doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How is this possible regarding chokes

Was in my local gunshop last week that primarily does general gunsmithing work and who handles my FFL transactions. They were actually doing restoration work on a L.C. Smith a customer had brought in. Barrels were being polished and in the white. Anyway during the discussion I remarked I didn't know they did restoration work on shotguns and he said they only did a handful a year. So I then asked if they were going to change the chokes and he said they were going to open them up as requested by the client. Now, I know they don't have a skeets or other means of measuring bore diameter, so how can they open up the chokes with any degree of certainty? Am it to guess they probably just using the inside diameter of the current barrels at the muzzles and then removing enough steel that a drop in gauge gives the proper readings??

Also, in the opinion of the board, is this a common practice in what I'd call the general gunsmithing community?

PS. This fellow does outstanding general gunsmithing work, and builds 1,000 yard benchrest rifles in his spare time. I'd refer him to anyone on rifle and pistol work with zero reservations.

a lot of ways to skin a cat. Gage pins in a knowledgeable smiths hands will tell you an awful lot about a bore. He may know what he is doing, just using different methods to get there.

Patterns tell the best story
bill

I always get a chuckle when someone acquires a new shotgun and the first thing they want to do is open the chokes up. Half don't know what they are, and even if they did, they should do like Bill suggested and pattern it with the shells they are going to shoot through it.

Very like the scene at the gun club Thursday. Guy with a megabuck adjusto everything trapgun shooting a few targets, twirling this and that, shooting a few targets twirling this and that, shooting a few targets twirling this and that, etc etc
I didn't take notice of any improvements as he went along but then I suppose I just don't understand those complicated mechanisms of the science of benchrest trap shooting.

My bad

Dr.WtS

Amen Dr Wonko........

Some people just like gadgets....when in reality it is their eyesight that is the true weak link...........

From what I've seen at the pattern board, a given amount of choke will nearly always pattern predictably, and by that I mean within maybe +/- 7-8% of what a (choose one) IC/M/F choke should be. That makes it pretty easy to ream and call the job done. There is the occasional choke, however, that does not play by the rules and that will consistently print a pattern you would never predict.

If you don't pattern ahead of time, you pays your money and takes your chances. The other option is to have the smith do this for you, then ream and pattern, ream and pattern, but few people will tolerate the cost.

Just went through some old patterning data. A few years back, testing 5 different pheasant loads thru the mod barrel of a Merkel 1620 16ga @ 35 yds, I got a low of 63% and a high of 83%. And I cut open loads and counted pellets prior to the test, having learned that you can't go by what the book says on how many 5's or 6's there are to an ounce.

I'd add that normally, I would not expect to find that kind of spread. But I actually had 2 different shells at or near the low end, and 2 at or near the high end.

Larry, if those were factory loads, can you advise those at the 63 % density and those with the 83%. thanks, Tut

Gunmakers and gunsmiths managed to bore chokes for about 100 years before there was such a thing as a Skeets bore gauge. LC Smith used plug gauges, and the drawings for those gauges are illustrated in Brophy's "Plans and Specifications" book. Any machinist worth his salt can use a set of inside calipers and his micrometer to accurately measure both the bore and the choke at least as well as with a gauge of the type that Skeets is.