Topic: The Best Pheasant Chokes for 2022 (Read 36 times)
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Key Features
It’s impressive when a choke can deliver an almost 90 percent pattern, which the Jebs High Voltage almost did on all five shots with Federal’s Upland High Velocity lead load. The ported choke also delivered an 82 percent pattern average with Hevi-Bismuth. Jebs sends their steel to a heat-treating facility to increase the hardness of the choke so that it can safely shoot steel and tungsten. As the shot travels through the choke, the Jebs design uses two restrictions and two stabilizing parallels that put drag on the wad and allows the shot to exit the choke in a uniform string before the wad. I could not confirm this because I don’t have access to a camera with fast enough frame speed, but it’s clear that their engineering works because the two Jebs chokes were some of the most consistent of the test.
Key Features
Patternmaster’s Anaconda uses a gas-over-wad technology called Coil Zone to increase payload density. The gas from the shotshell propellant winds around the wad as it passes through the choke, constricting it for increased downrange effectiveness. The Anaconda MR had the best 30-yard lead shot pattern of the test, placing 257 pellets inside the circle, two pellets better than that of the Jebs .695 best pattern.
Key Features
Popular with duck hunters, the Rob Roberts Triple Threat T3 proved itself as a deadly pheasant choke in this test. Roberts has been designing chokes for more than 30 years. The performance of the T3 is directly tied to the process by which it is built. Triple Threat chokes are cut in one cycle, first the outside, then the inside for proper constriction, never co*ing off the lathe. According to Roberts, this is what makes them pattern so well.
Key Features
When I stepped back to 40 yards, the Patternmaster Anaconda LR produced the top pattern percentage for Federal’s lead load, but just barely. The Jebs High Voltage .685 was only 3 percent less than the Anaconda average and missed best pattern by just one pellet.
Key Features
Jeb’s High Voltage .685 missed out on being the No. 1 long-range lead choke, but it did take top honors as the best bismuth choke at distance. It’s top pattern (134 pellets) at 40 yards was better than the best bismuth pattern Briley and the stock Invector Plus chokes could produce at 30 yards, though the constrictions on both those—.725 and .720, respectively—were more open.
Key Features
At 40 yards, the Browning Invector Plus choke was the third best lead choke and fourth best for bismuth. Because the stock choke printed such solid five-shot averages—and does not cost anything extra when you buy a Citori—it was an easy choice for the best budget choke of the test. However, if you shoot a Browning or Winchester with the Invector Plus system and do not have the full choke, it’s under $40—the most affordable on this list.
You don’t need an aftermarket choke to cleanly kill pheasants, but some of them will give you added pattern density, particularly with shots on birds 30 yards or farther.
Expect to pay between $50 and $100 for an aftermarket choke.
Early season or mid-range chokes are typically less constricted than a late-season or extended-range chokes. The former will cast wider patterns more quickly; the latter will keep them tighter, longer.
For popular loads, like Federal’s Prairie Storm, choke manufacturers can fine tune their chokes to that specific load to increase the performance of the shotshell. With the increased production of bismuth and tungsten-based shot, co*panies are also engineering chokes that cater to those shot types as well.
Even though dedicated pheasant chokes are not widely popular, it’s clear that an aftermarket choke tube can improve your shotgun’s pattern. That said, the Invector Plus stock chokes I tested proved you can kill any rooster that flushes inside 40 yards—you just won’t get as dense of a pattern as a few select aftermarket chokes. The issue many hunters face is that they can’t test all these different chokes to find out which pairs best with their gun and the load they shoot. Every shotgun, load, and choke co*bination will pattern differently. The chokes my Citori test gun loved, your own shotgun and load of choice may hate. And most aftermarket choke manufacturers are not going to allow you to return a choke once you have used it. So, before you buy, it’s best to check with them to find out what their policy is if you are not getting the desired patterns from your shotgun.
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