Ported chokes

[Trigger Mike]

When shooting trap, skeet or sporting clays does having a ported extended choke make a difference over a nonported extended choke when using a beretta 12 gauge 32 inch barrel?

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

No.  Most trap shooters hate poking holes in their barrels.  About all the ports do is increase noise.  A choke is just a hollow pipe with some constriction in it.  Like all things the choke makers make all sorts of claims in order to sell their product.  As good god fearing Cowboy shooters we call them snake oil salesmen.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

^^^This. 

[Tennessee williams]

Yes, to answer your question exactly it does make a difference. 

Does it make a difference in recoil to me? No, not much if any.

Does it make a difference in sound? Yes, to me it's louder.

Does SOME of them make a difference in shot pattern? Yes absolutely. But, not in the way you may think. Some are designed as wad catchers. I've tested a lot with ported wad catchers for trap and turkey shoots as well. All of them produced tighter patterns at longer ranges than regular chokes. Is it a big enough difference to invest the money in? Depends on what you want to get out of the shooting. If it's not serious, or not money matches it may not be. Kind of like buying go fast parts for our cowboy guns. 

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

https://shotgunreport.com/2020/07/09/wad-stripper-chokes/

[Trigger Mike]

I heard a father of one of the other shooters on the school's shotgun team tell me how his son was using special ported chokes that caused the wad to fall away so I made a point to watch as did he to show me, only the wad seemed to follow the shot as the wad seemed to almost hit the clay target sometimes.   It started me wondering as I had bought some ported and some non ported chokes. 

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Whiz bang chokes work on the placebo effect.  If you think they work, they do.

[Trigger Mike]

I do think extended chokes are better than flush chokes though.  Extended chokes are easier to change out and replace and extend the constriction of the shot just a little further.  Not much though.  

[Tennessee williams]

2 hours ago, Trigger Mike said:

I heard a father of one of the other shooters on the school's shotgun team tell me how his son was using special ported chokes that caused the wad to fall away so I made a point to watch as did he to show me, only the wad seemed to follow the shot as the wad seemed to almost hit the clay target sometimes.   It started me wondering as I had bought some ported and some non ported chokes. 

The wad catcher chokes don't actually catch the wads, they retard them. Doubt anyone could ever see the difference with their naked eyes. There's some pretty good non ported wad catchers too that I've actually liked better. Hunters tend to use them for the greater knock down effect the shot has with them because it shortens the shot string and seals the barrel longer to let the shot exit the barrel before all that gas turbulence disrupts it. I read somewhere a shot string can be 10 or 12 feet long at 40 yards with a regular full choke 12ga. The ported wad catchers don't seem to work after the ports get covered in plastic from the wads if I remember correctly.

 

And Larsen is correct about the placebo affect.