[senior smoke]

Hello:
One of the shooters at the local club purchased a new Browning XT. He was asked how the gun shot? He said worse shooting gun I have ever owned. We asked him whats wrong with it, said I lucky can break any targets. He signs up for a practice round and a few of us are watching him shoot and if he hit a target it was only a big chip. One of the guys comes out of the club holding the box the gun came in and says I know why he is having trouble hitting targets. We said what is he doing wrong? He showed us the box and he never put put any of the choke tubes in his gun. We stopped his round and told him that he had no choke tubes in his gun. His face turned white thinking he ruined his new gun. He put the choke tubes in the gun and started smoking targets. Have no idea if any damage was done to the threads in his barrel. I doubt it, as the chokes fit into the gun.
Steve

 

[blkcloud]

My daughter won a state championship shooting threads... when she first started she shot really fast.. it was like.. pullbang all together..I fianlly took the skeet choke out and she shot a open bore..lol.. no thread damage..

 

[Bob Schultz]

One of my employees got a new Beretta AL-391 trap gun about 6 years ago. We went to the gun club and he shot the first 25 targets with the Full choke tube in the gun and hardly broke a target! I was a bit suspect of the tube so he put in the IM one and broke 23 out of 25! We later measured the constriction of the tube marked AND color coded Full...it was Cylinder bore!

Bob

 

[cubancigar2000]

I have told this before so If I bore anybody, I am sorry. 1986 I bought a new SKB 505 combo. I never owned a gun with chokes before. I went to a registered shoot at Fulton Co GC in Rochester Indiana. No practice, just straight to the line for the first 25. You know when you are on them and I was that day. However the first 25 were pieces and I was dead on and knew it. Next 25 same thing so I asked a friend what the hell was wrong with this new gun, I cannot smoke a bird and I am dead on today. He discovered I had not put a choke in. I put the mod choke in and smoked the last 50 for my first and only 100 singles in registered shooting. I bet everything that day and won a pile of money and a 100 straight money clip. It never hurt the gun but I never shot it well after that day. You guessed it, I sold it.

 

[Mark425]

Thats a funny story.

BTW..I've seen guys shoot the threads on the sporting course many times. Doesn't seem to mess up their guns. I would never do it though.

 

[over the hill]

My son had the same results with a 391 as Bob Schultz said.

Choke tubes sometimes aren't what they are supposed to be.

Full was terrible, modified was almost a perfect pattern , but more like full.



Regards....Gerald

 

[senior smoke]

Maybe that's why I never owned a gun with choke tubes. To complicated for my pea sized brain.
Steve

 

[senior smoke]

Trapboy1957:
As you and other shooters already know, your dad was a great shooter and competitor. I never would have been able to use an open choke like that to breaks targets. I use a .42 thousands fixed full choke in my 870 and lucky break the targets as it is. When I first started shooting, Luther use to say I was the worse left handed shooter he ever saw. 40 years later, he now says I am the worse shooter, left or right handed he ever saw. Regardless, I enjoyed your response. Hope you have a happy and safe holiday.
Steve

 

[Ljutic111]

THis may get a lot of doubts and critisizm but I have a lot of Herters 20-12ga inserts that I use sometimes when I feel like screwing around on the line . Shooting a 7/8 20 ga shell out of a 12 ga barrel and with some luck I will break 23-24 out of 25 more than once and most breaks are good ones with no chips . I wish I could do that more times with my 12ga shells . Hard to believe that the choke has no affect on the pattern as I see it -- more like shooting a shell thru on oversized pipe .

 

[stokinpls]

Shot the first half of a round of doubles that way once. Noticed it about the second post. Finished out, ran back to the car and screwed in my chokes on the way back to the trap. Picked up 9 birds and ended with an 81 and a red face. Don't believe I missed any first targets.

 

[senior smoke]

ljutic111:
Sounds like fun.
Steve

 

[SeldomShoots]

If you think about it, lead is softer than steel and should never mess up a threaded barrel, especially with a plastic wads holding the sides of most of the shot. Threads will no doubt be dirty, but the likelihood of damage would be most likely zero. I don't think I would try that with steel or tungsten shot though.

John

 

[bobdog]

I once got surprised by a pheasant and actually shot it from the hip with a Browning. I was embarrassed to discover when I got back to the truck that I had forgotten to put the chokes back in when I cleaned it. True story.

 

[shootintom]

So, the lead beats the wad out of the barrel? I can't see where either one will hurt the threads since both are much softer than the threads.

Tom

 

[steele]

Here is a new/unusual twist using a choke tube. Several weeks ago, at a local club, a new shooter had trouble getting a shell into the chamber of a Mossberg 500. There was some type of obstruction preventing the shell going into the chamber. A close inspection with a flashlight revealed what looked like some type of sleeve stuck in the chamber. After a little prying with a leatherman tool, we were able to extract a 12 gauge extended choke tube from the barrel. Only the knurling was visible. This guy was shooting skeet with this gun with 20 gauge shells!!! He put the choke tube in the chamber, & then fired 20 gauge shells in it. He forgot the tube was there, when he wanted to try to shoot 12 gauge trap loads. I still don't believe this gun didn't come apart, or at least fracture the choke tube. I don't believe it would even extract the 20 ga round. He couldn't understand all the fuss about this.

 

[senior smoke]

MUZZLEBLAST:
I have read your response three times and don't really understand. Why would he put a choke tube in the chamber?? If I am reading what you read correctly, this guy needs to be banned from ever shooting again. Maybe I just don't understand.
Steve

 

[steele]

You got it right!! He put the choke tube in the chamber & was firing 20 gauge shells thru it. On the trap line, he couldn't get a shell in the chamber, so several of us looked at the gun. I thought initally a case split & left the plastic hull in the chamber, blocking the insertion of a fresh round. We could see something in the chamber, but until we put a light in there, we couldn't see what it was. We tried different cleaning rods from the muzzle to push out the obstruction. We got it to move a little & then we could see the knurled end of an extended tube sticking out a bit, enough to grab with a leatherman tool. We about crapped when we saw what he did. If I wasn't there, I would not have believed it!! He is/was a new shooter & just didn't know any better. I never did check to see if he had a tube in the correct end of the barrel. We obviously pointed out this potential for disaster.