Mystery Choke Devices

[Dave Noreen]

There was a question over on Shotgunworld about some choke devices from vintage skeet guns.

I looked through the Gun Digests from 1944 to 1959 and 1934, 39 & 41 Stoeger's and didn't see anything like this.

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We know the Winchester Model 12 on the left and the Remington Model 11 on the right have Cutts Compensators, but what is on the Browning A5 in the middle?

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What is on the Remington Sportsman-48 the gent in the middle is holding?

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[Reggie Bishop]

There was a PowerPac choke that I think was similar in design. Weaver also had a choke system. The one pictured looks like a Cutts of a different model?

[Dave Noreen]

My thought was that someone re-engineered the Pachmayr POWer-PAC by making a new body with one slot and machining a bunch of slots in a Pachmayr choke tube.

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[Alfred Houde]

It looks like something that Cutts may have done. Just speculating based on the number of experimental items of his that I recall that are held in the collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

I have attached probably the most detailed article on Cutts and his son. It was authored by USMC Captain John Sheehan while he was a Special Assistant at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

[Bill Murphy]

The odd part of the Cutts story is that it was designed to keep a Thompson sub machine gun from rising in recoil at the time of discharge. However, the wildly popular Cutts Compensator sold for use in shotguns did not have vents that prevent the rise of the muzzle on discharge. The vents are equally situated on the top and bottom of the compensator body. After at least fifty years of using guns with Cutts Compensators in dozens of different shotguns, I still don't understand why the compensator body has vents at the bottom. The pictured, probably modified, Pachmayr Power Pac in my opinion is the proper use of vents in a shotgun barrel, in the top only. I agree with Researcher, the compensator in question is a modified Pachmayr Power Pac, never marketed in that configuration.

[Bill Murphy]

Al Houde, thanks for the article I have never seen. I haven't read it in it's entirety yet, but I will. I remember attending an auction in Rockville, Maryland, of Colonel Cutts' personal property, hoping to find some gun related items. Unfortunately, no gun related items were included in the auction. I still shoot a rather large collection of Cutts equipped shotguns and am looking for a proper rifle to utilize a rare and unusual Cutts Compensator made for a 30 caliber rifle, according to the information on the box.

[Alfred Houde]

It's a very well researched article. John had some talent, and I tried hard to get him on the staff of the museum. He chose to pursue his PhD, and I couldn't fault him for that.

A number of years ago, the museum took in a toolbox, tools, and a number of completed and uncompleted items belonging to Cutts. Some of the items were still on display last I visited.

[Daryl Corona]

Alfred, thanks for the fascinating article on an item that eventually made it's way to the public. I have a 1950's Model 12 with one and really love it. Growing up all the skeet shooters had them on their M12's, 11-48's and Model 11's. I saw you mentioned in the footnotes, so if you served, thank you for your service. I'm not sure the military industrial complex is much different today, only on a larger scale. To me a Thompson doesn't look complete without the Compensator.

[James L. Martin]

Here's my 1948 M-12 skeet gun with a original cutts

[Tom Jay]

I see what I believe is a “Polychoke” in the 3rd photo

[Dean Romig]

Sure looks like a Poly-Choke





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[Dave Noreen]

The Remington Sportsman the gent on the right is holding in my fourth photo has a Shooting Master choke device. I don't see anything in my third picture that looks anything like a Poly Choke, two Cutts Compensators and a mystery choke in the middle.

[Dean Romig]

Actually Dave, it's the fourth picture down. the guy on the right is crossing his gun, with the "Poly Choke"(?) over the other gun.





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[Bill Murphy]

Robert Stack won his World Championship in 1935? with a Cutts equipped Model 11 Remington 20 gauge. Wayne Mayes won more than one World Championship with Cutts equipped Model 1400 Winchesters.

[Daryl Corona]

Robert Stack won his World Championship in 1935? with a Cutts equipped Model 11 Remington 20 gauge. Wayne Mayes won more than one World Championship with Cutts equipped Model 1400 Winchesters.

Let's not forget Harry Wright and his Model 12 with the Cutts. If I'm not mistaken he won like 14 world championships and was one of the nicest men you'll ever meet. Plenty of pictures on the wall at Loch Raven skeet and trap showing squads in the 50's and 60's with their Cutts equipped guns. There is even one of you Bill accepting a trophy of some sorts.

