Cutting Shotgun Barrels

[Steve]

If you have a cylinder bored shotgun you can add some choke, provided that the barrel has enough "meat" near the muzzle. It's called jug choking, and involves boring near the end of the barrel out a small amount but leaving the very end at the original diameter.

Chokes at the light end, IC / 1/4 up to Modified / 1/2 have the most effect, like many things it's a case of diminishing returns. I like to shoot game with 1/4 or 1/2 choke, they give nice patterns. Tight chokes can't fire full sized slugs, but rifled slugs will happily go through 1/4 choke, worth remembering if your country allows slug hunting. The UK doesn't, we can only get slugs on FAC for target shooting, and it's not easy.

Many years ago I remember Brenneke solid slugs, the ones with the felt wad screwed to the back, hitting playing cards at 50yds - pretty impressive for a smooth bore gun and would be great medicine for wild hogs or escaped domestic pigs.

[CharlesHarris]

Slugs are widely used for deer hunting in the us. In a typical bead sighted, smoothbore, choked sporting gun with 1/4 or 1/2 choke, aiming with the bead sight only, typical five-shot groups are in the range of 10cm at 30 metres, and in proportion to 50-60 metres.

Using smoothbore barrels with rifle sights, US law enforcement officers are trained to engage threats with shotgun slug fire to 100 metres if a rifle is not available. 12-ga. slugs are effective in deflating automobile tyres, whereas rifle and handgun fire of less than .45 caliber is not.

[Mortblanc]

Not firing slugs through a full choke barrel is another of the internet myths about the shotgun. One of the most accurate slug shooters I ever owned was a Browning A5 with an extremely full choke.

The slugs are lead, they squeeze through the choke with no problem. That is why you use lead!

And the biggest improvement in slug accuracy will come from adding sights to the gun, not by removing the choke.

And those chokes up to 1/2 having the most effect??? Yes, they are much better than straight cylinder bore, but I am finding that what is labeled on the barrel is not what you are getting on the target. Not a single choke tube I have, in either of three different brands, gave the pellet count it claimed.

The 1/2 choke labels all gave 1/4 choke patterns (55%) and the full choke labels gave 1/2 choke or less (58-60%). My 1/4 choke barely gave 40% pattern.

What is stamped on the barrel or pressed into the tube means nothing, you have to shoot the patterns and count the pellets. Choke is measured on the target, not by the diameter of the muzzle. The "in general the constriction of .006 gives bla, bla bla..." means absolutely nothing!

[Talon]

Some very good information Mort.Funnily enough I do have an A5 with a full choke and never thought it would be safe to (theoretically) fire slugs through it,i take it a .690 ball would be just as safe as a slug?.
I'm glad after reading this thread that the only cylinder bore gun I have is a cheap Cooey, though I have been dabbling with the idea of soldering a Polychoke on to it to make it more versatile.
I was also considering doing it to my A5 but I would hate to ruin the lines of it,though it would greatly increase it's versatility.

[Steve]

[Mortblanc]

[Steve]

And do note that in 30 seconds I can swap the barrels out and be shooting on the clays range. It is all part of the versitility of the shotgun

Absolutely, very versatile indeed.

( even more so with a moderator fitted )

[CharlesHarris]

US type "Foster" slugs are mostly a hollow shell and the "rifling" swaged on them is not to impart rotation, but to ease their extrusion through the choke, and they may be safely fired through full choke barrels and will give satisfactory results. Different brands vary in slug diameter, so it pays to experiment to determine which brand is most accurate in your gun. Diameters of US made 12-ga. slug ammunition varies from. 690" to. 740"! The RWS Brenneke with wad attached has also shot well in full choke barrels in my experience. I am not familiar with other slugs which may be available in UK or the EU, but my understanding is that CIP test protocols require that slug ammunition be safe in any standard choke.

Before WW2 solid lead round ball ammunition was commonly loaded with an undersized all which would pass through the choke. Where people get into trouble is in handloading cast solid balls larger than choke diameter, of scrap lead which is harder than pure lead, or in attempting to shoot. 44-40 or other bulleted ammunition in. 410 bore shotguns, which is a sure recipe to burst the barrel.