Need help with shotgun choke understanding.

[chubei]

I have a remington shotgun with a herter's inc. screw-in choke. The choke has these markings: FULL, IC, IM, SM, MOD, and SF. The choke limits me to only one turn. I need to know how to use it PROPERLY. Example: I want to dove hunt using #6 steel shot but dove hunting requires IC or MOD choke. Do I leave the choke at the full marking (this is where it is set at as of now) or do I turn it to IC or MOD? I do not have a manual for my choke.

[metrojoe]

First of all I would make sure it's ok to shoot steel through it. Not all chokes are approved for steel shot, because steel is much harder than lead. So check into that first.

I have an old Mossberg I got from my dad and it has a poly choke on it which sounds very similar to the Herter's choke your describing.

Basically you have the equivlent of 6 chokes in one. You adjust it for what ever type of hunting/shooting your doing. Full would be the tightest pattern(used for turkey hunting) I'm not positive what each abbreviation stands for, but it's a safe bet that SF would be the widest pattern.(used for skeet shooting) All the other setting would be somewhere in between. So to answer your question, No you wouldn't want to leave it on full for doves. You would want to turn the adjustment ring so it lines up with either IC(Improved cylinder) or MOD(Modified) This will give you a pattern larger than full, but not as large as SF.

I hope this helps.

[Barony]

Steel also patterns differently than lead. To get a full choke pattern with steel, you need to set it at modified, and to get a modified pattern, you need to set it at improved. It's basically 1 step down from lead to get the same pattern for steel.