Harry was a southpaw like me and when I first met him I was shooting a Rem 32 with a cast off stock. He invited over to his house and gave me a fancy stock with cast on for a lefty. Still have the gun sporting the fancy stock. His gun collection was legendary.

[Dave Noreen]

Actually Dave, it's the fourth picture down. the guy on the right is crossing his gun, with the "Poly Choke"(?) over the other gun.

Pretty sure that is a model of the Shooting Master line of choke devices. They seemed to be continually evolving. From the 1954 Gun Digest --

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From the 1956 Gun Digest --

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From the 1957 & 58 Gun Digests --

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[Bill Murphy]

Daryl, do you have the auction catalog that showed the guns of the Harry Wright collection? It is one of few gun auction catalogs that I have seen in hard cover.

[Daryl Corona]

Daryl, do you have the auction catalog that showed the guns of the Harry Wright collection? It is one of few gun auction catalogs that I have seen in hard cover.

I don't have it but I believe it is still at the club as is a book put together by his grandson showcasing his vast collection.

[Daryl Corona]

Duplicate

[edgarspencer]

Sure looks like a Poly-Choke.

It is. They made a vented, and a non vented. The Poly Choke factory is about 2 miles from here, on the Farmington River.
Lyman also made a screw on choke.

[Bill Murphy]

Daryl, the book you refer to by Greg Wareheim is probably the auction catalog I referred to. The only picture I can imagine of me at Loch Raven is when I won a Browning Model 12, 28 gauge in a memorial shoot for a member and friend whose name escapes me at this time. I am a few months from 80 and the Loch Raven oldtimers still refer to me as "Billy". I also have some great Harry Wright items that I bought from Greg's mother.

[allen newell]

Happy birthday Bill

[Bill Murphy]

Harry Wright was also a little known exhibition shooter. He was wealthy from the liquor business, so didn't do trick shooting for a living. However, he had all the trappings of a trick shooter. I have a bag of Winchester-Western gold colored target coins that were used by trick shooters to shoot with rifles when thrown up in the air. I bought those target coins from Harry's daughter. She also sold me some nice Winchester target grade shotgun stocks. I also bought the best condition fifties Browning A-5 I have ever seen from the family. In his later years, his granddaughters (I assume that's who they were) would drive him to visit the club during his namesake skeet shoot in a white Rolls Royce Corniche convertible with the top down.

[Daryl Corona]

Harry Wright was a character for sure. He tells the story of him coming to the western shore on a ferry boat with only a few dollars to his name. He was real treat to shoot with.

[Chris Riley]

Thanks to all for sharing. Have a 20ga Remington Sportsman with a Cutts Compensator that was a family gun. Between the design and appearance of this gun with the Cutts, the background and the old photos provided above, it’s living history for me and a window into the past and The Greatest Generation. Many thanks for the posts and pictures!

[Bill Murphy]

Daryl, I am quite a bit younger than Harry Wright, but I have been on that ferry, also with a few dollars, or less, in my pockets. The ferry was abandoned when I was 7 years old.

[Daryl Corona]

Over the weekend I saw a nice Rem. M11 with a cutts on it and it had a complete set of tubes in a wooden case so marked complete with the wrench.

[Bill Murphy]

"Daryl's next bird gun".

[Daryl Corona]

"Daryl's next bird gun".

It's a 12ga so the only birds I will be shooting with it would be geese, ducks or clays. It had some engraving on it but I got distracted by the wooden case with the tubes in it.

[Alfred Houde]

In an earlier reply I mentioned that the National Museum of the Marine Corps holds in their collection a toolbox with approximately 200 Cutts prototypes, shop copies, tools and gauges owned by Cutts.

After the holidays I heard back from my former colleague, and he provided some images. I include them here. These are classic Cutts prototypes and leads me to believe that the mystery device in question is Cutts handy work. I can't be 100% certain, but the consistencies are certainly there.

Cutts had their hands in a lot of things, so who knows? The fourth image is called a Bird Hawk, which I thought was pretty cool.

[Bill Murphy]

Alfred's second picture looks like my Cutt's 30 caliber compensator. I'm still looking for someone who can install it on a rifle.