Jim - I have a Davis HyPower with 3" chambers circa 1925, it choked .039 both barrels. Wanted to try brush wads on the trap course to open patterns.
Craig
To expand on my previous comments:
I would strongly recommend that this old gun's chokes be left alone. "They don't make 'em like that anymore!"
"More open patterns" for trap are a snare and a delusion for the reason that I have stated. "Shoot 'em and grind 'em!"
Any problems that I have experienced or heard about with 3" chambers have to do with either the use of card/fiber wad columns (debatable but possible) and/or the kind of "steep" forcing cones that were necessary when old guns were made. Wads are easy. Use one-piece pastic wads and be happy. Forcing cones are not always a problem, especially if light shot charges are used. However, if guns' bores are "modernized" for plastic-wadded loads by lengthening forcing cones then patterns can be improved because the 3" chamber effectivly becomes a part of the new forcing cone. Pattern density and "quality" can be improved and recoil levels can be made much more manageable. Such modifications might take the gun in question "out of proof", however.
