doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What have I got, please?

I've been shooting beyond my skills and think it's the gun, not me. Noted in Jan/Feb edition Shooting Sportsman "Primer of Proof" article that 13 over 1 on my 1913 A&N 12ga barrels indicate bore diameters of .719. Muzzles measure .740 right and 710 left.

The last day goose hunting on the Eastern Shore is Thursday, and I don't want to take this magic gun if it's more open than I thought---Improved Cylinder and Improved Modified. What do you think they are, please?

I'd rather not hear a story about fishing this one out of the drink, if you can avoid that.

Don't spend as much time pondering the chokes as you do making the shot count.

Best,
Ted

Sounds like your gun was set up for incoming, driven birds, with the second barrel being more open than the first. The real point is that if you shoot a gun well why worry about the chokes? I shot I/C and I/C one year for everything. From 15 yards to 45 yards if it flew it died. Use larger shot to get tighter patterns if you want. I/C gives a decent pattern with #2 pellets. Or it did 20 years ago.

Most shooters are over choked with modern shells. Hard to use a tight 12" pattern on a 20 yard target. Even with a 30" pattern, at 40 yards, it is still hard to hit a moving live target with the pattern. I always thought that range identification was more important than points of constriction. Few people really know what 20, 30 or 40 yards looks like. If I had to choose a combo I would be much happier with .010 and .025 or .010 and .030 than the often seen .030 and .040. Open is good.

Just shoot 'em in the head and neck, cylinder bore will kill them that way. *wink*

Destry

KB - choke constriction absolutely must be measured, especially absolutely on older guns that most likely have had their bores enlarged from shooting and maintenance. 13/1 tells you only that the bores would accept a 0.719" plug and would not accept a 0.729" plug at the time of proof inspection. Since the bores could vary by about ten thou even at time of manufacture, a muzzle measure could not possibly yield an accurate choke constriction estimation. You must get a bore diameter measurement just before the choke constriction starts and at the minimum diameter within the choke constriction.

Your current hot shooting may well be due to an open choke!

Destry did you forget to post those pictures for Teddy ?

King, sounds like there's something amiss somewhere. Assuming your right barrel started life at 13/1, your muzzle measurement is .021 LARGER than the bore diameter. Could be that bore has been honed significantly, in which case the L may well have been honed too. In fact, if the right barrel passed proof at 13/1, the only explanation is significant honing. Don't want to scare you away from a gun you're shooting well, but if I were you, in addition to getting accurate bore measurements so you can determine how much constriction you have, I'd also want to measure barrel wall thickness.

LB - It could have happened that the barrel started life at 0.728", which would still get marked 13/1. In that case, it would now be "only" 0.012" enlarged. Tharin lies the problem of plug gauge marked bore diameter.

Thank you, gentlemen. I'm going to think of the A&N as a magic stick and take it goose hunting Thursday over decoys. Confidence surely counts for something. My nephew looked at me sideways in the blind after our last duck hunt, said "That was good shooting, Uncle King," so maybe the gun sold new to a Mr. Kipping for seven pounds seven shillings will get me through again.

All this guessing about the bore size is just wonderful. However, the Brits are just as famous for grinding barrels up from the outside in as they are for grinding them up from the inside out. I would be surprised if this gun with the .740 muzzle had acceptable wall thickness.