For the majority of the shooters choke is irrelevant.

Choke size is important.

If you are talking 25 yard shots, you want a bigger choke, gives you a bigger pattern. I tighter choke, say a full choke, really small pattern, harder to hit a bird, and when you do it a bird, you are putting a lot more pellets on the bird, and the bird will be more shot up.

Conversely, if you are talking longer shots, say 45 to 50 yard, you need a tight choke to hold a pattern at long distance, a bigger choke like skeet at that distance does not work.

You need to also pick the right pellet size for the choke, smaller pellets are better for big chokes, and bigger pellets are better for tighter chokes, this optimizes the density of your pattern.

I personally do not believe in taking log shots, so I use IC all the time and small pellets. I would tell the OP, heck yeah, go for the skeet, and for dove maybe even go for #9 size pellets. Your choke and pellet size here is really geared to the short shot. I used to love shooting #9 pellets, saw some at academy the other day, I almost bought them.

Are you saying with this chart that when using a modified choke, the shot stops spreading at 25 yards and is the same diameter all the way out to 45 yards?

Choke size is important.

If you are talking 25 yard shots, you want a bigger choke, gives you a bigger pattern. I tighter choke, say a full choke, really small pattern, harder to hit a bird, and when you do it a bird, you are putting a lot more pellets on the bird, and the bird will be more shot up.

Conversely, if you are talking longer shots, say 45 to 50 yard, you need a tight choke to hold a pattern at long distance, a bigger choke like skeet at that distance does not work.

You need to also pick the right pellet size for the choke, smaller pellets are better for big chokes, and bigger pellets are better for tighter chokes, this optimizes the density of your pattern.

I personally do not believe in taking log shots, so I use IC all the time and small pellets. I would tell the OP, heck yeah, go for the skeet, and for dove maybe even go for #9 size pellets. Your choke and pellet size here is really geared to the short shot. I used to love shooting #9 pellets, saw some at academy the other day, I almost bought them.

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I'll agree with you on being too tight. Most can't hit a bird close so far shooting is out of the question as far as clean kills. Guess what I mean is put in an open choke so you have the greatest chance of hitting close in range birds if that is where your ability lies.. You will still never hit your potential if gun doesn't fit etc. I never cared for number 9's. Felt they left too many bb''s in birds. To each his own & if it works for you always use that confidence builder. If you don't have 100% confidence in you & your equipment you will always be doubting things! The main thing is go have fun!

Choke and pellet size has nothing to do with ability or reaching your potential. Has everything to do with optimizing your patter for the type of shots you take. Open choke and smaller pellets are better for short shots, and tighter chokes and bigger pellets are better for longer shots.

If you want to challenger yourself, you do not do it with choke and pellet size, if you want to challenger yourself, use a smaller gauge gun, like a 410.

If you want to challenge yourself by taking long shots, ok, that is sky blasting to me, but yeah, you will need a tight choke and bigger pellets for that.

Thank you guys very much. This really helps. I'm a decent shot and have gotten limits years ago when the hunting was much better. I had a modified choke in my gun and i just switched it to improved

No I'm not saying that. I just googled that image to make my points above, but I agree with "your point", the chart makes it look like the patterns does not get bigger after 25 yards with MC, that does not make sense to me. I probably should have picked a better image. If you quote my post, you can see the link where I got the pic, maybe read what they say and their point.