Author Topic: Anybody heard of changing fixed choke this way? (Read 2735 times)

Ol BW · « **on:** June 06, 2012, 11:04:00 AM »

I talked to someone about installing a choke tube. They said that it wasn't done much anymore. The then said that once upon a time people would heat up their barrels and beat the barrel into the choke they wanted. Anybody ever done this? I think I could do it as I have worked with metal before. I am assuming you could find bar stock for the size you wanted the choke (I want to tighten my choke) and beat the barrel until it fit tight. I am more concerned about what level to temper the metal when I am finished and how to temper it. (oil, water, sand, or combination, length of time, etc.)

Any information would be appreciated!

tacklebury · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2012, 02:37:32 PM »

I wouldn't do it that way. If you don't get the circle perfect, your shot pattern will spread unevenly. If you do screw-in chokes, you can replace them and have a variety of uses with the same barrel. Just my 2cp though.

LONGTOM · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2012, 05:24:59 AM »

I do have a 3" MOD CHOKE Pardner barrel that was ROLLED the last 12" to make a slug barrel out of it.
Don't know who or how it was done but with the adj sights that were epoxyed on it shoots dead on at 75 yds with different factory slugs.

LONGTOM

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2012, 05:58:19 AM »

If all you want is a tighter choke get a gun smith to cut a jug choke in your bbl. But the screw in tube are more useful. BTW Winchester mod 37A guns had a choke similar to what you mention and most that I shot had poor patterns.

DeerSlayer777 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 08, 2012, 10:20:18 AM »

My grandfather knew alot of people who would have their chokes done like that for shooting matches around the '40's and the '50's.

Ol BW · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2012, 05:36:44 AM »

Shootall, never heard of a jug choke, what's that?

I was told that screw in choke would be more expensive than just ordering a barrel with a screw in choke in it, dont know for sure.

I heard that people used to change their choke by heating it alot but Tacklebury has me thinking now. . .

beaverslayer · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2012, 10:30:30 AM »

Some guys on the shotgun forum on oldgobbler were talking about a Guy who was threading chokes for $35. Said he does an excellent job. Do a Google search and I'm sure it will pop up."

Here's a link to their PDf: http://users.dls.net/~rdouglas/MikeOrlen.pdf

Note: these are 2005 prices it appears. I would give him a call and see what the current prices are. Probably still the cheapest around.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2012, 12:27:37 AM »

A jug choke is when a smith goes in the bbl and hones out a "chamber" in front of the ckoke area. The open area lets the shot expand making the existing choke act like a tighter choke. Each bbl can be different as far as internal deminsions. So just because a choke is marked full it may or may not be in every bbl. so if you cut a jug choke you make the choke area more constricted due to the relation of constriction to the open chamber in front of the org. choke. I don't know what a new bbl cost but here a choke job with three chokes is arounf 120 bucks . The swadged chokes seldom last as each shot tends to streach it back out some and if the bbl was heated it has little strength to resist the streaching. A screw in tube in most cases created a stronger area.

nova71 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 11, 2012, 06:03:09 AM »

a number of years back when I was doing shooting matches a toolmaker friend of mine made me a jig to use to change chokes. it was about three inches long and tapered, you would heat the barrel pretty hot then place this jig over it and hit with a hammer, the more you hit it the tighter the choke. with a little practice it worked great. got a model 37 to where it would blast the center out of a card. they changed the rules to limit the amount of choke you could because of it

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #9 on:** June 11, 2012, 07:53:16 AM »

Quote from: nova71 on June 11, 2012, 06:03:09 AM

a number of years back when I was doing shooting matches a toolmaker friend of mine made me a jig to use to change chokes. it was about three inches long and tapered, you would heat the barrel pretty hot then place this jig over it and hit with a hammer, the more you hit it the tighter the choke. with a little practice it worked great. got a model 37 to where it would blast the center out of a card. they changed the rules to limit the amount of choke you could because of it

That's when back boreing and jug chokes got popular when constriction was limited

tacklebury · « **Reply #10 on:** June 11, 2012, 01:40:30 PM »

The choke reamer itself is about $85 for a base model and will do many barrels. If you have access to a lathe or horizontal milling machine, you could buy one and use it repeatedly. That's probably how the guy is making money on doing them at $35.

RPRNY · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2012, 04:32:52 PM »

Mike Orlen did my 20 ga Mod choke with Invector tubes. It was about $40 as I recall. Very nicely done. Turn around was about a week.

Ol BW · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2012, 05:12:35 PM »

Thanks for all the info guys!

gcrank1 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 12, 2012, 06:25:18 AM »

Ive 'read' that you can most likely achieve what you want by changing loads and/or the load cups or components, rather than the barrel choke itself. For me it would be worth the try first, before getting 'more serious'.

