Choke removal and accuracy.

[robs5230]

Lol, love to see it when you are being picky . Be as picky as you like. This is about establishing facts and knowledge. Where's the harm in that?

Yes I have tested choked and non choked barrels, and I've selected choked. Yes I've got pictures of the groups that the choked barrels shoot for reference. I haven't kept the ones that weren't as good as there doesn't seem to be a point to doing that. But next time I can.

I'm asking for the evidence to support such statements. That's all.

Pushing a pellet though a barrel tells you nothing. Or ok, what does it tell you when you look at a pellet? Its got rifling marks? Yep.

So what I'm asking for is a baseline to draw conclusions from. On subjects like this, facts often seem to get swamped by people just saying things without any qualification. "Groups are better"... better than what? If you've got a group that's 2" wide at 25 yards then improving on it isn't that much of a trick and could even suggest a fault with the crown.

We had all this with the smooth twist barrels. I think it took about 2 years to find a single group picture of a .177 12ft-lb despite the threads on the subjects being awash with opinion that they were brilliant and despite competitions of any nature using 12ft-lb being a desert of anyone using them.

Here's a start on the baseline though, not sure if you can see these, the last image... (i thought attachments were working here but seems not)

https://shooting-the-breeze.com/thre...d.18696/page-4

I did neglect to note the amount of shots on that last image. It won't be less than 5. I believe its 10, but that's obviously not a definite fact, so work on it being 5+.

So is a unchoked barrel as good as that? My experience says not. I have access to barrels so can test it with group pics if you like in the future. Maybe you can do some shots with yours and see what you come up with

I've just read that whole thread on the link you gave. Some bloomin impressive shooting there but i see no reference to shortening a barrel (though I did read pretty fast and may have missed it). Theres no doubt that some choked barrels can produce excellent results, but what Pete asked was does shortening a barrel and removing the choke result in a loss of accuracy.
I'd never (well probably never) have cause to shorten a PCP barrel as so many are offered with multiple barrel lengths.
But back in the 90's, a HW80k had a 16" barrel. Add any sort of mod to that and you have a musket. I like short rifles and have shortened many (probably more that a dozen) HW80 barrels and have had no loss of accuracy. One or 2 dianas over the years have been subjected to a similar process with the same result.
I currently don't have any of the rifles I've shortened. I only have the cabinet room to keep a few and do like to change rifles a fair bit. If I'd have kept them all I'd need a 40' shipping container as a cabinet.

Oh and apologies if any of my previous post came across as offensive or aggressive. Certainly not meant.

I'm 51 now and have hunted for probably 35 years with air rifles. Only this year have I joined a club for the first time. My visits are still only to zero rifles after working on them or on getting a new (to me) rifle. My experience is of pellets hitting the desired mark on live quarry.