Some of you may remember the GH Parker I recently acquired. The bores are fine, but are choked F/F or maybe XF/XF. Anyway, I am thinking about getting the chokes opened up to IC/M.

Now the thing is, I have other 12 ga. guns that are choked less than full. They aren't 30" barrels, though I shoot them about as good as I can shoot, which isn't very good.

Advice is asked as to whether I should send it off to Briley, or leave it as is. No good reason to have it bored, no good reason not to. So what do you think?

I'd leave it if it was mine. I have only opened up one Fox, which was not original, and kinda wish now I hadn't. Especially so since you admit you have no good reason to have it opened up.

Best advice is prolly to take your time in deciding. Once that metals' cut out it can't ever be put back.

All my best. SRH

I'd leave it as is. Someday you'll want a tight choked gun to reach for.

Leave it alone, please.

For my guning mostly over decoys, F/F won't do. I changed my 30-inch VH 12ga Parker F/F to IC/M. Full-choke last year put the whole load into a whistler's body. Jake my Lab retrieved but spat it out immediately on shore and wouldn't pick it up. Neither would I. It was flat.

Since you asked; now is a great time to do some substantive research into the vagaries of shotgun patterns i.e., spreaders, specifically.

Wonderful things are to be said for plumb bago(sp?) [flattened shot] or any of a number of dif approaches [inclusive of learning how to shoot as Murphy & Wonk both only too well grasp], but you will have to make yer own determinates.

Leave the chokes alone and open a new window to yer understanding instead.

Its quite possible to have both worlds w/o choke alteration. Amazing! Yes? No? Find out for yourself; odds are in your favor for a most pleasant surprise.

kind regards, tw

No offense intended & I'd hope none taken; it simply strikes the nerve at the very centre of things relevent to yer question.

Don't remember the gun and its condition means a lot to me in answering. If it is good original-leave it alone. If its a shooter open it to what best suits your needs. I don't hesitate to open any gun which is valued as only a shooter. And I do them myself.
Bob Jurewicz

Sounds like there is enough uncertainty that you might want to measure and/or pattern them.

Some of us really like tight chokes and have little use for IC/Mod (or even IC/Full). Mod/Full might be OK, I guess.

Gene,
For those occasions when you feel the need for a more open pattern, spreader loads are a decent compromise. Gil

Quite a few guns get openned up because the new owner says "I only shoot ______ and I have no use for chokes tigher than _____" and the other "It will improve my ______(insert 'skeet, trap, sporting clays' here) scores".

I'm not a real collector, but I do believe that taking an otherwise intact vintage gun and modifying it to suit a utilitarian shooting situation is somewhat foolish. If scores or maximum hunting utility were the goal, a new Beretta gas gun or specialized O/U, Perazzi, Krieghoff, etc., would beat an old dog legged sxs any day and shoot many more rounds before it needed any work.

IMO, if you want a modified vintage gun that shoots its best for you, start with a gun that will never be original again. Guns with broken or non-original stocks, cut barrels, mismatched parts, etc, make great projects for getting custom stocks with your choice of wood and dimensions. I have a few of them myself.

Thanks, everyone. You helped me make up my mind. It's a VH, not a GH, but you still got the message and I agree.

Stock market, dancing, chess, drill, and grenades are all about timing. Do you have to make this decision right now?
Doing nothing right now, leaves you the option of future action. If you decide to open the choke(s), that exercise does not have to be drastic - it can be incremental.
I second the offered recommendation about the use of spreader loads for closer work. The oldie 12 GA FULL & extra Full choke guns I patterned with a standard spreader reload WOULD HAVE BEEN UNUSEABLE past 20 yards as the pattern was too open and thin for ruffed grouse.
However, my oldie SxS guns with old-fashioned Full and fuller chokes are useless to me under any circumstances using my reloads with the modern one piece wads. I have opened all the chokes to some degree.
Just my $0.02 - your mileage might vary.

Open them up if you want. Everyone makes such a big deal if the chokes get opened. Why ? You can't see it and with American guns as far as I know [ limited ] only the 1894 and 1900 Remingtons had the chokes [ number of pellets ] stamped on the barrels. I'm sure that over the years a number of guns had their chokes opened. It's your gun, do what you want with it. Paul

Interesting.....I reload using Gualandi one piece wads that only cover roughly 1/2 of the shot within the cup....Allowing the shot column to act just as it does in loads using "old fashioned" traditional wads therefore the patterns I am seeing are about the same at the patterning board when comparing the two wad types, Gualandi plastic versus traditional fiber, from the same gun, which is where it counts I believe......

This wad design is explained quite nicely on most of the sale sites that sell Gualandi wads, as it was designed with this purpose in mind since most European countries still shoot the antique/vintage guns without butchering the bores....

I am using these same Italian wads for my 12, 16 and 20 gauge guns......love the patterns utilizing the "old-fashioned" choking in my vintage Full and Fuller and Full and Modified choked guns.......and the birds sure go down fast and farther out if need be.......JMO......

It is a mystery to me why someone hasn't started a niche business hammering #6 or #7 1/2 shot a bit flat on two sides and rebagging it. I would buy a few bags. I would rather pay double for shot than to worry about loading or finding spreader loads.

Looks like you could just run over a bag of shot with your truck and it would flatten it out, if that would spread, I don't know.

Just shoot straighter or open them up if you can't live with it. It is your gun. Do what you wish. Me, I like having some tight guns around. So, many of these old guns I run across are openned for someone to shoot grouse in what must be a telephone booth, the way they describe it. Hell, if it's that close, just grab the bird. It seems that if every vintage double passes thru the hands of a grouse hunter, there'll be no such thing as "choke" in any of them.

Hello Bill, Just buy some of the reclaimed/recycled shot from the trap and skeet club. The pellets will be mixed 7.5s and 8s and maybe some 9s and will have flat spots from hitting the targets and from running down the barrel. These pellets will spread a little better then the new ones. If you use the plastic wads with no fingers or short fingers you can get even more spread. Watch out for little rocks in the reclaimed shot.

Good Shooting To You, Jent

I have had the chokes on a few "field grade" non-collector SxS's opened up, and been very pleased with the results. These are working shotguns that I FREQUENTLY USE for hunting, sporting clays, trap and skeet.

Most of the older SxS's left the factory choked F & F. I have had the right barrel opened to IC.

This seems to me to be a good hunting combo - near and far. I can still use the FULL barrel for trap, and the IC barrel for most skeet singles shots. On the skeet doubles, I use the FULL barrel on the most distant shot. Its a good compromise solution.

JERRY