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Forums10
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Jul 28th, 2025
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,107 Likes: 78
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,107 Likes: 78 |
Try a drop of oil on the business end of the Skeet's gauge.
It's not expanding to bore diameter after passing through the choke.
Also, those things tend to not have the tightest connection between the ball head and the shaft. Make sure it can't move. I use cellophane tape.
"The price of good shotgunnery is constant practice" - Fred Kimble
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227 |
Thanks again Jim and Rocketman. I understand all of that. The thing I don't understand is few have said gun was either honed or backbored. My reasoning is that if that were so, the bores would be larger not smaller. Their assumption is that they ARE larger. The assumption for backboring is that the bores were once .717 for their entire length, and they became larger....724-.727 by backboring. I've no reason to suspect they were backbored.
This is what I have come up with since the last post. Using plug gages, right barrel from breech; Left barrel from breech: .727 in 5" .727 in 10" .726 in 9" .726 in 24" .724 in 22 15/16" .724 in 24 15 /16"
.722 in 25" .722 in 25"
.717 in 27 1/16" .717 in 25 7/8" Barrels again are 28" long, and have not been cut. Something's wrong here. Your measurements don't jibe. Above, you're getting .726 within 5-10" of the muzzle. These numbers suggest to me the chokes are virtually identical...commencing ~4" back from the muzzle and constricting ~ 9 points in both barrels. Nominally, essentially constant .7265 for 20+ inches, then constricted to .717 in both. Earlier you said... "Small Bore, I did that, when I put the gage into the muzzle end after being zeroed on the .700 ring. It read .718 to the full depth of 12", withdrawing it slowly read the same until it was out of muzzle." I think you had sticky balls.  So what's the bore diameter 6" in? is it .718 or .726? [color:#FF0000]
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,983
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,983 |
You surely can have sticky balls. Better than itchy, I guess. After several years of use, my Skeet's gauge started behaving unreliably. Sent it back to Skeets and they serviced it for me, no charge. Works consistently now.
> Jim Legg <
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Joined: Feb 2006
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Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,854 Likes: 118 |
Mike, I've never seen a 12 ga. l.C. Smith with .717 bores that far back. Like I saidm this gun could have been special ordered with that tapered bore.
You highlighted (red) for both the right and left barrels. I formatted it with a distance between the right and left barrel. So the right column is right barrel, left column is left barrel.
It is very possible that the balls are sticking, and I will send the gage back to them. I had called them not long ago asking if they could make a longer rod to go deeper, 16" would be great but one of the workers said they aren't doing that as of yet.
David
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,227 |
Mike, I've never seen a 12 ga. l.C. Smith with .717 bores that far back.
What do you mean " .717" that far back?" Does your chart not say they are both .722 @ 25" IN from the breech...therefore .722 BACK from the muzzle???
Like I saidm this gun could have been special ordered with that tapered bore.
You highlighted (red) for both the right and left barrels. I formatted it with a distance between the right and left barrel. So the right column is right barrel, left column is left barrel.
I understood that. And by those numbers, and IMO, the bores are for practical purposes indentical @ .725 5-6" back and .717" at the muzzles. That makes the chokes virtually indistinguishable at 8-9 points. Where am I wrong?
It is very possible that the balls are sticking, and I will send the gage back to them. I had called them not long ago asking if they could make a longer rod to go deeper, 16" would be great but one of the workers said they aren't doing that as of yet.
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 6,812
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 6,812 |
I'd think about the Chuck H's phrase "partial backbore" (operative word "partial"), JD. Or selectively honed?
I doubt that, as one poster suggests, the constrictions are identical. In addition, I guess the barrels are original 28" if you say so but that cylinder and 9 points sure sounds like what's left of quarter and half choke when they get their nozzles cropped.
But what do I know? I've had many troubles in my life and most of them never happened--except in my head. And Wise Man say: You don't smoke the herring, it won't turn red.
jack
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,854 Likes: 118
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,854 Likes: 118 |
Mike, sorry about the .717 size. That was the original size using the Skeet's gage, and most likely the balls were sticking because the plugs showed the bores to be larger.
Jack, the barrels have the familar "v" notches at the top and bottom ribs, typical of the earlier nicer graded "elsies". My guess is that someone honed the chokes out, as most were shipped full/full unless otherwise ordered. I could order a letter and it would tell me how long, but I am sure they were made with 28".
The bores taken with the plug gages are more to reason and make sense. Typically L.C. Smith choke area is straight for 1" and then tapered for 1 9/16 to bore. The standard bore size back then was .728-9 and I have seen some smaller, one hammer gun I have from 1899 has a bore of .725, later they seemed to be .730-.732.
So thanks to all that helped, and the culprit I believe is that the balls were sticking givng inaccurate readings from the muzzle side.
Oldfarmer was right, the only way to see is to pattern it.
Last edited by JDW; 10/01/10 10:50 PM.
David
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,462 Likes: 89
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,462 Likes: 89 |
You surely can have sticky balls. Better than itchy, I guess. After several years of use, my Skeet's gauge started behaving unreliably. Sent it back to Skeets and they serviced it for me, no charge. Works consistently now. If you wouldn't stick yer balls in dirty holes they wouldn't get sticky.
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 6,812
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 6,812 |
Upon rereading, I see that the conclusion that bores are a predictablly uniform diameter along their total length and the constrictions about .008 in both is the correct answer. Good call, Mike. I hate Agatha Christie!
jack
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,983
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,983 |
Try a drop of oil on the business end of the Skeet's gauge.
It's not expanding to bore diameter after passing through the choke.
Also, those things tend to not have the tightest connection between the ball head and the shaft. Make sure it can't move. I use cellophane tape.
I tried oil and lighter lubes to no avail. There is a very small o-ring inside that had swelled up(maybe because of oiling) and was causing the binding. Skeets fixed this, again at no charge.
Last edited by Jim Legg; 10/02/10 10:44 AM.
> Jim Legg <
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