Q&A with Slayer Pro-Staff Mike Wec: Choke tubes
By M.D. Johnson Photo credit: Julie Johnson My first duck gun — actually, I used her for everything from rooster pheasants to Canadas — was a 1952 Winchester Model 24 SxS 16 gauge. It was my father’s first shotgun, new in ’52. I still, some 71 years after she was manufactured, take her out at least once a year, shoot a couple greenheads or drake widgeon, clear her well and put her away. But my first dedicated duck gun came to me at Christmas, 1979, in the form of a Remington Model 1100, also in 16 gauge. Now, other than the number 16, was there/is there a common denominator between the Model 24 and the Model 1100? Yes; fixed chokes. The 24, should you wonder, is choked modified (right) and full (left), while the 1100 is a straight 26 inch modified. My point here? Interchangeable choke tubes — all the rage today among the waterfowling crowd and standard on almost 100% of 21st century ’fowl guns — didn’t enter my world until the late 1980s when, in ’88, I bought a Remington Model 11-87 because I thought I needed a 3-inch shotgun. Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Regardless, this all brings us ’round to choke tubes and the question for this week: Does Choke X or Choke Y really make a difference to the waterfowl hunter? Answering the question is Rhode Island’s Mike Wec, a pro-staffer for Slayer Calls and Beyond the Battle, a non-profit that “provides opportunities for individuals to escape their personal battles through outdoor adventures and financial support.” A veteran shotgunner, Wec was the first shooter in Rhode Island history to mark up a perfect 100 in Handicapped Trap. Today he spends as much time as humanly possible behind the stock of his favorite shotgun. Recently, Slayer Calls slowed Wec down enough to pick his brain about chokes and their importance to successful waterfowling.
