doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Adding Choke via Sleeving ???

The section that you would jug choke is the thinnest part of a side-by-side barrel and your thinning of the walls to achieve it is likely to devalue the gun more than a lack of choke affects its value.

I don't believe I'd ever buy a gun with this type of redone choking. I would much rather have an open choked gun.....in fact I do have several of them. I would also bet that more upland birds have been missed because of too much choke than because of too little choke.

Dig:
Value is almost beside the point here. A Teague liner reduces the same portion of the barrel -- but replaces it with solid metal, even thicker. Same with choke sleeving. In effect, the barrel gets thicker... albeit in two pieces, same as Teague.

Quality of the job and practical use of the gun are paramount here. Not so much value.

Best, Kensal

I'm in the same boat as Greg on this one, with a gun choked cyl/sk. I'm looking at jug choking or choke sleeving. It's not that you can't hit with cyl chokes, it's that crippling becomes an issue much past 25-30 yds. I had a chukar I thought was dead in my game vest show up on my work table the next morning, standing there waiting for me to dispatch the poor bird. That's not an experience I care to repeat.

I have a Lancaster SLE, circa 1920, that was jug choked somewhere along the line. Bore diameters are in the 732-733 range, so it has not been honed very much. Minimum BWT in the neighborhood of the "jugs" is still mid-20's. That far down the tubes, pressure isn't really an issue any more. However, I agree that if barrel walls are already thin and jug choking would take them below .020, then the risk from denting might well become a more serious issue.

Stallones, what does it look like? Is it visible?

I disagree entirely with the premise that open chokes are ineffective beyond 25-3- yards. I shoot everything with only 3 thou and 7 thou of choke.

I would advocate experimenting with cartridges before reducing walls behind the muzzles to produce some choke effect.

my experience mirrors Greg's on wild roosters. I like a bit more choke to penetrate the back of a going away bird. Crossing birds and incomers are a different story, but we do not get that many of those over my Springers compared to the going away birds.

This is not difficult. Either leave it alone and shoot it like it is, or have Briley Thinwalls installed. End of story.
JR

FWIW, I think Dig is spot on. I also believe he has access to a greater variety of factory loaded ammunition than we do (and the quality of what we find on the shelves seems to go down every year) and some time spent at the patterning board is very revealing in two ways-what kind of patterns you get with different loads, and how lonely it is at the patterning board.
Myself and my Father are the only people I know who ever patterned shotguns. I'm betting from his comments (that mirror my experience) I could add Dig to that short list.
Mike McIntosh was pretty close on what choke was needed in this day and age. Few have listened.

Best,
Ted