Choke Hold is a new shotgun ammunition design invented by a gentleman named Eric Van Der Eerden. The birdshot load in this ammunition is located inside two layers of sleeves (or cups) that are inserted into the standard shot cup and are gradually stripped from the shot column during the flight thus delaying the start of shot dispersion. This design is claimed to achieve a bore constriction effect without using a choke. The following animated image shows how the Choke Hold ammunition works.

Here is how the Choke Hold design invention and its main advantages are described on the company’s website:

Inventor Eric Van Der Eerden of Canada has created an innovative new way to improve performance during shooting. Sometimes it is hard to hit a moving target on the first shot. You carefully plot when to fire, but if you miss, the second shot becomes even more difficult. With each second, the distance between you and the target grows rapidly. Shouldn’t there be an easier way?

The idea for the Choke Hold was born after several of Eric’s friends and one of his sons purchased semi-automatic shotguns. One was showing him that you could equip the barrel with a choke to narrow the shot dispersal. However, no matter the configuration, all shots would have the same dispersal pattern. Only with double barrel shotguns would you have an option. This invention is a potential fix on that limitation.

The invention modifies dispersion patterns of a gun, without relying on the barrel. It eliminates the need for choke barrels and causes less wear on equipment. It is a quick and easy way to increase the accuracy of your shots. Single barrel fast load just became more effective, with one barrel serving as two!

If this ammunition works as advertised, it indeed could be useful for many different shotgun shooting activities. For example, a common practice among upland hunters using double-barreled shotguns is to first fire at the flushing game from a barrel with less bore constriction to have a larger pattern at closer ranges thus increasing the hit probability and decreasing the chances of excessive damage, and in case of a miss, fire a followup shot with a more constricted bore that allows delivering a decent pattern to the bird that has flown farther from the hunter. Theoretically, in the described scenario, Choke Hold could allow achieving a similar result with a single barrel repeating shotgun that has minimal or no bore constriction and is loaded with a round of standard ammunition followed by a Choke Hold cartridge.

What I would really love to see is a demonstration of the actual performance of this ammunition – patterning on different distances and comparing to standard ammunition loaded to similar velocities and with a similar shot number and weight. Also, I think if this technology could allow having shells with different delay timing replicating different chokes (e.g. Modified and Full chokes), that would make it even more versatile.

As of writing this article, the Choke Hold ammunition is not available for purchase. Apparently, the inventor is looking to license the manufacturing rights to an ammunition company or another interested party, for that matter.

Images from www.choke-hold.com