H.B.C Pollard in his book; History of Firearms, published in 1926, page 104 , describes the following gun in his collection:
"A hammerless flintlock sporting gun made in Bohemia in 1730, by Stanislaus Paczelt. the gun has a very thin steel thimble brazed into the muzzle as an internal liner to the barrel. This is the first known specimen of a choke or restriction at the muzzle to concentrate the pattern of shot." An example of this gun exists in the Tower of London collection.
The book, "One Hundred Great Guns",by Merrill Lindsay, page 186 carries an illustration of the hammerless flintlock made by Paczelt.
My appologies for repeating this post,but it represents a very important step in the development of choked barrels.
Its an excellent citation and apology is not required. But a choke makes the use of a ML very difficult and apparently caused more harm than good to the shooting qualities.
ML arms are not BL arms and things that work very well for BLs may not work for MLs. Thus chokes seem to have NOT been in common use in the 18th century and at the time reports were that a carefully bored cylinder shot as well or better than the choked guns. I suspect its because loading the wads through the choke makes them undersized at the breech.
European collections have many one off/very low production guns made for royalty or as journeyman/master gunsmith pieces to show a level of proficiency. This does not mean they were in common use or even practical or even meant to actually be fired. So finding a one off/low production gun in a museum in Europe is not an indication of its actual use or practicality.
Its a "See this neat thing I made, I should be a master gunsmith" statement in a great many cases.
If chokes worked in ML guns all the guns made in England after wing shooting became a popular sport with royalty and landed gentry would be choked. There is nothing to show that this is the case.
Gunmakers from the 1780s on were doing all sorts of things to improve the patterns, velocity and quickness of ignition (both locks and the breeches of the barrels). Almost all the improvements in reliability and speed of flintlock locks stem from this "arms race". The competition was so extreme that newspapers were running cartoons about "improved guns" and the patents filed. But the choke is not there in surviving guns or in the literature of the time.
This speaks VOLUMES. Had they had a surefire way of making a 30 yard gun into a 60 yard gun EVERYONE would have been doing it. To say that there was a lot of competition in this would have been a gross understatement. Having the ability to put "Gun maker to HRH" behind your name was a MAJOR plus and not only provided more business but allowed higher prices to be charged.
Thus based on surviving guns of this period we have to say that the choke bored shotgun was not considered practical in the 18th century and into the 19th and probably until the advent of the pinfire shotgun. The fact that Greener attributes the choke to an American gunsmith of the 1820s bears this out.
Dan
