I recently bough an unfired Winchester M23, 12 gauge with 28 inch barrels and got a good buy on it. I had planned on putting in choke tubes but the OD of the barrels is only .797 and Mike Orlen say there isn't enough there for him to do it so my only choice is Briley at a cost of $400 plus shipping each way.Briley isn't even positive they can do it but think they probably can. My hunting days are over and I had planned to use this gun mostly for skeet maybe an occasional round of wobble trap. The chokes on it measure .015 on the right and .035 on the left. That full choke on the right is a bit tight for skeet. It's a 12 gauge gun and I have some 20 gauge Chambermates to use with it as well. I can have the chokes opened up by a local gunsmith I trust and indeally I'd probably go about .005 and .010. Will this kill resale value? I don't plan on parting with it any time soon but hate to substantially hurt the value.

Opening the chokes won't hurt the value anymore then installing choke tubes.

Opening the chokes wouldn't hurt the value anywhere near as much as having Briley attempt to install thinwall mobile chokes. I've seen examples of Briley's attempt on thin barrel walls end up in complete failure and a ruined set of barrels. On the other hand, it would be easy and safe to just open up to .005 and .010 constriction.

I've had Briley choke tubes installed in two 20 gauge M-23's.
On the 25 1/2 " Lwt, Briley called and said the walls were pretty thin, but they thought they could do it. they did and I hunted with that gun for years.
the 28" gun was done with no trouble.
If you are only going to use this gun for targets, I would just get the chokes opened up, however, and save the $.
I do not think either installing Briley tubes or opening up the existing chokes will make much dfference on resale. What will make a difference is the first shot thru an unfired gun.
I have since sold both of these M-23's for a fair price.

Opening the chokes destroys value for buyers who are looking for tight chokes. It's not so much a matter of originality as it is one of what works best in the field. For buyers who like open chokes, it's not an issue. If you open the chokes, you narrow the field of potential buyers.

I had a similar situation with a Skimin and Wood waterfowl/ live pigeon gun that a previous owner decided that he should shoot steel shot through. Not only did the guy (no woman that I know of would be this dumb) succeed in scratching the bore (scratches since largely polished out) but he also decided that it would be a great thing to take a hand hone to the chokes and use it to ream them off-center. The reaming left precious little "meat" for choke tube installation but Briley got the job done, though with a certain amount of trepidation.

I guess I was lucky, in a way. I had a pretty clear shot at "customizing" this gun because "Boy Genius" eliminated any concerns that there would have been about "collector's value" before I bought the poor thing. For being a big, heavy beast by British standards (30-inch barrels and 8 pounds, 2 ounces)I now have a very usable gun that is now much more versatile than it was when it was new.

Thanks for the replies .My inclination for right now is just to shoot it as is and see what kind of scores I can shoot. My only round of skeet with this gun so far with 7/8 oz loads produced a 21/25.Not great of course but not too bad either considering I was bundled up for lousy weather and the tight chokes. I once owned a gun that had Briley thin walls and it was not a pretty sight although it worked okay. If bores are not on center it can turn out ugly. Opening up the chokes will limit resale, I know that. People who otherwise might be interested in the gun might not want it. I'll probably just shoot it as is for a bit and then more than likely I'll have them opened.

What do you plan on doing with this gun? It's not a skeet gun, but 21/25 is plenty good with the present chokes! If you plan to hunt with it, it's perfect as is for open country/long shots. I don't think opening the chokes will affect the value much for most people since they are pretty tight now. It's not like it's a $50,000 gun anyway!
Joe

I had Briley put tubes in two of my shooters. A BSS and a NID. Both guns are great to use and work well at skeet ,trap and sporting clays. The local VFW had a turkey shoot and I put a x-full in the NID, and it won the first 3 of five prizes. excellent work by Briley.

You could try spreader loads

See if you can trade it for one that already has the Brileys or another gun that suits you.

I can do everything I want on clay targets with 15 and 20 thousandths of choke.

Best,

Mike