My wife gave me my copy of Hemingway's Guns for Christmas. I rooted through my gun collection to see how many Hemingway guns I own. I had one Model 12, an early 20gauge with a Power Pac hung on its end. I have the three screw in chokes, Long Range, Mid-Range and Short Range so I thought it would be okay. Like many Browning designs old John liked to utilize the energy of recoil. Even the Model 12, a pump of course, used recoil to unlock the action after the shot. If one dry fires the shotgun you have to push forward on the pump handle, which mimics recoil and unlocks the action. Otherwise you can't get the pump to cycle. That Power Pac afixed to the muzzle of the little 20, which is like new, takes so much kick out of the gun that it will not cycle! That's why the gun looks so new. It wasn't used. I'm not sure what to do. That Power Pac has a one inch gap between the end of the muzzle to where the load enters the choking chamber. Will a plastic wad strip off as it makes the jump?
I'm not sure what I should do. If I chop the Power Pac off then the barrel will be 23 inches long. With the Power Pac afixed it's 28, which I like. I might removed the choke and thread the barrel, and screw in a choke device that extends from the muzzle and re-afix the Power Pac. This will reduce the gap the load has to jump, but it'd be expensive to do.
|