Supernova barrel question

[Notfalling]

I am a fairly new owner of a supernova tactical and very new to this forum. I bought the gun for fun/home defense, but after shooting it for a while I fell in love with the pistol grip and would like to take it hunting. It is awesome with clays, but I'm afraid that with the 18.5" barrel my pattern might spread a bit too fast for live game. Thought I would just order a new barrel in 26" or 28", but at $250+ I shyed away a little. I won't be taking after turkey or geese with this gun, but probably pheasants, ducks, neighbor cats, etc. I was just wondering if anyone knew if my setup would be lethal enough at average ranges or the best way to go about getting there? There are no threads in the tactical barrel for a choke(at least not mine) just so everybody knows. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Trapshooter1]

The choke is the most important factor in the legal barrel length range, what is the constriction and what will you be hunting.

[ishootkittens]

i use a modified choke for my neihbors cats.. they are quick little critters.

[Notfalling]

Will be hunting mostly small, fast ducks, but larger ducks, pheasant, and grouse are also on the menu. Not sure what the constriction is-it's a stock 18.5" tactical barrel though if that helps.

[cody6.0]

I used my SuperNova Tactical for HD/Fun and also clays not to mention regulating the squirrel, wild cat and bird population. Your barrel will be ok but the shorter length makes tracking/following a bit harder.

If you are going after bigger game you could always use some Federal ammo that utilizes there FliteControl wads. They don't completely make up for a cylinder bore versus chokes but it's better than plain ol' shot.

[Trapshooter1]

Will be hunting mostly small, fast ducks, but larger ducks, pheasant, and grouse are also on the menu. Not sure what the constriction is-it's a stock 18.5" tactical barrel though if that helps.

I am pretty sure you have a modified choke restriction. Modified is like the middle of the choke constriction spectrum and will work good for just about everything, the short barrel will be very whippy, swing slow on moving targets.

[cody6.0]

I am pretty sure you have a modified choke restriction. Modified is like the middle of the choke constriction spectrum and will work good for just about everything, the short barrel will be very whippy, swing slow on moving targets.

The Supernova, M3 and M1 all have a fixed cylider bore barrel.

[Trapshooter1]

The Supernova, M3 and M1 all have a fixed cylider bore barrel.

Cylinder is pretty light for a fixed choke, like the older fixed choke field guns were fixed full even though they would rarely need to be that tight. But I guess you know more than me about that particular barrel.

[Notfalling]

Well I'll play around with some different ammo and keep checking my pattern, thanks for the help guys and if you've got anything else for me I'm all ears.

[Notfalling]

Went and bought some Federal Black Cloud which has the flight control wad. Shot some tag board at about 40 yards with that and similiar ammo that was loaded regular steel and a normal wad to compare and the fc wad sure did tighten it up a lot. Thanks a lot for the suggestion