Controlling how well the shot stream stays together in the horizontal plain (at varying distances from the end of your shotgun) is the goal with choke usage. By squeezing "down" or not squeezing it "down," the shot stream will stay together in varying degrees as it travels through space -- as in the space between you and a ring-necked pheasant.

Typically, the measure that determines how well the pattern stays together is defined by how many pellets can be counted in a 30-inch circle at varying distances from the end of the shotgun.

For example, if we took a brand-new shotgun out of the box and fired a shell at a patterning board, 100 percent of the pellets would hit in the 30-inch circle at 25 yards if there were a full choke in the gun.

Shotgun chokes are defined by the amount of restriction they produce in thousandths of an inch, and each one of these has a name. From the example just mentioned, a full choke has .040 inch of constriction, and it is (for all practical purposes) the most constriction you can get; hence, its name full. Let's now take a look at the full spectrum of what's offered in shotgun chokes, and discuss what they're best suited for in terms of pheasant-hunting conditions.

We'll start out with the chokes that have the least amount of constriction. These chokes have names, and they are open cylinder, skeet and improved modified.

An open choke cylinder has no constriction, and it is like shooting a shotgun with no choke in it. You might be wondering why you need to use an open cylinder choke if it produces no constriction. You may be thinking that you may as well just shoot without a choke. The answer to this is because you want to protect the threads that are used to hold the choke in place from lead or wad buildup, or worse.

As you might guess, open cylinder is designed for use when a pheasant is only 15 to 20 yards away. Open cylinder chokes will put 80 percent of the shot pellets into a 30-inch circle at 20 yards, and the pattern will be widely dispersed.

As you'll note, 20 percent of your shot will not be in the 30-inch circle, and make your pattern even more effective at close range. Though 20 percent may not sound like a lot, it averages out to about 51 pellets when shooting a 1 1/8-ounce load of No. 6 shot, which on average has a total of 253 pellets.

At close range, you want your pattern to open up very quickly. In other words, you don't want to "squeeze" the pellets together and restrict their spherical expansion. Instead, you want to let the pattern open up very rapidly.

When you're hunting pheasants in tall cover, like a corn field that hasn't been harvested, your field of view will be obstructed. In this case, open cylinder is a good choice because you're going to have very little time and distance to make the shot before the bird vanishes. With open cylinder, the shot stream will expand spherically outward very fast, and put a lot of "flack" in the horizontal plane of your shot aspect.

If we compare this with, say a full choke, where 100 percent of the pellets will hit in a 30-inch circle at 20 yards but the pattern would be significantly smaller, the full choke pattern reduces your chances of hitting the bird. If you did hit the bird with a full choke at this short of a distance, the density of the pellets would pretty much ruin any culinary preferences you had for it -- and your hunting partners might start calling you Dirty Harry.