20 gauge reaming to open choke

[beezapilot]

The wife picked up an nice older 20 gauge SXS that she would like to convert to a skeet gun- any recommendations on reaming out a full choke to skeet? As it is there is one IC and one Full choked tube.

[Outpost75]

IC and FULL is an unusual combination. Who made it?

IC and MOD is more common.

Have you patterned the gun?

If shooting skeet informally, I'd be inclined to keep the gun as-is, more useful for hunting.

If your wife doen't hunt or plan to, get her a dedicated skeet gun. A Remington 1100 skeet gun is reliable and has softer recoil if that is important for her to enjoy the sport.

[beezapilot]

It is a 1920 Ithaca Flues (((( It is a "Bob" Dudley Nashville TN" engraved gun, interesting part of its history)))), the tubes are marked 1 and 4, from what I can find that indicates IC and Full, but the internet is full of ... uh... factual information. She has a pretty good variety of skeet and trap guns, but the club we shoot at has "Doubles Days" for SXS's that are fun and she'd like to be involved with that. We'll be shooting / patterning tomorrow to see how it goes- I have to confess that it is light and lovely and shoulders very well even for a big galoot like me.

[pietro]

.

FWIW, although YMMV, I would rather shoot a spreader load in the FC bbl, than modify an nice/old Ithaca double.

.

[beezapilot]

I'd not thought of spreader wads- never used them, but that would be an excellent option

[turtlezx]

i have a 20 gauge stevens double mod and full in the process of reaming the chokes for skeet looking for cylinder bore on both barrels
.617-620 should be cylinder reamed to that spec but still too tight ??? 18" at 20 yds should be 32" going to ream them out another .010"
let you know how it comes out

[Texas by God]

I would definitely pattern it first then use spreaders if needed. An old Ithaca double is a treasure- especially in 20 ga. It may be meant for ducks with the IC & Full combo. I have an old NR Davis 12 ga with 32" barrels and it is choked the same. I've used it sucessfully for pheasant although it's 9 lb weight gets old quick. I won't chance shooting steel shot through it so the ducks are safe. I had a Ithaca Field Grade 12 that I bought with a broken stock and a muzzle crack in one barrel. I restocked it in straight grip style and cut 2" off the muzzles, ending up with a 26" cyl/cyl gun that was great for quail and water hole dove. I never took it to the skeet range but it would work great I'm pretty sure.

[Outpost75]

EASY way to make "spreader" loads is to drive a wooden toothpick through the crimp, mash it down as far as it will go, then snap it off and trim flush to the folded crimp with a pocket knife. My Daddy was a clever Redneck and Hillbilly!

[runfiverun]

IC and F was very common in the 20's time frame.
IC would be almost dead on and Full wouldn't be quite Full [more like improved modified]with the wadding they used back then.
a good smith with the proper inside gauge should be able to ream the choke to IC in about 20 minutes.
the X type inserts might work or they might throw 4 separate patterns with a hole in the center.

[Cap'n Morgan]

I've seen (and shot) quite a few Belgian hammer guns in Imp Cyl and Full choke. It called for a quick decision on which barrel to cook when the bird was flushed.

[Jedman]

I recently found a small brake cylinder hone that could be used to hone some of the choke out.
It is adjustable down to 1/2" and expands to at least 1".
I bought it on eBay and it was only about $12 with free shipping.
Run it with a drill motor and some light oil you should be able to remove enough to open the patterns.

Jedman

[beezapilot]

It patterned not at all as expected, at the 20 yard line the IC was a good 4 feet in diameter, while the "full" about 3 feet- didn't get into percentages and all- but much larger shot circle than I would have expected- the club smith took a look at it and said that he thought it was chambered for 2 1/2 inch shells, he will be bringing chamber gauges next week. at leave it as is after all. Thanks for the input, as always I learned something.

So, now to explore the possibilities of configuring my MEC to load 2 1/2's

[runfiverun]

get the 3 to 2-3/4 step piece and set the machine up for 2-3/4.

then either roll crimp unskiived [cut off hulls] or cut off and skiive for a 6 point crimp.
use the brass tool BPI makes for the mec loaders for the first time.

[turtlezx]

it sounds like the choke has already been opened up for that large a pattern
you dont need to do anything to it good to go for skeet larger pattern the better
32" inch pattern is cylinder bore at 20yds perfect for skeet dont expect to wait till there 40yds out and hit them