Years ago, back in the days before the transistor was invented, I shot a lot of skeet.
My skeet gun was an old Winchester M-50. The barrel was stamped WS 1.
I learned from the 'old' guys, ( now I'm an 'old' guy) that Winchester made two skeet choke barrels. The degree of choke was stamped on the barrel either WS1 or WS2.
WS1 being a hairs worth of choke, almost none, and WS2 being equal to imp. cyl.
I smoked a lot of clays with that old M-50 WS1. I patterned the thing and indeed it averaged about 35% at 40 yards.
I learned that it would shoot the desired wide pattern with # 7.5, 8 and 9 shot.
Winchster had just come out with hunting ammo with the then 'revolutionary' plastic shot collar, claiming "controled patterns".
Sure enough the new ammo in #6 and 5 heavy feild load of 1 1/4 oz shot would pattern 55% at 40 yards making the old M-50 a fine rabbit and bird gun for the field.
You must understand I was a much younger man then and lugging the gawdaweful heavy M-50 all day was not the choir it would be now.
That was the only s.g. I owned and in those days lead was the only shotshell material, so legal for waterfowl.
I hunting a small river and took many, many, woodies and teal, with the M-50 and 1 1/8 oz. paper standard trap loads.
Even the occasional larger mallard fell to the standard trap load but understand shots were seldom further than 30 to 40 yards.
The crux of my windy diatribe is simply this:
Pattern your shottie!
I got into reloading when I was 15. I could only afford the Lee loader, a hand tool, that cost 5 bucks. I read all I could and taylored loads for the M-50 skeet gun that enabled me to make a skeet gun into a fine shooting field gun that was deadly on pheasants with 1 1/2 oz # 5 shot. When loaded to no more than 1100 f.p.s. this heavy feild load would pattern 60%, solid modified performance from a gun with nearly no choke at all.
Years later I took up trap shooting and bought a Remington TB trap 870 pump. I had the barrel honed to an overbore, polished mirror smooth, ported, forcing cone relieved.
The 870 was thread for tubes. With the Remington X-tra full it would patterned beautiflly with Winchster factory AA trap loads, averaging 96% patterns at 40.
It smoked those long range birds my partner missed at "protector" games.
We had informal trap matches and often ties were braken by "going to the hill".
A spot abouve the trap house a full 45 yards away.
I'm sure by the time we called for the bird and got onto the target it was already 60 yards out.
We could bust 'em pretty good with 1 1/4 oz. 5 shot which was only a legal load for our club at tie breaking shoot offs.
Today I load nickle platted buffered #5 shot for long ranging pheasants.
Those loads turn a modified into an tight full!
I can't stress the fact enough that you must pattern your chosen load and choke at 40 yards five times to get a viable average.
You might be quite surprised.
I work with a champion trap shooter. He bought some high buck single shot that I'm sure broke his budget. He was missing way too many bird.
He patterned the thing and the paper revealed an extra way too tight pattern with weak fringes.
Off to a good smith who honed the bore, then shot the gun on paper, and honed again. Now the trap gun shoots almost as good as my old 870 that cost 1/10th the price of his Perazzi.
By the way. I one wants better performance from a s.g. forget porting.
All porting does is make the thing much more loud.
Slight overbore, forcing cone work and polishing the bore ultra smooth will make your s.g. perform well.
