Lefever choke work

[Cold Spring]

As some here know I've done mechanical work on Fox shotguns for many years but never felt right about opening Fox tapered chokes so there's a parallel section at the muzzle(s). I finally bit the bullet and invested in tooling to open 12-16-20 gauge tapered chokes while maintaining their tapered profile - as done by Fox, Lefever, Parker and some other makers. After checking wall thickness, this work is done from the breech end using a drive rod and tapered reamers that are piloted (centered) in the bore just aft of the original choke leade. The bronze pilots are made on the lathe to the bore diameter, and the resulting choke is exactly on line with the axis of the bore. Reaming will also correct off shooting due to chokes that were done cockeyed at the factory. More common than you might think.

I am not "in the business" and only do this work on my own guns and occasionally for good friends. Again, I am not soliciting business, please don't ask.

This morning I did a set of Syracuse Lefever 12-gauge barrels for a friend who's a grouse hunter and a regular clays shooter. He wanted Light Mod & Mod. Right barrel had 29 thou constriction and is now 15 thou. Left choke went from 36 to 20 thou. Both new chokes are full-tapered to the muzzles, very smooth surfaces and will pass for factory work. In other words, no parallel section at the muzzles as done with common expandable reamers.

For those interested, here's a macro pic showing most of the curled up reamer cuttings from that right barrel. Is that more or less than you might think? That background is a paper kitchen towel.

[Bob Jurewicz]

Wow, that reimer really "chunks" it out. I'm a sinner. I use the muzzle reamers and have had good luck with patterns. Doesn't taper like factory but results are good if your careful.
Bob Jurewicz

[mobirdhunter]

I'd never thought about what the amount of metal would look like when shaving down a choke as you describe. I also did not expect the metal to curl off like you show in the photo. Very intriguing. Thanks for sharing this. It's posts like this that help make the forum interesting and varied.

[Dean Romig]

I got that much lead out of the full chokes of my 28 gauge VHE when I first got it. Had been fired it’s whole life with early shells with no shot collars. I was shocked!





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[Cold Spring]

Bob, the reamers are sharp and the pressure from pushing them forward along with the lubricant makes for curly cuttings. As compared with an expandable reamer that only cuts a thou or two for each adjustment, and with little pressure to do the cutting. As you know, using an expandable reamer from the muzzle end is fraught with the possibility of tipping it and cutting the choke at a tangent which will make for off shooting on that barrel.