What are the goods and bads of using a skeet barrel to hunt birds?

Dove, duck, geese? The choke?

I use a skeet choke for Teal season.

I use a skeet barrel on my 1100 to dove hunt with but I don't shoot steel shot through it. I also shoot a skeet or IC for ducks.

I'll assume you're talking about dove. Not sure about the good, the bad is that your range is more limited than with tighter options (a lot of hunters prefer improved, or go to modified if there seem to be a lot of high fliers.)

20 yards and closer you should be OK. At 25 you're starting to stretch it, IMO.

-Steve

Close shot is good (bigger pattern), long shot is bad (pattern so big your pellet density is too low). You have to pattern your gun to know at what distance skeet is good (adequate pellet density), and at what point IC is better (smaller pattern and better density), and at what point mod is better etc...

I use IC all the time, my shots are 15 to 35 yards normally... a 10 yard shot I'm probably better off with skeet, and 45 yard shot I'm probably better off with mod, but most of the time IC is just right so I use that all the time.

Is this a barrel or a choke tube?
Choke tubes are more constrickted so your pattern will be more like an IC barrel. I use skeet choke tubes on dove and have great success with them and still have plenty of reach. Keep in mind that depending on the ground you are on, long shots on dove means more lost birds.

Found a gorgeous 1100 I want to buy but it comes with a skeet barrel. Wanting to use it on dove but didn't know how it would work. Sounds like it's less than desirable on birds unless their in your lap.

The good for using a skeet choke is opening day !

The bad for using a skeet choke is later in the season when the are high a flyin fast !

good advice, skeet is good if all your shoting will be up close and personal. In south texas hunters in orange groves love skeet chokes.

One viable option with SKEET choke is to use larger shot, like 6's...... I usually use modified, unless I am hunting tight quarters or I know I am headed into the mess of them, then I may have IC with me...

i had a 12 gauge 1100 with a barrel that had a fixed skeet choke.

useing a heavy dove load, I would murder doves that were comming into a stock tank or loafing along a treeline. if i was quail hunting they didn't have a chance

if they were at any distance whatsoever, it just didn't put enough pellets in the kill zone and i crippled more birds than i liked.

i sold that gun (like an idiot) and got a 870 custom trap, put a removeable choke in it and shot a I/C and never had a problem at hiting birds and any distance i felt comfortable shooting at them. I currently shoot a I/C and modified in my O/U and my SXS

You can always buy it and if you decide it's not tight enough you can send the barell off to be threaded for removable chokes. My buddy has an 1100 that was fixed mod and he had it threaded last year. Don't recall the cost but I'm sure a quick google search would give you an idea.

I pretty much only use modified chokes, sometimes I will switch to IC for quail or Full for turkey

This is absolutely the opposite of what should be done with an open choke like a skeet choke, what your needing is to fill in the patterns at more distant ranges. I'd much prefer 1 1/8 oz of 8 shot or 1 1/4 of 7 1/2 shot in a skeet gun for dove hunting.

I paid about $100 to have the barrel threaded and tubes put in.

x2

its very do-able. My dad hunts with a IC 18.5 12g. And he can out shoot me (when i have a bad day. lol) also, I shoot Mod on ducks. 28" barrle. Just my style.