Need advice for shotgun choke

[akajun]

Brownells sells a bushing threaded for winchoke tubes or remchoke tubes. You turn down the od of the muzzle and silver solder the bushing onto the barrel .

[MBTcustom]

Just my humble opinion, but I have a shotgun that was cut down just like yours and it has been modified for interchangeable choke tubes.
There are several companies that make choke tubes specifically for situations like this. They are extremely thin walled, and work quite well.
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-to...prod25286.aspx
http://www.brownells.com/shotgun-par...prod72167.aspx

[oldred]

Just my humble opinion, but I have a shotgun that was cut down just like yours and it has been modified for interchangeable choke tubes.
There are several companies that make choke tubes specifically for situations like this. They are extremely thin walled, and work quite well.
http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-to...prod25286.aspx
http://www.brownells.com/shotgun-par...prod72167.aspx

Checking those links I see that, if I understand it correctly, these thin-wall choke inserts can be used ONLY with 2 3/4" shells and lead shot? My chamber is 3" so the odds are that somewhere down the line someone (not me but I won't be around forever) will shoot these big rounds and maybe with steel shot. If some versions of that choke is ok with the longer magnums then that looks like exactly what I need.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Once you have straightened the bad cut muzzle on the barrel to square try shooting some slugs thru it just to see how it will work with them. Since slugs work best with a cylinder choke barrel you may be surprised.Robert

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'd agree that the gun should be shot. With a good bore and square muzzle I don't think there is much doubt that it would shoot well with slugs(If it doesn't, try applying tape to stop the magazine or other moving parts from making irregular contact with the barrel.) But the OP might find its performance with shot very usable too. If not, another barrel, at around $80 from www.gunpartscorp.com , still makes it as good gun as many new ones at several times the cost. Does anybody really need aluminum and rollpins?


I can't imagine Savage making a Springfield incompatible for barrel changing with all the many Savage models with the same number. But this is something you would have to check with Gunparts.


There was also a system of choke installation which I believe Brownells once stocked, but don't any more. The barrel was reamed at the muzzle, and a simple unthreaded choke sleeve was installed by soft soldering.

[oldred]

Right now the gun is in pieces and the parts have been bead blasted (I was right, no rust pits that won't sand out!) awaiting me getting time to finish sand start the rust blue process. Normally I have a distaste for synthetic stocks, not that there is anything wrong with them it's just that I am a traditionalist and love nice walnut wood on a gun, HOWEVER, this shotgun just is just begging me for one of those new fangled plastic contraptions to replace the pallet wood stock and forarm and some of that "tactical" gear! Personally I really like that short barrel and even though a rib looks sort of out-of-place on a short barreled gun I still like it, I never dreamed I would even consider one of those "tactical" contraptions but the more I look at this thing the more I kind of like the idea.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

H'm, "tactical" sounds like what Lincoln called twenty dollar words, except that nowadays a clever lawyer can sell them for a lot more than that. But the gun sounds to be coming along fine. It will end up giving you a lot more pleasure than you could fine in some expensive and heavily advertised cardboard box.

[Clark]

I had a Springfield 67 pump 12 ga 3" when I was in college in 1974.
All my 2 3/4" shells would disappear, as they would fit in my youngest brother's gun.
I hated that Springfiled, because I was always shooting ducks straight up with a 3" magnum and no recoil pad.
I did kill a lot of ducks with it.

Here are some of my notes about chokes:
2) Different choke systems are needed for thin barrels:
..a) I am set up for 12 ga Rem Choke in a few pilot sizes. 32 threads per inch system. I need a barrel to be .845" diameter.
..b) Winchoke is also 32 TPI and needs .845"
..c) The Tru Choke system with 44 TPI needs at least a .825" barrel muzzle.
..d) The Tru Choke Thinwall aslo with 44TPI needs at least .805"

3) After reaming and tapping for Rem Chokes in many shotguns, I have found the preparatory reamer to be slow and the tap hard to turn.
So I have been quickly cutting with a boring bar to get close, then the reamer, and then I power tap using the engine lathe.

What does it all mean?
I cannot modify my full choke A5 with the Rem Choke tooling I own.
But I have been shooting steel shot through it for a long time, and it is still ok.
--------------------
I have taken old shot guns barrels and cut rem choke female threads in the muzzle and rem choke male threads on the breech.
Then I screw them end on end to make a long shotgun for suburban quiet shooing ala metro barrel.
http://www.metrogun.com/
And, of course, I take old shotguns with fixed chokes and make them work with rem-chokes.
Along the way I have bought $325 [2006 prices] in tooling from Brownell's:
1) 12 ga Remchoke reamer
2) 12 ga Win-choke/Remchoke tap
3) .725" bronze bushing
4) .727" bronze bushing
5) .729" bronze bushing
Some tricks I have learned:
1) Don't ream all the metal before tapping. Rough cut with a boring bar is much faster, and finish with the reamer.
2) Power tap with the lathe. Scary at first. You can do it.
3) Some barrels have the bore off center, look out.
4) Different choke systems are needed for thin barrels:
..a) I am set up for 12 ga Rem Choke in a few pilot sizes. 32 threads per inch system. I need a barrel to be .845" diameter.
..b) Winchoke is also 32 TPI and needs .845"
..c) The Tru Choke system with 44 TPI needs at least a .825" barrel muzzle.
..d) The Tru Choke Thinwall aslo with 44TPI needs at least .805"

====================
1) I am set up for 12 ga Rem Choke in a few pilot sizes.
I can only modify half of my massive beater shotgun collection.
Many of the barrels are too thin for my 32 threads per inch system.
I need a barrel to be .845" diameter.
2) Winchoke is also 32 TPI and needs .845"
3) The Tru Choke system with 44 TPI needs at least a .825" barrel muzzle.
4) The Tru Choke Thinwall aslo with 44TPI needs at least .805"

And don't try to cheat on those dimension requirements.
You have to know what you are doing, the bore must be centered in the barrel, you need good equipment, etc.

When Randy Ketchum did it [he was a real gunsmith], he cut off the last 2", only to find that the bore is off center sometimes. I use the whole length of the barrel and spend too much time reaming out the old choke steel mass, so I have gone to a boring bar to prep for the reamer.

I also have a shotgun that has a bulge where the threads are. Stan Baker swaged the barrel out and then cut the threads. He is dead, but his shop is still operating.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have not threaded the outside of shotgun muzzles, but I have threaded the inside of a number of shotgun barrels.
There are lots of variations in shotguns and lots of ways to deal with them:

Jack Belk, famous gunsmith, sometimes re sizes the outside of the barrel with rollers.

What does it all mean?
Shotgun barrels vary in:
1) barrel wall thickness
2) bore being centered in the barrel
3) chokes being centered in the muzzle