doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Advice solicited

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.