doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Using a choke gauge

I have one I bought from Brownells, the dial indicator, same exact device, but I think it was less money. I like it, perfect for gun shows, just preset mine and lock at .350 with my electronic venier gauge and slip it into the bore. The legs are about 4" long, so you can get behind the choke and draw it forward and get the reading. And get the bore diameter 4" from the muzzle too
I have a brass step type plug choke reader, but it is useless at a gun show, or anywhere else as it will not tell you the bore diameter and some of the older guns have been severely honed.
Mike

The Skeets work, but they are poorly made Chinese stuff. The 12/20 gauge won't work on Merkel bores which are a few tho too wide.

The brass end of one of my Skeets came off and I had to replace it.

The trouble with the internal dial caliper is the legs are only 3 1/4-inch long.

Gnomon, I'm not understanding something. With Skeets, you have two different heads. One is for 12/16, the other for 20/28. Which one doesn't work for you in Merkels? I have a Sauer 20 that's overbored by about .012 from standard, and the 20ga Skeets head works just fine in that gun. Only problem I've had with Skeets are on guns that are both underbored and have a whole lot of choke. On a few like that, they won't go in the muzzle. You can still get a reading on the bore, by going in from the chamber. But you can't read choke.

I have the Skeet's gage for 12/16. It is fine for the later 16 ga L.C.Smth's that have a .662 bore, but with it's 5/8" head there is not much room for the old 16's with .650 bore, and trying to measure choke, can't.

George, the plug gauge will not tell you what you claim it will. Sorry.

The Skeets bore mic may not be of the very highest quality and I can believe that the ball-retaining ferrule could part company with the phenolic tube. My very own brass balls do stick occasionally but the bore mic (including the Skeets) will go where the brass baton will not and prove in practise what so many knuckleheads can not master in theory: that choke is a differential between two measurements rather than an a simple direct measurement. For a few hundred more you can get a Stan Baker all-gauge set. In any event, the quality of a particular bore mic is not of central importance here; continuing community education certainly seems to be!

jack

The 3 balls do not extend out far enough to contact the bore in the Merkel 20 ga. They are about 4 thou shy. The gauge works fine on all my other 20 ga guns. I bought my Skeets used and thought I'd save some money but in the end it wasn't worth it.

I am under the impression the Skeets are either interchangeable head (12/16 and 20/28) or one ea of same complete with shaft and dial. It must be the 20/28 that falls shy of the 20 bore Merkel.

jack

Good explanation, Jack. You're correct on the Skeets. The interesting thing is that a set with two heads is the same price as two separate complete units. Might as well buy both units. Gives you an extra tube and dial gauge, just in case. You can still swap heads.

Gnomon, you must have a REALLY overbored Merkel there. My 20ga Sauer approaches .630, and my Skeets works fine.

This 20 gauge Merkel must be different from most Merkels I have measured. Most I have measured are undersized rather than oversized.