Have you pattern tested all of your chokes with your favorite loads?

You are not alone, Very few shooters have. It simply takes too much time and it is a very tedious and time consuming task if you do it right.

Why do you need this information?

There are any number of reasons why you need this information. The top shooters have this information. They have invested the time or resources to determine the performance characteristics of their equipment. But you don't need this information just because they have it, You need this information because the results vary. The results vary a lot!

I have observed chokes cut to what most would consider a light mod constriction  (0.015) produce patterns of from 50 to 80%. I don’t know why it happens this way, but I am certain that the relationship between constriction and the choke you get on the pattern is not a consistent one.

You are at a station and you say to yourself "I need a little more choke here" and you pick a choke with another 0.005 constriction.

How would you feel if you found out that you actually opened up your pattern by 10%. Your dead on percentage just went from 90% to 70%. The "Lucky Weasel^tm" can give you the confidence you need to make these kinds of choices.

It is easy to get a little biased with a new gun or a new choke. "It really hits them" or "Did you see that smoke" types of observations can easily mislead us.

Patterns very often have hot spots and patches. A target finds a hot spot and it gets smoked. The target finds a patch and all you get is a little dust. It is entirely possible that you placed the pattern properly on both of these birds.

Make your choices based on measured results and not just a few passing observations. The first thing to learn with patterning is the relative performance of your individual chokes.