Do ported turkey gun barrels and chokes make a difference? Of course they do!
My first morning of turkey hunting had it all. I saw five toms within gun range on a public hunting area an hour’s drive north of Memphis and learned what not to do to kill a gobbler.
After a morning filled with novice blunders, I drove to a Jim’s Guns & Junk in Briton, Tennessee. When Jim was alive he was an old sage at bagging Mississippi River gobblers. We spoke of many things that day, but before I left he handed me an odd looking device, a Browning Invector ported screw-in choke tube. He extolled its virtues, mainly the choke’s ability to produce tight patterns from 12 gauge turkey guns.
Jim loaned the choke to me to try in my turkey gun. I had recently had the barrel on my Remington 870 shotgun trimmed to 21 inches and threaded for Winchoke-style chokes. At the time, Nu-Line Guns in Harvester, Missouri, only had machining for Winchokes, so I opted to let them create a shotgun hybrid of sorts. I patterned a couple of shot sizes and found that the Browning did indeed perform marginally better than the Nu-Line choke fitted to my gun. Those first choke and load comparisons, and the subsequent article I wrote in the Mid South Hunting and Fishing News in 1988, set the course for a budding journalist who loved to turkey hunt.
In the years since, I have tested hundreds of chokes, both ported and non-ported, and have found that each have their respective virtues. In all honesty, it is impractical to test the merits of ported chokes versus non-ported chokes. To get truly unbiased data a shooter would have to fire several patterns with a non-ported choke, then have ports cut in that choke and retest it. I don’t know of anyone who has gone to the trouble, and don’t expect to meet him or her any time soon.
The effective difference between ported, non-ported, or straight-rifled choke tubes for that matter really depends on the gun. The wise practice of testing various loads and shot sizes in a particular gun is equally important to trying different choke tubes.
The principle of straight rifling in choke tubes, or barrels for that matter, has been proven to even out shot pattern dispersion. Stopping the shot cup from rotating after leaving the barrel keeps the shot column from spinning. Centrifugal force will cause patterns to open up rather than stay tight and uniform. It is my opinion that choke porting influences wad and shot separation, which is at the heart of tight patterns.
A great example of a ported turkey choke is the Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike. The design with the long ports running the length of the exposed portion of the choke stops wad rotation. Their choke tube design concept is solid and backed up with an NWTF Still-Target World Record.
The noise problem associated with porting barrels to reduce recoil is not typically applicable to shotgun choke tubes. Centerfire rifle and pistol porting incorporates vents that are aimed back at the shooter. Shotgun chokes are ported to bleed off the gas cloud following he shot column to improve pattern performance. The cuts or holes in the chokes are normally straight or aimed forward, which do nothing for recoil and shouldn’t increase muzzle blast.
Porting got you over a barrel?
Over the past half decade, shotgun barrel porting has risen in popularity. Many clay target shooters praise barrel porting for its ability to stabilize recoil and reduce muzzle rise. Holes drilled or cut into the top half of the barrel near the muzzle vent off gas, which retards muzzle rise. When the escaping gas pushes back down on the barrel–similar in principle to a jet engine propelling an airplane–it keeps the gun stock from rising into the shooter’s face.
Translated into use for turkey hunting, barrel porting will keep the barrel down during recoil, which drives the gun more into the shooter’s shoulder than into the cheek. The end result is that recoil is less painful when properly distributed into the shoulder, an added benefit when shooting magnum turkey loads.
One of drawbacks to shooting a ported gun is the increase in muzzle blast. For shotgun porting to reduce actual recoil, the ports would need to be directed to the rear toward the shooter, which would be damaging to shooters without hearing protection. A perfect example can be borrowed from the recoil reducer incorporated into Browning’s Ballistic Optimizing Shooting System (B.O.S.S.). The B.O.S.S. does a good job cutting recoil, but Browning stopped selling their rifles with the recoil reducer as standard equipment. Hunters shooting the B.O.S.S. were experiencing hearing damage and lawsuits followed.
Where to get your barrel ported
The folks at Ballistic Specialties Inc. do a fine job of barrel work as well as producing top-notch chokes. I had a Remington 870 12-gauge barrel reworked by Ballistic Specialties and it improved pattern performance on an average of 10 percent. Arkansas turkey hunter Gene Denton shared some of his experience with a B.S.I. barrel job. Shooting Federal 2-ounce loads at 30-inch paper circles at 40 yards, Gene put 397 pellets (88.2 percent) in a 30-inch circle with No. 6s; 270 (79.4 percent) No. 5s; and 256 (94.8 percent) with No. 4 shot. Any pattern higher than 90 percent is a thing of beauty to be cherished by any turkey hunter. Contact B.S.I. by calling 800-276-2550, or check out their website at www.angleport.com.
Briley does a splendid job with barrel porting and choke tube installation. A single-barrel shotgun porting job will run $125 for a blued barrel. If your gun is camouflaged, tack on an extra $50.
Rhino Shooting Sports also does custom barrel work, porting and lengthens forcing cones. They can be reached by calling (800) 226-3613.
Editor’s Note: Learn more about turkey guns and loads from the author’s book, “Turkey Hunter’s Tool Kit: Shooting Savvy™.”
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