Carl, I got the same advice from Hal on trying the Mod. choke. So that was the first one I used. Just horrible! I mean, stinky baaaaaaad! With the 4's only 26 of the 131 pellets hit the 2'x2' backer at 40 yards.
That was my first ever pattern with TSS. You might say I was not thrilled 
. I tried the Kicks .670 next and it was much, much better. This is the 4's again.
So, very, very clearly, my shotgun, the .670 is way better than the .705 Mod for 4's (and 2's as well). But, I'm pretty sure that better could be found for the 4's. But the Mod and the .670 are the only chokes I tried with the 4's.
With the 2's, I tried both of those chokes (the 2's were better than 4's with the Mod but still terrible), but also tried a .665 Dead Coyote. Which did "pretty good" but not "as good" as the .670. That's with 2's. But it has me thinking, that if there is improvement to be had with the 4's, it's probably going the other way, less restriction, but not all the way out to Mod, which I already know is just terrible.
That's what "I'm thinking". Try less constriction. But not so loose as .705. Would like to try a .675 and a .680 with the 4's, but I don't have either one. Next up that I have is the factory full choke at .685.
But, eventually, when I do more testing (which eventually, I will, but it might not be for another year...), I will try the .665 with the 4's first. They aren't the 2's, after all, and where the 2's seem to have shown me the point of diminishing returns with increasing constriction, the 4's might not. I want to make sure, before going the other way.
Something interesting, in a not really good way, about my TSS pattern testing with 4's though. Every choke, every distance, every pair of patterns I have shot, the 2's have had more pellets in the 10" than the 4's. Every, single, time. That kind of defies logic. With 94 pellets in the load of 2's and 131 in the load of 4's. It seems like there is no way at least one choke, one pattern, one distance, the 4's would put more pellets in the 10". But, so far, for me, not one single time. They want a different choke altogether, I think. I say I probably won't test again for a year, but, first chance I get, I'm going to shoot at least one 40 yard pattern using the factory full .685 with the 4's, just to see what I see.
My .20-250 worked out really well. Once I got a bullet that wouldn't splash at 4300 fps, all was good. Last winter I had it neutered though. Cut the barrel down to 19" for a suppressor. Since it's only running 4050 fps now I tried the 39 BK's again and so far they are working well on coyote at that lower velocity. Rifle is still relatively handy even with the 7" can attached. Very low muzzle blast. Very loud meat report . Kind of a bummer to chop off 240 fps and throw it in the garbage though. But it's an even more unique rig now, still better than .204 performance in a suppressed rig of normal length.
- DAA
