18 Nebraskaland • October 2019
IN THE FIELD
PHOTO
BY
JARROD
SPILGER
By Jarrod Spilger
QUAIL CHOKES
Nebraska remains a great place to bag bobwhites, however
quail can be difficult to hit.
Even after all these years, the sudden explosion of a dozen
bobwhites at my feet still surprises me, even when my dog
is on point and I know the flush is imminent. I guess that's
what makes quail hunting so fun.
To help connect with speedy quail, open up your shotgun's
choke. This is easy in modern shotguns equipped with
screw-in choke tubes. (To open patterns in fixed-choke guns,
try a spreader load.) Most shotguns come with three tubes:
full, modified, and improved cylinder. The latter two are OK
for quail, but there are better options.
As my pointing dog, Phantom, gained experience and
held her points increasingly longer, my shots at quail
got increasingly closer. So, I started experimenting with
increasingly more open chokes. First, I switched to skeet,
which is more open than improved cylinder, favored by skeet
shooters, and a great all-around quail choke.
Eventually, I opened up even more to a cylinder choke,
which has no constriction since it measures the same as the
shotgun's bore, and by the end of the 2017-2018 season, I
was using a diffusion or spreader choke. It creates a wide
open pattern almost immediately after leaving the gun,
making it much easier to connect with close-range quail,
especially those shot over a staunch pointer.
Open up this season and watch your quail hit rates improve.
ILLUSTRATIION
BY
ANDREW
FAUGHN
Skeet Choke
Cylinder Choke
Diffusion Choke
