More open choke, more birds in the bag.
In the days of silk fly lines, English fly anglers would utter “God save the queen,” before setting the hook. This gave the trout time to take the fly in his mouth and turn, setting the hook himself rather than the angler pulling it away too soon. I’m convinced it’s good advice for bird hunters too, for a slightly different reason. When it comes to shooting, I try to live by the axiom “Good things come to those who wait.”
Most shots on birds connect at 25 yards, maybe 30, tops. Doubt that? Step off the next five birds you drop (not the ones that get away) and see where they got hit. They may land farther away than 30 yards, but that’s physics, momentum, trajectory.
If you’ve patterned your shotgun, you know an improved cylinder choke at 30 yards only makes a pattern about three feet in diameter. At 20 yards, it’s tiny. With that condensed shot cloud there is little chance of actually hitting something. It’s why we can flock-shoot and still miss every bird … the holes between birds can be bigger than our shot pattern!
And even with more open chokes, it pays to wait a moment longer before mounting the gun and pulling the trigger.
When the birds fly, take a moment to focus, and I don’t mean just your eyes, but your head, too. Your pattern will open up, evening the odds a bit, and with more space between covey birds, you might not flock shoot … as often.
Scott Linden Outdoors 
hi i was wondering if you recomend any joint/energy supplements for older dogs?
Yes, Happy Jack FlexEnhance Plus. My old guy thrived on it.
As a long time skeet shooter and quail hunter, I have converted many friends to cylinder and skeet chokes for gunning upland birds. When I have to deal with wild pheasants in the late season, I often have to go to an IC and Mod. I find that is not as necessary if I carry copper plated shot and switch to that for long shots. It tends to pattern one choke tighter than with hard lead.
Yep, my experience too Bud.
MacIntosh wrote about this at length in one of the shotgun books , early season I use skt 1 and I/C quite a bit . Late season roosters another story though I agree most are over choked for what they are doing
You’re right – everything is relative to season, weather, etc. But I’ll bet most of us could open up a bit.