Choke question.

[Edward Yager]

I just received my research letter on my 10ga.It said the chokes were RH and LH 195 #8's in a 24" circle at 45 yards.Could anyone tell me what the chokes would be?

[Dean Romig]

That's pretty darn full, I think. Twenty-four inches at forty-five yards is a pretty small circle in anybody's book.






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[Brian Dudley]

Best way to know would be to measure the chokes on the gun. That will tell you exactly what they are.

Dean is right here that it does appear that they are choked full.

[Chuck Bishop]

Looking at other 10ga. guns found on the same stock book page, the pellet counts ranged from a low of 175 to a high of 210. Unless specifically specified, normally Parker choked their guns full and full and let the customer open the chokes at a later time. Parker used 1 1/4 oz. of shot for the 10ga. patterning. You could figure out the amount of pellets in a 1 1/4 oz. load for size 8 shot (Tatham) shot. Take the total amount of pellets in the shell and the amount of pellets in the 24" circle and do the math percentage.

[todd allen]

Ounce and a quarter of 8's?
My guess would be that this gun was choked for the pigeon ring.

[Paul Harm]

Chokes are normally checked at 40 yards with a 30" circle. There's 510 of #8's in 1 1/4 oz of shot. Not sure how to figure yours.

[Chuck Bishop]

According to the chart, Tatham size 8 shot would have 499 pellets in a 1 1/4 oz. shell. There were 195 pellets in the 24" circle. This means 39% of the pellets were in the 24" circle. Full choke percentages start in the 70% range but this is based on the 30" circle at 40 yards. It would be interesting to take this gun and pattern using both distances and size.

Does anyone know if this Tatham shot was plain lead, chilled shot, or high antimony shot? It can make a big difference in percentages.

[Dean Romig]

Paul, the distance and diameter of the circle differ depending on the period of Parker manufacture. Some were even patterned using an oval rather than a true circle. It would have been nice if the distance and the size of the circle were standardized from the very beginning, but that wouldn't attract nearly as much conversation. :cheers:






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[Drew Hause]

Parker SN 1500 (c. 1878) - 4200 (c. 1884) patterning was done at 45 yards in a 18 x 24 oval or possibly a rectangle. Between SNs 4500 and 86000 patterning was at 45 yards in a 24" circle.
A c. 1891 12g Parker was patterned with 1 1/4 oz. No. 7 and 42 grains (3 1/4 Dr. Eq.) DuPont Bulk Smokeless.

After 1896, Parker used the standard 40 yards in a 30" circle. (Courtesy of Chuck Bishop)

A 1900 Parker hang tag states that 12g 2 5/8” chambered guns were patterned at 40 yds. in a 30” circle using a 2 5/8” shell with 1 1/8 oz. No. 7 chilled shot and 40 grains (3 1/4 Dr. Eq.) of DuPont Bulk Smokeless powder. (Courtesy of Bruce Day)

[Chuck Bishop]

Drew, can you double check 71792, it's a PH 16ga.

[Drew Hause]

Thanks Chuck. Couldn't find the the hang tag in my 7 or 8 thousand images :(
I changed the statement, here and
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F2sQuPm05IE4VWYYnCkvuXmYEzQoWd_SQgaAfUOZEFU/preview