Ol BW · « **Reply #14 on:** June 12, 2012, 01:15:00 PM »

Any particular load you know about?

I have used 20 ga. Federal Heavyweight with flitecontrol wads, Remington regular turkey loads and Winchester regular turkey. I got shot patterns 12" or bigger at 30-35 yards.

To compare, I shot my 12 ga. 870 with regular federal turkey loads and Undertaker choke and it makes patterns 8" at the same yardage.

Anybody got some more ideas about the loads they tried or things I can try?

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #15 on:** June 13, 2012, 01:13:50 AM »

Try heavy shot either turkey loads or water fowl loads

rdlange · « **Reply #16 on:** June 23, 2012, 07:47:41 AM »

So I have a 20ga with a cut to 21" barrel for slugs. Sounds like I can get it reamed and threaded for H&R add on choke tubes, including rifled choke tube. Know nothing about this except reading here, so just asking; per above sounds like it will work. Looking elsewhere for info now...

Thanks.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #17 on:** June 25, 2012, 12:21:57 AM »

If your bbl is thick enough I would suggest REM chokes as you can get lots of tubes for that thread pattern

jeepmann1948 · « **Reply #18 on:** June 25, 2012, 10:04:23 PM »

Site sponsor 4D rents reamers for shotgun barrels much cheaper than buying one

Ol BW · « **Reply #19 on:** June 26, 2012, 05:24:36 PM »

Jeepman now that sounds like an idea! They rent the reamers and the tap for choke tubes. Has anyone here attemped installing their own choke tubes???

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #20 on:** June 27, 2012, 08:03:12 AM »

Quote from: jeepmann1948 on June 25, 2012, 10:04:23 PM

Site sponsor 4D rents reamers for shotgun barrels much cheaper than buying one

If you do your own make sure it is centered , often a bbl will be thicker to one side. Pressure can be applied to cause the reamer to produce a more centered hole before threading .

Brewster · « **Reply #21 on:** June 27, 2012, 08:48:50 AM »

You'll need to ream out the existing choke, then ream for your choke tube and then tap. Gotta pay attention to the barrel wall thickness to select the correct tube. I did two 12 ga barrels recently and put Tru-Choke tubes in. For one barrel, it would have been cheaper to farm out the job, but two made it cost effective. I wish that the reamer had been sharper. It was work.

gcrank1 · « **Reply #22 on:** June 27, 2012, 08:58:58 AM »

Probably would have been easier to have bobbed the barrel back behind the orig. choke and had more wall thickness to work with too.

Brewster · « **Reply #23 on:** June 27, 2012, 09:14:09 AM »

On the NEF barrel, I did exactly that. The other had a vent rib.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #24 on:** June 27, 2012, 09:20:38 AM »

You can use a drill motorto turn the tools to make it easier .

flagman1776 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 17, 2012, 12:34:25 PM »

A lot of older barrels are not thick enough. I've seen a g'smith expand a barel before reaming but not worth the labor on an inexpensive gun. Expanding can be done with plugs with a tapered lead and increasingly larger diameters. Can only be a few thousanths at a time with cleaning.

RPRNY · « **Reply #26 on:** August 17, 2012, 04:35:49 PM »

Just to reiterate my experience, there is no post 1987 H&R/NEF shotgun barrel, that has not been previously modified, that lacks sufficient wall thickness to be reamed and tapped for chokes. If you had an open choked Spanish double or a quality light game gun, you may well have issues. I am insufficiently familiar with pre-'87 H&R/NEF barrels to make an informed decision regarding their suitability. Installing chokes is fairly tricky. Remember all those 1950s A5s that had Polychokes installed by local "gunsmiths" and then wouldn't shoot to POA? Not centered. You can have Invector chokes (the H&R pattern and older Win, Moss, Weatherby and Browning pattern) threaded to an H&R barrel for @ $45. Before you rent a reamer/tapper and add shipping, think about it.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #27 on:** August 18, 2012, 06:03:11 PM »

if i just had to, i'd get my brownell's book out, and
either order a sweat-on polychoke, or one of those
sweat-on sleeves that accept choke tubes

Ol BW · « **Reply #28 on:** August 19, 2012, 07:29:04 AM »

I have seen those. I don't know anyone that has one. Are they pretty good? Seems like the solider would shoot loose.

Ranger99 · « **Reply #29 on:** August 23, 2012, 08:23:22 AM »

I'll have to say I've not done it, but I don't think
a properly silver soldered anything would come loose.
Most all modern shotgun ribs are silver soldered.
I considered the sleeve for the last shotgun I chopped,
but it did so good I hated to mess with it any more.