doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Perfect choke combination

Jalo, welcome to the forum. Your question is one I considered many years ago, and answered to my satisfaction. I bought a 30" barreled BSS that was also choked M and F. I tend to like tighter chokes than many, so I had the full choke barrel opened to the exact same constriction that the modified barrel was ....... .018". I have shot so much heavily loaded steel through it that I have shot it off face and now have to shim it .003" to keep it tight. But, more importantly, I have never had a reason to regret the choke decision.

IDK if it matters to you but I shoot primarily steel 4s and 3, with a few 2s on occasion. Works great for me, and never a problem with the steel shot. It's plenty tight, but doesn't cause meat damage even on an unexpected close shot.

Best, SRH

leave it as is, and enjoy the thrill the late Nash Buckingham describe as :"You've had about all the thrill wingshooting can offer when you see a dove, centered in your gun's pattern, crumpled in mid-air"--I use tight chokes in all my 12 bores-- I figured the old time choke and barrel men knew their trade, why tinker with that with screw-in choke tubes> Just like the old days with the *&%%^$# Poly-Chokes and Lyman "steam whistles"-- when you miss a sucker shot, whether at game or clays, it is so easy to blame the wrong choke for your miss-Shoot you gun for 2 seasons before you decide to have it "circumsized" once you have it altered, you can;t take it back. Use the $ you save by avoiding this trap on shells and blast pigeons until Hell won't have it--RWTF

Thanks!
The bores are not chrome lined. I measured the chokes and they were more like Improved Modified and Extra Full.

Jalo, based on a fair amount of patterning steel shot and using it for game, I would go with .010 (IC) and .015 (Lt Mod). This is about what the Old Colonel suggested and works very well for steel or lead. Steel shoots much tighter patterns than lead thru the same choke. DO NOT shoot steel larger than #6 thru the current tight chokes!! You risk bulging the barrel just ahead of the choke. I've seen a lot of these bulges in barrels with full chokes.
By the way, you have acquired a very high quality shotgun. The Miroku 500 is a true Anson Deeley boxlock, and is not the same shotgun as the Miroku built Browning BSS which has a thru bolt design. Enjoy.
Sid T.

one of my former doubles was 10 and 20 and that seemed perfect for all around shooting, but I am not sure if 20 thou is too tight to shoot steel?

.015 and .025 if you can shoot lead, .010 and .020 if you must shoot steel as it does pattern tighter wold be my choices. But chokes are a very personal thing to many, just like blond, red hair, brunets or any other hair color you like. Just get into a range like .010-.020 for one barrel and .015-.025 for the other. Then adjust your shooting style to match conditions. Changing chokes might be no fun with chrome lined barrels. Many gunsmiths hate working on them over here. Good luck and enjoy the finding out for your self.

Great answers. This decision will be a hard one. Perhaps .013 and. 018?

Easier to go a little tighter then decide if you want more later, than going too far as putting metal back is impossible. I prefer to avoid jug choking as you lose more wall thickness to get enough choke than I would like.

That is super good advice, and is the exact reason I have two double guns, that I shoot more than any of the others, that are choked the same in both barrels .......... on the tight side. I figured if I found the need for a more open choked barrel I could always have it opened a bit more, but could never put it back. I just never found the need to open one of those M barrels any more.

Another thought ............. if you start out with a gun choked right M and left F, and decide your really do want IC and M, just open the left barrel from F to IC, and leave the right alone. You will save the gunsmithing costs of opening the choke on two barrels as opposed to one. There is nothing magic about the right barrel being more open than the left. Vise versa works just as well. Anybody with brains enough to use a double barreled gun can handle that. In fact, it's good for a double gunner to go to the rear trigger first at times. It keeps us from getting in a rut on managing the two triggers, or the single trigger barrel selector.

SRH

I'm sorry but there's no way I could ever consider having the right barrel tighter. I'm too conservative, don't want to learn new things at this point. Besides the gun cost me only 150 euros which is around $170 so I believe I can put some extra money for the changes in the barrels.

The idea of having two chokes of same size is something I've been thinking about. On the other hand it feels a bit strange to have two triggers and barrels with no difference. Those of you that hunt waterfowl with a double, based on your experience do you think that there's some advantage of having two different chokes?