Poli-choke on shotgun?

[student1946]

Has anyone ever tried putting a Poli-choke on a single barrel muzzle loading shotgun?It seems to me that you could open it to load and then select your choke to shoot.You could unscrew it to clean it.Wouldn't this make for a more versatile hunting gun?

[kevthebassman]

I've never heard of them.  Do they require the barrel to be tapped?  Seems to me like you could get your barrel fitted for regular screw in chokes and spare the ugly obtrusion on the end of an otherwise beautiful gun.

[Semisane]

Interesting thought Student.  Don't see why it wouldn't work as you speculate, but I wouldn't want one.  I use split fiber wads and cards in my double 12 gauge caplock and live just fine with their limitations.  Never tried shot cups.

[student1946]

The choke is mounted on the end of the barrel and you twist it to change constrictions.You don't have to remove it to load or change choke settings like a screw in choke so you could load, or change choke settings on your loaded gun quickly in the field if a bird or critter showed up inside or outside the range you are choked for.I will grant you that it doesn't look original and i wouldn't want to put one on a collectible or an expensive custom fowler but it would make a single barrel much more versatile in the field.If this is heresy,be gentle with me. 

[forest2]

Heresy! it's darn near Hubress!
 actually student, it's simply a matter of powder charge/lead loaded in hand or in field that can and does change the spread of shot pattern and range. for each charge.
 The proper load for skeet, dove, phesant or goose can be made from the same cylinder bore with experimentation just as easily as experiment with said poly-choke using the variables of charge/load weight/and shot size.
 That is the uniquness of the smoothbore muzzle loader, it's versatilty

[coyotejoe]

Oh I definitely have to disagree with that. I've owned a bunch of ML shotguns over the past fifty years and have shot a lot of patterns on paper and there is just no way a cylinder bore gun can be made to shoot like a choke bore. I do jug choking of ML shotguns and have seen time and again that even just a very slight degree of choke will improve patterns far more than anything one can do with different loads. I have no trouble getting jug chokes to perform up to standard with simple loads, just two 1/8" cards over the powder and one thin overshot wad, no need for shotcups and I can easily get full choke patterns putting over 70% of the pellets inside a 30" circle at 40 yards. With a cylinder bore it is a waste of time and lead to even try to pattern at 40 yards. Choke boring brings the ML shotgun into the same league as a modern gun, performance wise. A jug choked barrel loads as easily as a cylinder bore because the muzzle diameter is not reduced and produces any degree of choke you wish, from improved cylinder to extra full, though of course it is not adjustable, you get the choke you specified.

[Cowpox]

student1946
   I would expect the Polly would work real nice for the first couple of loadings, but in short order, the BP fouling would get into the mechanism, and adjusting would no longer be possible ?

[forest2]

cyote joe your right. it was a poor choice of terminoligy on my part. I guess I was just trying to make a point that hadn't yet been touched on in this thread, about how powder charge variables and shot size/weight variables together impart different end results in shot patterns and velocity.
 I mean it is/was a queary about a "polychoke" in a trad ml smoothy?!? know what I mean? ymhs forest

[coyotejoe]

Indeed, and that is why I brought up jug choking as another option. It is inexpensive ( 60 bucks), still loads as easily as a cylinder bore, doesn't show on the exterior and can provide any degree of choke specified. If the gun owner will specify exactly what load he wants to shoot and exactly what pattern percentage he wants I can give him that pattern within + or - 5% and usually even closer. I find that improved cylinder is about the best choice for my own upland hunting and is a great improvement over a true cylinder bore. It certainly is not "traditional" since choke boring was not really perfected until the 1870's, but it sure makes a more effective hunting gun and it still "looks traditional" from the outside. Unfortunately, some of the old original ML guns have barrel walls too thin for jug choking but that is no problem with any replica gun I've seen, the recess only need be about .020" deep for an extra full choke, only about .005" deep for improved cylinder. Lots of people have done their own jug choke with just an electric hand drill and an automotive brake cylinder hone, it takes a while but it works, even a recess of just .002-.003" will round up the pattern and fill in the center.