opening chokes changing value

[Bill Murphy]

There must be a bunch of us who are earning their living by shooting a shotgun, judging by the number who are raping their shotguns in the interest of hitting that "one additional bird". Do you guys keep a record of the additional money you win when shooting a raped gun compared to the additional money you spent screwing it up? In my experience, the gunsmithing costs much more than the additional money won with these guns. Why does every gun purchased have to be a "quail gun"? Don't we already own a few or more quail guns? I will refrain from using the old line, "Learn to shoot.".

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

There must be a bunch of us who are earning their living by shooting a shotgun, judging by the number who are raping their shotguns in the interest of hitting that "one additional bird". Do you guys keep a record of the additional money you win when shooting a raped gun compared to the additional money you spent screwing it up? In my experience, the gunsmithing costs much more than the additional money won with these guns. Why does every gun purchased have to be a "quail gun"? Don't we already own a few or more quail guns? I will refrain from using the old line, "Learn to shoot.".

With eyes that seem to be getting worse as I age and with muscles and joints that are working overtime to keep me out of the covers and at home where I can be comfortable, I don't feel awful guilty about "raping" MY little VHE 28 so I can pretend I'm a better shot than I really am and can bring home a couple of grouse and a woodcock or two to make my walk in the woods a little more worthwhile for both myself and Gracie.





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[Phil C]

Some guns are made to be hunted with. If you have a gun that fits you well but lets say is full and full and you like chasing wild birds behind your dogs.
Why not get it choked properly for the situation.
I would never consider doing that to a high condition gun, but for the guy that has a great shooter of a Parker why not?
Depending on a persons situation. Why buy another gun? I will caviot that with you need a professional with a good reputation to do the choke work.
A proffesional like Dean Harris that owns SKEETS has the tooling and the skill to do the job ptoperly. I know there are alsoa few others, but there are plenty of hacks.

Personally i hate to see a vintage SXS with ckoke tubes.

[Bill Murphy]

The guy with the best reputation for messing with shotgun barrels has a bunch of anecdotes about screwing up barrels in our forum files and other forum files. Even those who pretend to know what they are doing put out more than their share of disasters. Sorry, not for me.

[Dean Romig]

Umm... does he use a torch to obtain funny-looking 'case colors' too?






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[classicioi]

Dean, I also raped my Parker Repro 28 Ga 28" barrels many years ago. The unrealistic factory tight chokes were usless for any kind of hunting that I do and the patterns were horrible. I sent the barrels to Kirk Merrington and now at .010 & .020 the gun throws excellent patterns.

When I sell this gun some day I'm willing to bet the new owner will appreciate the new chokes just as much as I do.

[Tom Flanigan]

I don't consider changing chokes in a repro to be raping. It is not an original Parker so I would do what I wanted with the chokes. But my thoughts are that the chokes on vintage guns should be left alone. You can't put the metal back and the gun is changed forever. I used to get good IC performance (I pattern my guns) from the old Remington post wads loaded to a bit higher pressure. The higher pressure seemed to help. I'm not talking very high pressure but in the 10,000 range.

[Big D]

I recently handled a CSMC M21 with gold inlays of the owner's fat Jack Russell terriers. Don't know if the terriers were, in fact, that fat, or whether it was a poor inlay job, but what sealed the "Heck No" deal for me was the screw in chokes

[stumpstalker]

Yes, this an old topic, widely-covered in many retrievable threads. But, it is worth bringing back for discussion as it has enduring relevance as to why we bother to seek out vintage guns to collect and shoot, when there are many traditionally-styled guns being produced today with modern stock dimensions and multiple choke choices, all of which can offer an edge in hitting wild or clay birds.

To answer the original question: For me, opening chokes reduces monetary value, while it surely can enhance other values, utility being one.

I happen to be one consumer who was willing to pay a higher price for a factory open-choked 16-gauge, 0-framed VH. It is not a high-grade or high-condition piece; in fact, it had been restored. But, for me there is a significant distinction between restored and altered (surely another debate subject).

I could have saved a lot of money if I had just sent out my father’s full-choked 16-gauge, 1-framed VH for opening. It just meant a lot to me to keep that one original and buy another -- a gun that left Meriden in 1907 essentially as it was represented to me as being: "a New England bird gun”, cylinder and modified.

[William Davis]

A other factor in value is the chance of poor choke opening work. Look at enough SXS muzzles you will see many out of round alterations. Running a reamer it’s critical everything is concentric . Problem with concentric on a hand regulated SXS barrel is they were bent to regulate. Reamer set up on the bend is not going to run true.

A very few gunsmith will set the job up carefully and refuse to alter if it is risky. Most are low price fast turn with a high percentage chance of out of round .

Want to see a high risk alteration google “Larry Potterfield open chokes” good utube on how not to do it. Did not indicate the tool before he cut, relied on the bushings to index the reamer.

William