Me to :)

To answer Paul Harm's question of different ways to open chokes there are several. Sunnen hone (many find the finish unacceptable), Brownells offers an adjustable reamer set up similar to Porterfields, high quality expansion reamers aided by ingenuity can produce good results, Clymer offered excellent choke reamers that fed from the breech and were driven from the muzzle ( they cost $175 each 25 years ago and you needed 3-4 per gage), for those with lathes or mills excellent results can be attained but set ups are time cosuming, and finally a barrel boring machine ( I don't know of any U.S. gunsmith with one). For those you who object to anyone opening the chokes on their Parkers, I noticed Dean had the chokes altered by a very well respected gunsmith on the 28 gage he is offering on this forum.

I can't even imagine how these little guys would have looked if I had left the chokes at XF/XF.... Each of these woodcock were shot at less than 20 yards. Abe Chaber, the CT smith who did the work is certainly one of the very best. David Trevallion praises Abe's work about every time I talk with him about American gunsmiths. Abe is German-trained and Dave is London-trained (Purdey).

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Naw, someone switched the subject, which is ok by me. You could start a thread on shot size. #5s for me .

I guess my question, or point was, unless you go through the time for setting up a lathe the bar with bushings is the way most gunsmiths would do it. It just seemed like many of us were critical of doing it that way. Larry was doing it right. There is still polishing work to do and he didn't show that.

Do we realize how many barrel sets Parker gunmakers trashed when the boring and choking didn't go right?? Do we have that option today? I stand by my description of barrel borers today.

I don't know what that tells us....

The guy with the thinnest tread on his tires did the most driving...?

The guy with the most empties in the rear cargo pocket of his shooting vest at the end of the day shot more shells?

The guy who never made a mistake probably never tried anything?





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When Tom Roster was writing a column for the American Shotgunner way back when, I wrote (yes pen and paper) asking his opinion on how to open a choke on a gun without removing metal. This was in the early eighties I was shooting a 26" VHE that was M/F. He said to simply cut the petals off a wad then use a fiber wad under the shot column to make up for the missing petals. It worked much better than spreader loads as there was still a good center density. Now a days I can't get enough choke. Funny how your perspective changes as you age.

It was an attempt at an analogy. You will solve the choke question right after you get a consensus on the best shot size for pheasants.
Both are legitimate discussions, btw.

Oh, and humor. Let's strive to always keep a sense of it.