Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Poly- or "adjustable" chokes: Are they any good?

Thought to toss this topic out there .....

Are Polychokes any good?

Or Truglo's much more elegant-looking hand-adjustable choke?



Does either work well at all?

Anyone here who would use them? Recommend them?


THANKS!

Poly Chokes are well thought of over on Shotgun World as far as their performance is concerned. Of course, not everybody likes their aesthetics. I had one on a 16 ga. M12 years ago and it worked well. I never formally patterned it but it definitely opened and closed the pattern. I now have one of the new versions that screws into a 20 ga. Rem 1100 barrel instead of a choke tube and it also works well for the rabbit hunting I do. Since I move from close to open cover, it's nice to be able to adjust the choke quickly and it is easily removable.

I have no experience with the TruGlo.

If god wanted a potato on the end of your barrel he'd never have let you see a good looking shotgun. There's just no excuse for those abominations, and certainly there are at least some decency standards that ought to prevent even the discussion of them in places like this.

Like I said, not everybody likes their aesthetics.

Back in the day ie. before the advent of internal choke tubes, they were much more popular than they are today. We had them installed on a couple of guns when I was a kid. IME, what that "dial" says on the choke, is not what appears on the pattern board, except in very general terms.

IMHO, they dont work as advertised, put the weight in the wrong place on the gun, and look like he**, to boot!

NB

StubbleDuck, I have patterned two, both on 16 gauge shotguns (1947 era WIN M-12 with a vintage Poly and a 1951 era Browning A-5 with a vintage Poly Deluxe). In both cases the Polychoke performed well, but was one or two constrictions more open than the choke indicated on the barrel (i.e., I got MOD performance when set on FULL). I used Don Zutz's choke efficiency ratings - you will find varying efficiency ratings between the many sources published over the years (i.e., Zutz may give a certain pattern percentage a MOD, when someone else gives it a IM on their chart). I also think that the newer Polychoke (haven't owned one) would be closer with today's shells - I am shooting modern plastic shells with one piece plastic wads in a Polychoke that was built when paper shells and fiber wads were common - don't know if that makes a difference but it could. My patterns are all very consistent when you return to a given setting and fire the same shell again at the same 25 or 40 yards. I also ran my tests at 25 yards and got the same results (adjusted for distance). Once you know what your Poly patterns at a given setting it is easy to dial in what you need for the game you are hunting or the distance you are shooting.

Ps I think they look fine on an old humpback A-5 - sort of balances the gun with that big, square receiver. I'm probably not discerning enough to feel the difference, but between a Polychoked barrel and a plain barrel on this Browning A-5 I will be damned if can tell any difference in my swing with or without the Poly and my game-bag and clays scores are always about the same as well.

Thanks everyone, even if you if you hate the things.


Actually I don't give a crap about esthetics as much as I do functiion! Centainly on a single-barrel gun. Agreed that a classy O/U or SxS or even a piece like a BT99 shouldn't be marred .....

I've never used any of the devices I asked about, but I think I would have been surprised if they worked exactly as claimed.

But I am glad they seem worthwhile to consider anyway!

I remember reading some of what Zutz wrote, also Brister. Not an expert on either writer, but I am a little familiar with a classic chke percentage chart. If one individual came up with that, makes sense why it seemed a little out of balance (to me). But still it provides a point of origin to measure and discuss things and THAT is always a good thing with technical lingo or text.

What I will likely do (for both a M870 and M1200 Tinnchester is pick up a 24 or 26inch barrel for each when available, to outfit with a Polychoke, keeping their original barrels original (a M1200 will NEVER even keep company with a Model Twelve let alone resemble one! But the gun was my dad's and its the first twelver I shot - as a 10yo! It also kills stuff when I do my part. ) With a potato-looking shortie barrel, if it helps me connect well with dovers, quails, grouses, chukars and ditch parrots I'll certainly be pleased!

Thanks fellas.

Thanks Odessa esp for your post and pic!
Nice limt of doves.
Also I appreciate your last paragraph! Never was able to shoot an A-5 (or M-11 Remy) with that squared receiver but I agree the choke doesn't detract much if anything.

I have an old M12 / 16 ga. Even if it was free, I could never get over the look of the Poly Choke.

I have had several over the past. In my experience they work well and can throw very nice patterns. They don't bother me as I'm not concentrating on the barrel anyway when I shoot. As pointed out above some don't like the looks of them but they are much more handy in the field than tubes and I find the weight/ balance argument loses out when you consider the thick barrels on tubed guns and what that does to weight distribution. If you do buy one keep in mind that they generally reduce the resale value of the gun but that can be an advantage when buying. Most of the ones I have had came to me because they were on a nice shotgun that I got cheap because of the bias against the poly choke. By the way the vented models do nothing over the plain model in my estimation and just accentuate the size. JOC wrote a book "THe Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns" where he talks about them and actually states some of the best patterns he ever saw came from a poly choke. I think that there is some merit to the quality of the installation however . You might also watch the ebay and used gun parts suppliers as I see these listed for sale every now and then for low prices. Besides polychoke there are essentially copies produced by mossberg and savage. The lyman cutts compensator is a totally different animal and has interchangeable tubes on the end of the vented body.

I have a Truglo on an 870 and it works very well. Much more streamlined than the poly choke.

I've had one on a 20 ga. 870 for about 30 years. Patterned it with several different loads and you could get about any pattern you wanted as long as it was open. Never got it to pattern tighter than modified with any setting or load.
Killed a lot of birds with it though, several times I came in with a limit of 8 quail and 9 empties. Brother-in-Law hated to see me show up with that shotgun.

I have a Poly choke on my Rem. 870 Magnum,it works just fine,also like the way it looks!!!

Had one on my Win.Mod50. Worked well enough but anytime I accidently bumped the end on the barrel( which I did too often) on something, the point of impact changed dramaticaly.(Maybe I should just blame it on poor installation by the gunsmith and be guilt free)