Can chokes be opened by shooting over many years?

[Tom Flanigan]

Thanks for all the responses. I haven't shot the gun on paper yet, but I will. That will tell the true story. I've owned the gun for many years. My uncle gave it to me when I was 18 or 19 years old. I shot it a few times but never hunted with it. I had graded Parkers for my hunting. He must have oiled the hell out of the gun over the years because the head of the stock was oil soaked and pulpy. The tip wood was cracked. It sat for many years, but I recently decided to restore it. I bought an original Trojan stock and Brian sold me an original Trojan tip. I've restored the barrels and wood and now just need to recut the checkering to finish it up. I like to do all my checkering at once and so when I complete restoring the other two guns I am working on, I'll do the checkering on all. Then on to the next batch of guns waiting for restoration. I like to work three guns at a time.

[Tom Flanigan]

One more thing. All Parkers were hand fitted even Trojans. The stock I bought was only about 200 serial numbers higher than my gun but I had to do a lot of fitting to get the stock right on the metal. Luckily the new stock was proud of the metai so I had something to work with. Most of the work was refitting the wood around of the trigger guard and working with scrapers so that the stock looks like it grew from the wood. Adjustments had to be made to the wood around the safety housing and the tip required work to get it to fit properly.

[Southpaw]

That is awesome that you tackle restorations. Sorry to hear the stock on your uncles gun was punky. Being able to shoot that gun knowing he shot it would be special. To me it would be like a warm hand shake with him every time you hunted or shot with it knowing he was one that wore the checkering in. Even though you needed to do a lot to the furniture that gun is still special for you and hope you have many fond memories of it.

Good luck.

[chris dawe]

I have personally seen old guns - muskets and and breech loaders up here with the muzzles worn to a knife edge...that being said the oldtimers up here would load anything and i mean anything down the barrel or in a shell - cubes cut from tin sheet ,split peas ,pebbles ,coarse sand sometimes even lead if they could find it !

[J.B. Books]

If the constriction of a choke could be worn away by lots of shooting then there would be tens of thousands of trap guns that were used in competition requiring new barrels or choke tubes. I put over 50,000 rounds through the barrel of a Remington 870TB and I bought it used. The choke never changed.

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Todd Poer

That is awesome that you tackle restorations. Sorry to hear the stock on your uncles gun was punky. Being able to shoot that gun knowing he shot it would be special. To me it would be like a warm hand shake with him every time you hunted or shot with it knowing he was one that wore the checkering in. Even though you needed to do a lot to the furniture that gun is still special for you and hope you have many fond memories of it.

Good luck.

Thanks Todd. That gun is special and will never be sold. It will be passed to a family member with the history of the gun. I plan to hunt with it this year. I started restoring guns at 16 years old. I did a ton of Remington 1100's and 870's for friends. I would refit the stocks properly, make the stock look like it grew on the receiver and sand off all the horrible pressed in checkering and re-do it by hand, I stripped off the obnoxious RKW finish and gave the wood a nice oil finish. I worked on a lot of those guns before I ever touched a Parker.

When word of my work got around, I also did a number of Ithaca single trap guns for members of the venerable old Dutchess Valley Club in Pawling and a few Model 21's. I did a Purdy for the founder and owner of Business Week magazine, Elliot Bell. For this gun, I bought Purdy's slackum and rubbing oil finish. Each iteration is a two step process using the slackum and rubbing oil. Elliot Bell was a close friend of my grandfather and left me a nice 16 bore Belgian gun in his will and a full case of Eley 2" shells that he used in the Purdy. His wife sold the Purdey before he died when he came down with Parkinson’s. I was happy with the 16 bore. That gun and the case of Eley shells will never be sold either.

[BRDHNTR]

Good for you Tom.

[Joe D.]

I have a 1988 Remington 1187 12 ga . For most of its 30 years I've shot it with the IC remchoke (stainless, I think). A few years ago I noticed a burr forming around the face of the muzzle of the choke tube (all the way around). Still shoots well but metal has definitely moved. Have shot everything from dove loads to steel waterfowl loads through that barrel. Will have to check it with a barrel mic against a new IC tube....... your post just reminded me of this....!

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Todd, I think with the Trojans they were all choked F/F & F/M and IC/M on the twelves without necessarily adhering to a pellet count.
ti
Tom, I wrap a moderate amount of Frontier pad around a brass brush, attach it to a cleaning rod, chuck it up in a cordless drill, dip it in Hoppe's and go to work on the bores. Frontier Pads will NOT harm the bores at all.





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Thanks Dean. Do you have to replace the Frontier pad and put new pad on for really bad barrels? In other words, does one stip of pad work for a bad barrel or does it wear out and have to be replaced? Sorry for so many questions Dean, but I've got a set of 10 bore barrels that are pretty bad.

[Dean Romig]

Tom, I haven’t experienced them wearing out. I have used the same brush & pad for many different barrel sets... of course different gauges will require a different brush/pad setup.





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