opening up chokes

[C.O.B.]

Originally Posted by legh higgins

can you open Damascus tubes?

Yes.

[Tom Flanigan]

Back in the day, 10 bores were used as upland guns. We tend to think of them as waterfowl guns, and most of them are. But there are also light 10's around that were obviously built with upland shooting in mind. The market gunner Dee Slocum that I mention from time to time, hunted grouse for the NY city market with a 10 bore hammer gun with no chokes. That F grade 10 bore Lefever sounds like a real find.

[Dean Romig]

Legh, I'll see you this week and you can show me that pretty little 16....





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[John Davis]

The damascus question jogged my memory. A number of years ago I sent the damascus barrels of my Fred Kimble DH 12 to Oscar Gaddy to refurbish. While he had it he took lots of measurements of the inside of the barrels. As a result he discovered that someone (presumably Kimble, the "inventor" of choke boring) had done all kinds of reboring. That information didn't bother me at all.

[Twombly setters]

for lunch?

[Bill Murphy]

The question about the .000 X .018 Lefever brings to mind my discovery about my grandfather's Lefever 1887 pigeon gun. I was devastated as a young man when I found that the right barrel on his gun was .000 and he was a dedicated pigeon shooter who owned his own ring in Hazleton, PA. On thinking about it, he was, according to my dad, a one gun shooter who was not known to shoot any gun except the E grade Lefever. The ANSWER is that northeast pigeon shoots in the early days were one shot events. The left barrel was used for competitive pigeon shoots and the combination of open and full made the same gun a great hunting gun. I never assume that a cylinder and full gun made before 1910 was opened up. I will later post my solution to the question about opening chokes. It always causes posters to accuse me of being uppity. The solution is "Learn to shoot". I usually follow up such uppity posts with an invitation to spend a day with me at my club, shooting full choke guns at skeet and sporting clays birds. It isn't rocket science, it's just changing to a different method of addressing the birds.

[Randy Roberts]

Following along the lines of shooting Sporting Clays with F/F guns as Bill mentioned I can tell you that when we shoot SC here we usually shoot 2 rounds due to the driving distance. Most always I shoot the 1st round with my go to SC gun which has interchangeable chokes and the 2nd round with a F/F Parker, usually a 34". I really cannot recall a single day when there was much difference in the score at all, a bird or 2 maybe, some times the F/F was the higher score.

[Heff]

In my mind, gun fit and mount are much more important than open chokes for most hunting situations. I would prefer a more open choke if available in some hunting situations, but center of the target is the same regardless of choke.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by legh higgins

for lunch?

Sure. I'll call you to let you know which day. Could be Wednesday.... could be Thursday.... Friday I'll be casting dry flies to the brown trout Tom stocked in his pond a few years ago. They have never been fished and Tom says they're 12"-14" this spring. I'll pinch my barbs down so's I don't hurt 'em.





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[Double Lab]

Bill. Randy and Chad summed up my opinions. A few of the pigeon shoots back in the day had a single barrel event along with the main shoot. Many pigeon shooters, myself included, shot a double with IC or LM in the right barrel and as much choke as you could get in the left. Many shot O/U's but the choking was the same. That way you could go from the single barrel ring to the main ring using the same gun. Shot size choices are another thing better left for another discussion.

Randy found out the same thing I did using tight chokes and lighter shot charges. My scores did'nt go down but actually increased. A win/win as far as I'm concerned.

And Chad, you hit the nail on the head. Sometimes a more open choke is preferable but the middle of the pattern is the middle of the pattern.