What is often lost in comparing chokes and gauges is that the definition of pattern efficiency does not change just because you change shells, payload, or gauge. A “Full” choke should put about 65-75% of your payload into a 30 inch circle at 40 yards. It doesn't matter if you are using a 28 gauge or a 10 gauge; it doesn't matter if you are using a 3/4 ounce payload or a 1-7/8 ounce payload. It doesn't matter if you are using #9 shot or BB's; regardless, a 65-75% pattern percentage is roughly Full choke performance.

This is why making any all-encompassing recommendation for choke isn't possible. The question quickly changes into “65% of what?” Percentages, of course, don't drop doves or smash targets, pellets do. Suggesting that someone should use a modified choke doesn't make any sense, unless you also consider the shooting range, target size, payload, pellet size and so forth.

Recently, I have been dove hunting. The most appropriate choke, under our conditions, is Full. This may not be the case for others and probably isn't. The kill zone of a dove is very small, as is the bird itself. More often than not, I'm using one ounce of #7-1/2 shot out of a 20 gauge gun. Yesterday, it was Winchester AA one ounce shells, 1165 fps catalog muzzle velocity, a Browning B-80 20 gauge gun and a Full Trulock Precision Hunter choke.

Pellets in the vitals bags birds, not percentages, so consider what a Full choke actually means. American #7-1/2 shot is nominally .095 in. in diameter, with about 338 pellets to the ounce. (Most everything in shotguns is “approximately” or “about.”)

Full choke (65%) pellet counts in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards with #7-1/2 shot

·        3/4 oz. (219.7 pellets): about 143 pellets

·        7/8 oz. (295.75 pellets): about 192 pellets

·        1 oz. (338 pellets): about 220 pellets

·        1-1/8 oz. (380.25 pellets): about 247 pellets

·        1-1/4 oz. (422.5 pellets): about 275 pellets

Modified choke performance with a 1-1/8 ounce payload is 55-60%, or about 228 pellets at 60%. The notion of suggesting a choke, to be helpful, must include pellet count. An Improved Cylinder pattern with a 1-1/8 ounce payload (190 pellets) puts about as many pellets into a 30 inch circle at 40 yards as a Full choke 7/8 ounce payload.

That means that, with the same size pellets, a 3/4 ounce 28 gauge shooter using a Full choke and a 1-1/8 ounce 12 gauge shooter using an Improved Cylinder choke are doing very close to the same thing, in terms of pellet count in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards. A one ounce load out of a 16 or 20 gauge that produces Full choke performance is no different than a one ounce load out of a 12 gauge that produces Full choke performance.

With one ounce, #7-1/2, 20 gauge loads I'm throwing 65-70% patterns at 40 yards. This puts 143-154 pellets into a 30 inch circle. It is virtually indistinguishable from any other 65-70%, one ounce load. Sure, a heavier 1-1/8 ounce load that throws 65-70% means more pellets, 160-172, in that 30 inch circle. An extra 14-18 pellets in a 30 inch circle (surface area 706.85 square inches) doesn't mean much compared to the tiny kill zone of a dove. It is well centered patterns that bag birds.