Choke question

[Kirk Potter]

I know this gets asked a lot, but I don’t have anyway to measure them and I’ve been told drop in choke gauges are not very accurate on old Parker’s..

12 gauge 8 shot, 180 pellets in a 24” circle at 45 yards.

Thanks.

[Ed Blake]

Get yourself a Skeets gauge. I got mine from Brownellsfor $75. I’ll wager that would be modified or improved mod choke.

[Kevin McCormack]

Drop in choke gauges are useless on any shotgun unless you have some way to measure the inner bore diameter (usually at midpoint in the barrel) so you have 2 dimensions to compare (e.g., true bore diameter at midpoint = .731 with a muzzle diameter at the end of the barrel of .691 = .731 - .691 =.040 points of constriction which equates to FFFULLL choke! The old saw of using a dime to see if a trap gun has been opened up is 100% accurate in two aspects; one, you know you have a shotgun and two; you know you have a dime. Bore measuring devices such as the micrometer gauges sold by Galazan, Hosford and others are more accurate now than they have ever been. Spend the money and stop guessing!

[Kevin McCormack]

12 gauge 8 shot, 180 pellets in a 24” circle at 45 yards.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Also meaningless without knowing the shot charge in oz. or grams in the original load used to pattern the gun so you can extrapolate as in 180 / 240, etc. to calculate percentage patterns.

[Kirk Potter]

I know that these earlier guns usually have have a larger bore size anyways.. I’m sending the barrels to Bachelder Monday for evaluation, so I can just have him tell me the chokes. Was just curious because I got the research letter in the mail today.. Both barrels were the same.

[J. A. EARLY]

With a dime if it won't go through you at least know it is .705 or tighter, and depending on how far it goes into the choke at least you have an idea.

It beats knowing absolutely nothing about the choke when you come upon a gun and aren't prepared.

[Kirk Potter]

Originally Posted by Ed Blake

Get yourself a Skeets gauge. I got mine from Brownellsfor $75. I’ll wager that would be modified or improved mod choke.

Can't seem to find it anywhere, apparently its discontinued.

[Kirk Potter]

Originally Posted by Jerry Harlow

With a dime if it won't go through you at least know it is .705 or tighter, and depending on how far it goes into the choke at least you have an idea.

It beats knowing absolutely nothing about the choke when you come upon a gun and aren't prepared.

Reading through some old threads, a 12 gauge bore diameter could be anywhere from .729-.751 though.. So I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[OH Osthaus]

Skeets are not made any longer

for the price- you can't beat these- I have one that handles 16 to 10 (my skeets won't do 10's) and one that does 20 & 28 - price might have changed - but not by much


Gary Bulley
406-961-3311
Gauges built from 8" to 18" your preference
dial type, $125
Digital type $175

[Bill Murphy]

Gary's gauges are similar to Skeet's gauges, but are available in more length options. They are cheap and they work well. Gary has a website somewhere.