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I am looking for a good aftermarket choke tube for a benelli sbe. I thought I could get some replies from the forum.

Briley or Ballistic Specialties/Angleport.

I haven't used one myself, but if I were going to get a tube, I'd get a 'Patternmaster'. I've heard some great reports about their performance at extended range from folks that hunt flooded fields.....they swear by'em 'cause they have a 'wad stripper' which slows the wad and reduces blown patterns, and better performance with the larger pellets. Cabela's....around $80.

One tip....if you hunt close quarters like a pit or blind, then watch out for those extended choke tubes with ports...they will flat ring your buddies ears. I think pattenmaster also makes a non-ported version that you can get from their website.

I have now played with and miked a Patternmaster choke. With Estate Steel #3's from a BGH it threw the same patterns (basically) as a Briley Improved Mod choke at 40 yards. I did not have any of the larger shot sizes to play with.

It is a real interesting construction. There are 3 decreasing constrictions with the patternmaster choke tube. The constriction, starting at the barrel end, is an Imp mod (.027) till it hits the studs/dogs/stripping posts, which would be a LMod (.015) measured at the TOP of the studs, and then a long parallel section of .005 (skeet) untill the shot charge leaves the muzzle end. Similar to the old Tula skeet chokes, but MUCH tighter.

[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: GulfCoast ]

GC, shoot a load of bb's thru it... It'll blow yur mind. Then try some buckshot, just for kicks. All the swat mags swear a scoped 12 gauge with tactile buckshot is an effective 90 yard weapon with a pm choke.

I aint seen the difference in noise on a normal gun barrel and a ported choke. A 21 inch turkey barrel or a ported barrel is quite another thing. But after shooting & standing next to folks shooting a couple thousand steel loads through NORMAL lenght barrels, cant tell a difference between ported and unported chokes. Same thing with popper loads in my gun, vrs a same lenght barrel with normal choke.

I did shoot trap next to a feller with one of dem ballistic specialities ported barrels one day. 5 yards from me, with muffs on, I thought his freggin gun blew up when he shot. I made him move 2 more stations from me, and told him nice gun, dont ever bring it to my pit! hehe.

Ducman77
I have the best waterfowl shotgun ever made also. The SBE!!! Let's see what that statement startes [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I shoot the ballistic speciality chokes. I had my barrel backbored and use a 13thousands. Somewhere betweet an IC and Mod. I do have the wad stripper ported chokes. I personally think it helps keep the shot FPS up.
For the people that don't like the sweet sound of a high performance duck killing machine they should be deer hunting!

DD,
I have shot all the waterfowl hunting guns and the SBE is the best shooting gun there is for sale by far.

You cannot go wrong with either the Briley extended /non-ported or the TruLock extended/non-ported! DO not fool with those ported tubes they are designed for large shot only and an non-ported tube works just as good. The real key is to pattern your guns and find out which tube/shot combination works best for you.

I am getting 80-85% patterns with #2 and #3 shot at 40 yds with my TruLock IM tube. I love my Briley tubes but those TruLock tubes are awesome! They are made in Georgia and are a little cheaper than the Briley tubes. Do a Google search for TruLock tubes.

Hope this helps.

DeltaDuck.....is it the gun or the SHOOTER that is so good?? :-)

GROAN.....SBE=Seriously Below Expectations. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I use a Comp-N-Choke improved cylinder on my Benelli Nova and find it really patterns great up to about 40 yds. Use it successfully for both ducks and quail hunting.

Well, there you have it, 'Dukman77'.....some replies. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] ......'course an 'SBE' with a 'Patternmaster' choke is STILL an 'SBE'. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Good Luck!

[ June 25, 2002: Message edited by: Anatidae ]

thanks guys for the replies

I thnk you should start with a new gun first. An 870 would hurt your feelings.

Cook & Nash
I know that you are not talking to me I own any gun that you can think of and I know what I like so if you want to shoot an 870 that is your problem not mine. I have 3 of them and they fall apart because they are so cheap so use what you want that is your choice.