doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cylinder chokes,are they any good?

I have mentioned this before,at Whittington/Raton lastyear, I shot well with a rather well used Lefever "H". During the adult beverage period, we were talking guns, what else. Mr. Joe Wood hauled out his guages and started measuring chokes, mine were cyl/ic...Coulda fooled me. But then again Unless someone else has checked them, I dont know and mostly dont care what my guns are choked. Just shoot em......That "H" sure knocks down the roosters.......1 oz #5's

I don't want to put too fine a point on it: Wilhelm's PMs put me onto Cylinder several years ago. I took this long to get up the nerve to do it.

While totally in agreement that a cylinder boring can indeed be most useful the thing which I think most astonishes me about this entire thread is that not a single person has pointed out that;
Cylinder is "Not a Choke" but "Lack of Choke". By definition Choke in a shotgun bbl means constriction, Cyl has none. Well anything not exceeding .003" is I believe still considered cylinder, but not considered "Choke". A barrel is thus Not "Cylinder-Choked", but is Un-Choked or Not Choked whichever way you prefer to say it.

You use far fewer shells shooting cylinder.
The centered bird is seldom pulped.
What's not to like?

I had my grouse gun opened to cylinder/improved cylinder. Rarely shot the left barrel in the grouse woods. I had choke tubes added so I could use the gun for pheasants as well. Big mistake! Turns out, the bore is .625 and the most open cylinder choke I can find is .620. Anyhow, I miss my cylinder choke (or absence of choke) in the right barrel.

My designated grouse gun is .000" and .005" and I have no complaints. 16 gauge of course. :-)

It bears reminding for sure, Miller. When I decided to remove F/F choke to make cylinder/improved cylinder my problem was convincing gunsmith of the old Sauer's "no-choke" Bore Diameter. Your reminder is also useful because words have meaning, and nonsense tends to become "normalized" pretty fast. Season's greetings! My never-fail 35-year-old Model 666 JD snowblower is getting a real workout this year.

I've got an old Parker BH with sawed off 28 inch barrels that have left it cyl. and IC. I've killed everything from snipe to geese with that gun over the years and the birds never knew the difference. Not the gun I pick up for ducks and geese mind you, but when traveling far and being limited on gun choices, it does the work.

DLH

My favorite preserve gun is a 26" G grade parker choked Cyl/Full with 1 oz. #5's. I don't have to wait and screw up my timing when a bird gets up right under my feet and if I miss that shot, I have time to say something off color before taking the second shot. Bill Frech

Now, to those of us fond of tight choked old hammer doubles, the thought that one of barrels is "Un-Choked" can be intensely bothersom, no matter how well that barrel kills.

However, I must admit that I like being able to take close-flushing birds quickly with chokeless barrel. Like another poster, I also use appropriately time between missing close shot with a chokeless barrel and waiting out bird for second shot with tight choked barrel -- this is an advantage of cylinder-full choke combos that is perhaps not widely advertized.

Niklas