Drilling 12ga 3" what are the best fixed chokes per barrel?

[Excessexpress]

1/4 and 1/2 would be my choice.

Agreed.

If non-lead is mandated, the greater number of shot per weight will fill the pattern nicely.

Will this have a K in it’s name?

 

[Red Leg]

I am with those who know something about which they speak. For that type of gun and that purpose, the standard choking will be fine. Sounds like a great thing to ride in the Land Cruiser.

 

[IvW]

I realize you are South African and I'm an American, both of us suffer from limited shell choices for fine guns. The Brits have a lot of choices from Gamebore, Eley-Hawk, and Kent. A traditional cork or fiber wad opens the pattern up quite a bit. A modern wad cup tightens the pattern. It would be worth buying some british shells for your gun (2.5" is excellent and wholly sufficient, 2.75" is fine if you can find them with fibre / cork wads) I think you'd have great fun shooting sand grouse from your gun with a fibre wad, 1 oz, 2.5" load of say #8 shot.

We spend years accumulating a variety of shells over here so we have the ability to get the patterns we want without altering our nicer shotguns and drillings.

Another wonderful shell you'll want to find and will take some work: The brenneke slug is designed to pass through chokes without damage, up to full choke. They have fins on the slug and a cork wad attached to the back of the slug to seal the bore. They are shockingly accurate to 100 meters. Expensive and sold in packs of 5, made in Germany, you want to accumulate some of those for your wonderful gun too.

If you really want to kill things with authority, a couple very expensive boxes of Kent Tungsten shells do horrific destruction. #5s and #6s would kill things as large as the tiny-ten.

I have been a longtime user of the Original Brenneke slugs. I still have quite a few but guard them like gold. I am trying to import a batch of the slugs only.

I also reload my own shotgun shells by using solid brass hulls. The cases I use are Magtech. These I only use for shot. As mentioned this is not for high volume dove, pigeon shooting but rather game bird hunting. It is quite satisfying hunting birds with self loaded bullets.
I will definately experament with different wads.

For slugs I use Armour Brass shotgun shells which have thicker walls. The Brenneke work perfect oit of them.

One more question.

If you had a choice between 22 inch and 24 inch barrels which would you choose?

Bearing in mind that one barrel will sometimes have a 7x57R insert barrel in it.

The 22" weights just under 8 pounds and the 24" just over 8 pounds.

I have always prefered a slightly heavier rifle for bushveldt conditions for mountain or open areas I can switch to a Kipplauf.

Thank you.

 

[Excessexpress]

I would think that balance is much more important than barrel length per se.

For people unaware, a heavier gun will feel lighter with the weight in the right place.

So IVW the challenge in your circumstance being that the insert will move the balance considerably forward. A removable balancing weight might help a lot.

Will you be using swing off mounts for a scope? Or a red dot?

 

[IvW]

Bridge swivel mount for scope and tilt mount for optic.

The bit extra weight forward with insert barrel I am not too worried about(when hunting pg). I am more concerned with the balance and swing when the insert barrel is out. As well as the effect on the shotgun barrels at 22 vs 24"....

At the miment I am leaning towards 24 inches....

 

[rookhawk]

I have been a longtime user of the Original Brenneke slugs. I still have quite a few but guard them like gold. I am trying to import a batch of the slugs only.

I also reload my own shotgun shells by using solid brass hulls. The cases I use are Magtech. These I only use for shot. As mentioned this is not for high volume dove, pigeon shooting but rather game bird hunting. It is quite satisfying hunting birds with self loaded bullets.
I will definately experament with different wads.

For slugs I use Armour Brass shotgun shells which have thicker walls. The Brenneke work perfect oit of them.

One more question.

If you had a choice between 22 inch and 24 inch barrels which would you choose?

Bearing in mind that one barrel will sometimes have a 7x57R insert barrel in it.

The 22" weights just under 8 pounds and the 24" just over 8 pounds.

I have always prefered a slightly heavier rifle for bushveldt conditions for mountain or open areas I can switch to a Kipplauf.

Thank you.

If I could choose a drillling barrel length, it would be as long as humanly possible. The only drillings I’ve ever shot that were passable for upland work happened to be 27” barrels.

The shorter the barrel, the more unpleasant the swing of the gun. If you could get 26” or longer barrels it would be a hundred times more pleasant gun to shoot. If you could get the gun to weigh less by having 2.75” chambers instead of 3”, I would do that too.

 

[IvW]

2.75" is availible but would it not be ok to shoot 2.75" cartidges in the 3" chamber?

 

[BeeMaa]

2.75" is availible but would it not be ok to shoot 2.75" cartidges in the 3" chamber?

If you have a 3" chamber, you can shoot 2.5", 2.75" and 3" shells.

What @rookhawk is saying is that by having a 2.75" chamber it would make up for a little of the weight gained with longer barrels. This would give you the option of shooting 2.5" and 2.75" shells. 3" shells would be off limits.

