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Hey guys,
Is there, was there any sort of uniformity as to where the choke constriction began in these old barrels? How do you determine if barrels have been cut? Was there such a thing as forcing cones back in the late 1800s?
Seems to be a bit of a shortage of reading material on these old guns unless I'm not looking in the right place.
Jim

Jim,

The beginning of a barrels choke constriction could vary quite a bit on vintage guns depending on the beliefs of the guns manufacturer.

Usually, with American guns anyhow, *the barrel length will be an even number such as 28� or 30�. If it�s a fraction, such as 29.5� then suspect that it�s been cut. If there�s a gap between the barrels at the muzzles, suspect that it�s been cut. If it has twin cylinder bores suspect that it's been cut.
*Some European guns, such as French made guns, have barrels measured to metric lengths.

In the late 1800�s guns were typically designed so that the shell opened up to the end of the chamber or sometimes just a little more. I�m not sure when forcing cones became popular, probably with the advent of plastic wads with gas seals.

Anybody who wants to weigh in and correct anything I�m saying here or add to it is welcome too.

I hope this helps answer your questions.

Steve

Forcing cones date back to the beginning of breechloading shotguns. If you find a vintage gun without them it would have been chambered for brass hulls. The earliest hulls were paper, which was the "magic bullet" for breechloading guns. The paper expanded in the chamber providing an excellent seal against gas blowback. The forcing cone was generally fairly short, seldom more than about 1/2". Reason for the short cone was so as the fiber wad passed from the hull into the bore the front of the wad would already be in the bore before the rear left the hull. That decreased gas blowing into the shot charge.

Choke bore didn't really get started until the late 1870's. Expect any gun made earlier to be cylinder. And there were still a lot of cylinder guns being made well after choking became popular.

Determing if barrels have been cut is sometimes a subjective guess. Usually you can spot a suspect gun but I've seen some that left me scratching my head unconvinced.