I recently picked up this choke for my Remington Versa Max and I figured I’d throw up a good review of the range results. I’ve been in the market for a better patterning choke before the yote season starts up here in MA & when I first started checking this choke out online I quickly realized there’s no reviews out there on it. For the $100 price tag I wanted to get a good amount of research in on it before I pulled the trigger but I came up empty handed. Going into it blind I figured I would give Patternmaster a call and they re-assured me that if this choke didn’t “knock my socks off” then they would give me a full refund, so I really had nothing to loose except a few shells. I did discuss with them my application and that I would be shooting Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote “T” loads.
Right off the bat you can see how nice the machine work on the choke is, this definitely helps justify some of the cost because you can see how much more time went into it compared to some others I have and have seen and own. The bronze titanium coating on it is a real nice finish aswell and is dull enough to be non-reflective.
The choke has a .665” ID and also has three “stud” rings on the inside that from what I understand are proprietary to Patternmaster. It is extended approximately 1-1/2” from the muzzle & according to Patternmaster the canoe porting on this choke allows for use of the federal flight control wad if you choose to shoot loads containing a flight control wad (I know those new Hornady BB loads uses them).
On to the important part… I patterned the choke at a measured 50 yards shooting at paper targets taped to a 1/4” sheet of plywood, the gun was bench rested the best I could get it and I used an Aimpoint-T1 that’s been zeroed to the center of the pattern on my Carlsons .665 turkey choke at 50 yards. I was happy overall with the POA/POI and didn’t notice much shift between this choke and my Carlsons, so I didn’t feel any adjustment was needed. I took four shots total to confirm consistency.
I took pictures of two of the targets as I lit the other ones up with 7-1/2 shot before I got a picture. The inner ring on the targets is 8” and the outer ring 12”, I put golf tees in the holes that were in the black so you can make them out in the pictures
On three of the four targets I was able to get 7 hits inside the 8” circle, and on one of the targets I was able to get 8 hits inside the 8” circle. On all four of the targets the patterns outside of the 8” circle was pretty consistent with generally about 20-30 hits average on the entire piece of cardboard I was using for a backing (18” X 24”). One thing that really stood out to me aside from the patterns is how hard those pellets were walloping that piece of wood, you could really hear the smack and see the disturbance it caused when the pellets hit. Looked and sounded far more energetic than several other chokes I’ve tried in it and that wasn’t really even on my mind when I began testing, just something that stood out.
These have been the best patterns i’ve gotten at 50 yards thus far with the VMAX and I’ve gone through 4-5 chokes. There really aern’t too many chokes out there for this gun because it uses the Remington Pro-Bore choke system which is different from the standard Remchoke and not so widely used. The Versa Max has an overbored barrel and I believe somewhere around a .735” bore diameter. I’ve only tested and only plan on testing the dead coyote “T” loads because that is the biggest shot I allowed in my state and why not go with the best. Overall I’m more than pleased with the choke and I think my search for something better has ended for now.
For you gun guys out there like myself heres a picture of the test gun. Can’t say enough about the Versa Max, especially the tactical version like I’ve got with the 22” barrel. Perfect low recoil predator gun but I’ll save that for another time…