Question: I see that the BlackBore Shotgun Choke is a new design in shotgun chokes. Just what is the choke supposed to do?
BB: The BlackBore Choke is designed to prevent the shotgun shell wad from damaging the shot column as the shot column exits the shotgun barrel. The BlackBore Choke does this with specially designed ports that momentarily slows down the shotshell wad as it leaves the muzzle of the shotgun.
Question: Why is this so important?
BB: When the shotgun shell is fired, the wad/shot column gets a "kick" in the rear from the combustion gases. The modern plastic shotshell wad does a great job of cushioning and preventing the shot (enclosed within the wad petals) from touching the bore as it travels to the muzzle of the gun. At the instant the wad/shot column leaves the barrel/choke, the high pressure gases behind the wad pushes the wad into the rear of the shot column. This will cause “fliers” of a number of the individual pellets.
Question: How will the BlackBore Choke help me?
BB: The ultimate goal of firing a shotgun shell is to have all the pellets of the shell hit the intended target in a tight, dense and consistent pattern. Any dispersion of the individual pellets means that some of those pellets in the shot column will not reach the intended target! After all, the whole idea is to have your shotgun shell deliver the most dense, consistent shot pattern that is possible to the clay bird, bird or particular target.
Question: How does the BlackBore Choke deliver these great patterns?
BB: BlackBore looked at all the aftermarket chokes offered to shooters and conducted a LOT of pattern testing with these chokes at the pattern board. Looking at the results, BlackBore decided to design and develop a shotgun choke that would greatly improve the density and consistency of the patterns at the target.
BB: The BlackBore Choke is designed to prevent the shotgun shell wad from damaging the shot column as the shot column exits the shotgun barrel. The BlackBore Choke does this with specially designed ports that momentarily slows down the shotshell wad as it leaves the muzzle of the shotgun.
Question: Why is this so important?
BB: When the shotgun shell is fired, the wad/shot column gets a "kick" in the rear from the combustion gases. The modern plastic shotshell wad does a great job of cushioning and preventing the shot (enclosed within the wad petals) from touching the bore as it travels to the muzzle of the gun. At the instant the wad/shot column leaves the barrel/choke, the high pressure gases behind the wad pushes the wad into the rear of the shot column. This will cause “fliers” of a number of the individual pellets.
Question: How will the BlackBore Choke help me?
BB: The ultimate goal of firing a shotgun shell is to have all the pellets of the shell hit the intended target in a tight, dense and consistent pattern. Any dispersion of the individual pellets means that some of those pellets in the shot column will not reach the intended target! After all, the whole idea is to have your shotgun shell deliver the most dense, consistent shot pattern that is possible to the clay bird, bird or particular target.
Question: How does the BlackBore Choke deliver these great patterns?
BB: BlackBore looked at all the aftermarket chokes offered to shooters and conducted a LOT of pattern testing with these chokes at the pattern board. Looking at the results, BlackBore decided to design and develop a shotgun choke that would greatly improve the density and consistency of the patterns at the target.
We did this by using the pattern board as the target (we highly recommend that you pattern your loads). By recovering the wads from hundreds of fired loads from many manufacturers through different factory and aftermarket chokes, we saw a definite relationship of the condition of the recovered wad to the pattern on the board. In other words, the more “damaged” the wad was, the better the pattern on the board! The BlackBore Choke does a better job of momentarily slowing the wad just enough to let the shot column completely exit the barrel before the wad has a chance to interfere with the rear end of the shot stream.
Question: How does your design get this done?
Question: How does your design get this done?
BB: BlackBore came up with an entirely new specially designed choke port with a machined sharp knife blade set at an acute angle back from the muzzle end of the choke. When the gun is fired, the tremendous pressure of the combustion gases push the wad/shot column up the bore. As it travels to the muzzle, the wad petals are forced out against the bore of the barrel and the knife blade ports in the choke as the wad passes through the choke. Slivers of plastic are literally “sliced” off the wad as it exits the choke. This slows the wad just enough to make sure that the wad does not hit the shot column when they exit the choke. There are no studs, axial rings or longitudinal ridges in the bore of the choke itself. This means that slug loads with wads can be shot through the BlackBore Choke (using the recommended constriction, of course). The design of the port is so unique it was granted US Patent No. 7,895,787 B1.
