchester 21, bored Skeet #1 & Skeet #2.
With good quality shells (bought or hand loaded) I have found it to be deadly
on all the upland birds that I hunt (pheasants, sharptails, & Huns), I hunt over
a pointing dog, so keep that in mind too.

I will say that I tend to shoot larger shot than most though. #5's seem to work the
best for me.

I agree. As for a Browning Citori 16ga, I just took possession of a Gr I Hunter (2021 Shot Show Special). The included Invector chokes are anything but as marked. To say that there was any consistency as to how they perform, i.e. tighter or more open as compared to the marking would be a falsehood. Based on my patterning testing #6 lead and the included choke, the IC is closer to Cyl; the M more like F, and the F is beyond extra F. Briley will be getting a call in the very near future.

I have a Turkish built Dickinson Estate SxS 16 that came with Cyl, IC, Mod, IM, and full tubes. The Cyl tube measures .003 constriction(skeet) and each of the others are at least that much tighter than nominal. I use the Cyl and IC for most hunting, but switch to IC for wild public access pheasants.

I have shot a 20 ga Cylinder for 40 years on grouse and woodcock with #9's.....helps dense up the pattern. I think a 16 is plenty of gun .

Your 16 gauge Citori factory choke observations are exactly the same as mine. My gun is a 28” Superlight from about 2013. The I/C miked .006” constriction (about where it should be), while the M measured .008”; the F was way tighter, .035”. They are concentrically bored (pattern centers are where they should be). I bought a set of Brileys several years ago, so all is well now. I find LM/IM pretty much stay in the gun all the time.

SK = .005"
IC = .010"
LM = .015"
M = .020"
IM = .025"
F = .030"
XF = .035"

Those constructions are pretty tight for a 16 gauge, in my experience. My 1959 Winchester Model 12 16 gauge with 28” modified choke barrel has .011” of choke constriction. It also checks out in performance on game, clay targets and a pattern board. Another factory original 16 gauge gun, this one a Browning Sweet Sixteen with 28” modified choke barrel shoots noticeably tighter, with it’s .018” of choke, more like an improved modified. I shoot high quality ammo, most of which I handload, that has very hard shot.

The Citori Superlight 16 gauge to which I earlier alluded shoots a bit tighter than the Briley replacement tubes are marked. The original I/C choke performs as it should, while the M choke is definitely quite open. I don’t have a Browning SK choke for this gun, but I am not surprised by what castnblast reports about it throwing much tighter patterns.

Choke really isn’t about constriction but pattern performance, which is further complicated by the three dimensional nature of the shot string. Shooting good ammo with hard shot (I could care less about high velocity) is the best hedge we have.