Does a choked barrel really improve accuracy ????

[KnifeMaker]

What Ted said was the fx bbl, with a choke doesn't need his attention of sorting. But other brands ,with chokes do. He is shooting the new SX bbl.

[shorty]

If what Ted said about the choke is true then, the choke length only has to be the length of the pellet ( Right? ). I am not sure about that one but, if you think about it, that's all the choke length you really need if we are talking about that little sizing before the pellet leaves the barrel.

[Bryan Heimann]

I think the answer is that it "could".  It "could" also make a gun less pellet picky without improving accuracy overall, or maybe even make it less accurate with what used to be it's favorite pellet but generally accurate with a greater selection of pellets.  It could also outright ruin accuracy.  Gotta be done right by somebody that really knows what they are doing, and still may not improve anything.

[triggertreat]

I have been under the impression that the choke also provided more spin on the pellet and that my explain some of the choke length.

[tor47]

I looked at his video again, to see what he actually said. He did not actually say it was because the barrel was choked, but rather that the barrel reshaped the pellet. I know the smooth twist, and the standard smooth twist-X are choked. So at least on those particular barrels it should have less benefits of sorting pellets.
But I know from my experience with a wildcat mk2 in .177, undersized pellets will fly bad, probably in any gun.
I did switch from a box of 4.52mm 8 grains exact (which probably was smaller than their size), to a box of 4.53, and did see great improvements. To confirm the difference I pushed pellets true the liner with a rod, and looked at how much "dents" the pellets had. On my particular sample the 4.52 had litle marks on the pellet, while the 4.53 did have noticeable more. So had i sorted out the pellets with the biggest head on my 4.52 sample, it would probably made a difference.

[Mod90]

If what Ted said about the choke is true then, the choke length only has to be the length of the pellet ( Right? ). I am not sure about that one but, if you think about it, that's all the choke length you really need if we are talking about that little sizing before the pellet leaves the barrel.

The thing is with  .177 pellets while they might come with slight differences in head diameter, some are very short, while others are very long for their caliber.
Most chokes aren't very long though. Longest I've ever encountered was around about 0.75"

[WyoMan]

I always thought that a choke (if done properly) acted like a funnel... to square an undersized pellet to the bore. I might be wrong and I apologize to others if they have said the same thing. I did read most of the thread (I think).

I have about 25 LW barrels - most are choked. The choked LW barrels have the choke starting about 1" to 1-1/4" from the muzzle. The bore diameter reduction is about .0015 to .002". They are a straight-line taper from the start of the choke to the muzzle. They shoot the undersized pellets almost as well as the perfectly sized pellets. In contrast, the un-choked LW barrels will send the undersized pellets to a POI that is detached from the main group. The un-choked barrels will group just as well however, if all of the pellets are perfectly sized to the bore. This is just my experience - I haven't found a lot of info on this...

Wyo

[Bob Pratl]

I always thought that a choke (if done properly) acted like a funnel... to square an undersized pellet to the bore. I might be wrong and I apologize to others if they have said the same thing. I did read most of the thread (I think).
I have about 25 LW barrels - most are choked. The choked LW barrels have the choke starting about 1" to 1-1/4" from the muzzle. The bore diameter reduction is about .0015 to .002". They are a straight-line taper from the start of the choke to the muzzle. They shoot the undersized pellets almost as well as the perfectly sized pellets. In contrast, the un-choked LW barrels will send the undersized pellets to a POI that is detached from the main group. The un-choked barrels will group just as well however, if all of the pellets are perfectly sized to the bore. This is just my experience - I haven't found a lot of info on this... Wyo

Makes a lot of sense and explains a lot.

[tor47]

I am speculating that since the smooth twist X barrel on the wildact mk2 does not have common groves and rifling, the pellet will not spin properly before the choke. The choke might make the pellet a litle smaller, but it will not be able to start spinning it. That 4.52 sample I tested was "very" small compared to other pellets. RWS superdome, stoeger x-field ,JSB heavy was all bigger, and did shoot better than the underzided JSB pellet. The JSB heavy are also labeled 4.52 but are bigger.