Question: I see you have the BlackBore Choke for competition/sport shooting, but how about hunting?
BB: BlackBore HunterPro LT chokes will do a great job on dove, quail, pheasant and small game such as rabbit and squirrel.
Question: I see you have the BlackBore Choke for competition/sport shooting, but how about hunting?
BB: BlackBore HunterPro LT chokes will do a great job on dove, quail, pheasant and small game such as rabbit and squirrel.
The BlackBore HunterPro HV choke is the one to use on the larger fowl, such as geese and duck, where the larger shot sizes are typically used. They will also work great on four-legged varmints!
BlackBore now has turkey/coyote chokes in the HunterPro TC choke series! These chokes come with the much tighter constrictions that are commonly used for this type of hunting, specifically the .680", .670", .660" and .650".
A further refinement to the BlackBore HunterPro TC choke is a "special" design choke for Card Shooters! This choke has 14 ports for more blade area, but has a constriction of .640" for those matches where this constriction is allowed. This type of shooting is restricted to the "bird shot" shotshell loads and so the this design usually works better with the small shot used in these shotshells.
Question: Just what is the BlackBore Choke made of?
BB: All BlackBore Chokes are manufactured using heat treated high tensile strength 17-4 PH stainless steel. This material is incredibly tough and will not normally rust. It is always smart to wipe the internal threads of the barrel and choke threads before installing the chokes to remove grit and grime. And, we recommend that the shooter use a good quality choke oil or grease on the threads.
Also keep in mind that the rear end of the choke that is installed inside the barrel is somewhat thin and sharp and can easily be damaged if dropped or otherwise abused. Use the red safety cap that came with the choke to protect this end of the choke!
Question: I see that you also manufacture a “tactical” style choke. What are these chokes for?
BB: BlackBore wanted to bring a specially choke for the home defense and LEO market. You might notice that the ports are visibly larger (with correspondingly wider knife blade surfaces) for this choke and are in a staggered pattern. The greater surface area of the knife blade ports do a better job retarding the types of wads used in the buckshot and slug loads thereby insuring better patterns for buckshot.
Question: I see that you also manufacture a “tactical” style choke. What are these chokes for?
BB: BlackBore wanted to bring a specially choke for the home defense and LEO market. You might notice that the ports are visibly larger (with correspondingly wider knife blade surfaces) for this choke and are in a staggered pattern. The greater surface area of the knife blade ports do a better job retarding the types of wads used in the buckshot and slug loads thereby insuring better patterns for buckshot.
We also found that rifled-type slugs have better accuracy with this choke (as long as there is a wad in the shotshell). Best accuracy with slugs is usually with the Tactical HD Close Range (CR) while buckshot does equally well with Close Range (CR) or Mid Range (MR) choke. Take a look at the typical patterns on the Tactical HD page. Interestingly, they also shoot great patterns with "bird shot" loads for the 3-Gun competitors!
Question: Is it all right to use the shotgun shells with the so-called "flight-control" wad in your BlackBore chokes?
BB: This type of wad retains the shot in the wad until the wad/shot is well clear of the barrel. The "drag" surfaces on the outside of the wad slows the flight of the wad and lets the shot leave the wad with little interference. That is why the shooter will usually see improvement in patterns relative to other shotshells.
BlackBore has now done extensive testing with shotshells using this type of wad. Federal LE buckshot loads with the FliteControl* wad give very good patterns in BlackBore Chokes and the Federal Truball* slugs loads are also very accurate with BlackBore Chokes! Take a look at some of the typical patterns targets using these loads on the Tactical HD Pattern Page.
Note: Federal FliteControl and Federal Truball are registered trademarks of ATK.