As for the barrel length and corresponding weight. I've not shot a Drillings, but do have a Blaser F3 Vantage competition shotgun with 30" barrels that weighs 8.3 lbs, but swings like a much lighter shotgun because it's well balanced. The same shotgun with 28" barrels is completely different and doesn't work for me at all.

If you have the opportunity to pick up and swing the Drillings in different barrel lengths to get an idea of the feel, it would be a huge advantage.

 

[spike.t]

So it's OK to shoot slugs through barrels other than cylinder....1/2
.3/4 ?

 

[IvW]

So it's OK to shoot slugs through barrels other than cylinder....1/2
.3/4 ?

Yes I regularly shoot Original Brenneke slugs through any degree of choke even full choke no problems.
Other slugs I dont know

 

[HankBuck]

So it's OK to shoot slugs through barrels other than cylinder....1/2
.3/4 ?

@spike.t - that’s a good question and I want to hear from others with “knowledge” on this. I have always been told or read the “Lead” slugs may be fired thru fixed chokes up to Modified. Some have told me you can even shoot Lead slugs thru a FULL choke because it will ‘compress’ as it travels thru the choke constriction but its accuracy will be negatively affected (funny since “accurate” is not a word I’d use). These opinions referred to the older “Foster” type slugs and “Pumpkin Balls” commonly used before sabot slugs & rifled barrels. I’ve only shot a couple deer with lead slugs from a smooth bore shotgun and even at 50 yrds, with a regular bead on a 12 ga O/U, hitting a 10” circle was about as good as I could do….but if you did hit the deer —- it would put a Big Hole thru it.

 

[BeeMaa]

So it's OK to shoot slugs through barrels other than cylinder....1/2
.3/4 ?

It depends on several factors.

First of all the manufactures have varying measurements for what is considered cylinder bore (CYL). This is the measurement that is used as the baseline for IMP CYL, MOD, IMP MOD, FULL, TKY...etc. Usually they decrease in diameter by 0.005".

For example.
Browning Cynergy using Browning Invector Plus Chokes is 0.740" for CYL.
Benelli SBE# using Benelli Cryo Plus Chokes is 0.725 for CYL.
That small 0.015" of difference doesn't seem like much at CYL, but when choked down to FULL the results are obvious. I looked through my shot pattern photos and didn't keep any pictures of the Browning Cynergy to compare with the SBE3. This was because I knew that I was going to sell the shotgun because the patterns were so open. I wanted something tighter.

Move over to using a slug instead of shot, now there is a serious risk of blowing up/splitting a barrel due to overpressure. Best plan is to follow the instructions for the manufacturer of the shotgun AND the shell being used. As a general rule, most will recommend using CYL or IMP CYL only for slugs to prevent damage to the firearm. For European measurements it would mean the tightest choke would be 3/8.

 

[spike.t]

Thanks guys

 

[WAB]

I tend to longer barrels. The weight you’ve indicated points to pretty sturdy construction, so as
Someone else
Mentioned, the balance likely is your key consideration.

 

[mark-hunter]

Move over to using a slug instead of shot, now there is a serious risk of blowing up/splitting a barrel due to overpressure.

Why do you think so?
Brenneke and foster slugs are designed to pass through choked barrels.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I’ve only owned 2 drillings. A Merkel 12x12x243 and a K gun 12x12x30-06. Both had modified and full choked 3” barrels. I only used them in the upland fields, but I am not a fan of tight chokes for upland birds. That said, I did some patterning tests with different loads, brands, etc to find what opened best for upland. I wound up making my own spreader loads and got OK results that helped. As I have aged, they got too heavy to carry in the field.
I also have hunted a lot with a REM 870 3” I cut the 30” barrel to 21” of course choked cylinder. By changing shells it would shoot from cylinder to tight patterns of buffered lead, steel, bismuth and tungsten. I love that old 870!
I have mostly carried SxS 12s and 20s depending on what the game is with longer barrels to smooth my swing out. They balance best for my carry style and I feel like I take a step back in time carrying them.
Best of luck IVW figuring out what works best for your unique use! I believe you have it right IMO&E.

 

[BeeMaa]

Why do you think so?
Brenneke and foster slugs are designed to pass through choked barrels.

Yes, that is true. But it varies across manufacturers. The same way that the diameter of a cylinder bore can vary widely. This is why it's so important to pay attention to the details...that means reading the directions.

I have a friend that I've worked with for almost 20 years, and was famous for saying "Read The F'n Manual". Mostly because people didn't out of pure laziness. He recently started his own consulting firm for the commercial/industrial heating industry. The name of his company is RTFM.

Be smart. Read instructions for both the firearm and shell you are using.

 

[PerH]

Newer drillings have removable chokes , but not all makers do so .

 

[PerH]

Best is either quart and half or quart and /

 

[mark-hunter]

Be smart. Read instructions for both the firearm and shell you are using.

I agree!