Briley LMOD choke

[Duxnbux]

I've heard alot of talk saying that the Briley LMOD is the best choke for waterfowl hunting out to 40 yds. What is y'alls experience with this choke.

[Wildfowler]

I liked the extended LMOD so much, that I bought two. One for both barrells. I would highly recommend you get your hands on one.

I shoot 1&1/4 oz # 4 or 6's.

[MemphisStockBroker]

what is it that an aftermarket choke gives you, that a factory one does not? seems to me a round tube is a round tube...

[wngrog]

Factory chokes tend to be more open than aftermarket chokes due to the fact that people tend to blow up their barrels when they shoot rusted steel shot through Full chokes.

If you "Mike" a Briley Light Mod it should come in around .15

If you have access to a "Mike" tool, check your factory Modified choke and you may be surprised to see that it measures closer to .15 than the .20 that a modified choke should.

[ScottS]

I couldn't get very good patterns with my Briley LM so I switched to a Briley IM in my SX-2. My barrel is overbored and, with my reloads being my primary shot this year, my gun seems to like a little but tighter constriction. I'm running from 82-92% in the 30" circle from 30 to 40 yds with the Briley IM and 3" #2 steel (1623 fps) reloads.

[wngrog]

I couldn't get very good patterns with my Briley LM so I switched to a Briley IM in my SX-2. My barrel is overbored and, with my reloads being my primary shot this year, my gun seems to like a little but tighter constriction. I'm running from 82-92% in the 30" circle from 30 to 40 yds with the Briley IM and 3" #2 steel (1623 fps) reloads.

If I were shooting 2's and looking for 80-90% patterns than I would be shooting a .20 or a .25 (IMOD) too, however most of the hunting Wildfowler and I do is close range stuff with small shot and an IMOD (.15) works a little better.

[ScottS]

I agree, within 25 yds or so I would "open it up" a little too. I was just replying to the original poster who asked about a LM out to 40 yds.

I have both LM and IM tubes in my bag so I'm pretty much covered out to 50 yds (which I never shoot that far anyway).

[Wildfowler]

Actually, the one time that I "patterned" my gun at 35-40 paces in Hambone's back yard, I discovered that the LMOD choke produced the tightest pattern of them all. I noticed that the imp cyl, and the IMOD gave me about the same pattern, which were both noticeably thinner than the LMOD. And I was looking for the tightest pattern I could get my hands on.

I thought at the time I was witnessing "overchoking" with the IMOD that I had read about as a property of steel shot using too tight of a constriction. But I wouldn't consider myself a shotgun expert and don't know if this really exists. I may be wrong, but my gun produces the tightest patterns using 1&1/4 oz #3 steel or smaller combined with the LMOD choke. I tried various combinations and got the best results as listed above through my non scientific research. I didn't count pellets or anything, just eyeballed the results on a spread out sheet of newspaper stapled to a pallet.

And as Hambone mentioned the other day, dead ducks don't care what they got hit with. I think you've got some good advise here to work with.

Good Luck!!

[GulfCoast]

You have any shooting ability, you can smoke a duck at 35-40 yards with a light modified. I leave a LMod in all during duck season and never take it out. I try to keep my shots close, but a Lmod should give you enough juice at that range. I use Angleport tubes, but Briley makes a gold standard type tube, too.

Factory tubes can vary almost .008 due to QC issues. You would hate to be relying blind on an LMOD to shoot ducks and find out later it was a skeet choke, huh? Try miking some factory tubes some time. ESPECIALLY Browning tubes.

"Mr. GC, here is your true cylinder bore modified choke. And your 8 cylinder truck engine is really a 4 stroke Honda outboard. Have a nice day."

[ScottS]

I must not have any shooting ability Mark!

I couldn't get my LM to pattern for squat in my SX-2. I was getting about 50-55% in a 30" circle with holes in the patteran that two ducks could fit in. The 55% in the circle was probably ok for killing but the holes were not acceptable.

As with everything else I guess, each gun shoots differently and the only way to find out it's (and your) limits is to take it to the field and shoot some targets with the loads you plan to hunt with.

[GulfCoast]

Scott: Your right. Those patterns sound pretty aberant. Have you considered taking your gun out to a strip bar for a few beers. Works wonders

[Swamp Rat]

I must agree with Wngrog and Gulfcoast on the comments about choke tube quality of factory chokes. Being and avid shot gun reloader; especially for the 10 ga. mag , I have measured myshare of chokes..
More often that not a specialty choke will outshoot a factory chokes and the technology used in boring and honing chokes is most likely not intrgrated into the production of factry chokes. There is the tapered, paralell, with ir without wad strippers. Each gun manufacturer has there on QC about barrel bore diameter standards, which might vary as much as .008 inch. from one another; compared to indusrty stds. plus they might also vary with guns of the same make and model. Is the choke in the center of the the barrel bore? Is it crooked on the barrel bore? Does it mate flush inside the barrel bore?. If you send you barrel to have the choke fitted theprevious is checked and corrected. To keep this post from getting long and me getting flamed: lets just say this. If you dont like the way your gun, load, choke shoots. Change to another load and try that first. Its alot cheaper than a choke. All brands of shells are not equal. If that fails buy a choke.

[wngrog]

I To keep this post from getting long and me getting flamed: lets just say this. If you dont like the way your gun, load, choke shoots. Change to another load and try that first. Its alot cheaper than a choke. All brands of shells are not equal. If that fails buy a choke.

Great advice. In my Sporting Clays competition days, I often changed loads between shots and on the same station instead of changing chokes.

This works particularly well when shooting an Autoloader and your first shot is a 40 yard outgoing and the second is a incoming or fast crosser.

First shell would be a 7 1/2 and the second would be a #9.....

[RB]

Ok...Maybe I'm just a poor man that has only shot full, mod. or imp... and I've even heard of Imp. Mod... but what are you all talking about when you say Light Modified?... Can someone fill me in?

[wngrog]

IC, Mod and Full are broad terms for the amount of constriction you have at the end of your barrell.

If you break it down it goes as follows:

.00-Cylinder-No Choke
.05-Skeet or Skeet 1
.10-Improved Cyl pr Skeet 2
.15-Light Modified
.20-Modified
.25-Improved Modified
.30-Full
.35-Extra Full-(Turkey)

What was said above was important. Bore of barrell, standards of each manufacturer, etc all effect the accuracy of the constriction, relative to the bore of the barrell.

A true set of custom chokes are mated to the bore of the barrell, not one size fits all.