doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com MACHINING A SXS FOR AFTER MARKET CHOKE TUBES

if it seems like a good idea to have your favorite sxs machined and fit with choke tubes, be careful. even if the barrel walls are heavy enough to safely support the tubes, it seems that more often than not, the gun will no longer shoot both barrels to point aim after the tubes are installed. the only solution seems to be to loosen the barrels about six inches down from the muzzles, then reregulate them and then resolder and then reblue and then pay smith lots of money... your experience and comments?

I only have a comment. I dont like how you torch guns, especally sxs's. Then try to feed us a bunch of bull *&%@ about how ole Ed has the colors down to specific guns. So that said i your a idiot!!! But thats just my opinion.

1 A shotgun does not "shoot to point of aim" ,it shoots where it is pointed.
2 Shotgun barrels are not "regulated" exept in the sense of being bored to throw a consistant pattern with a specific cartridge at a specific distance .
3 This obbsession with multi choke is yet another fad aimed at people that think lots of add ons will make them in to some kind of super shot.

But thats MY opinion

Installation of choke tubes is a well understood process, and can be done well by a number of good companies. Many of those companies can also machine eccentric chokes to correct the effect of a choke butcher

For once we are in total agreement

I am a little confused by your first two points. On shotgun world forum, the experts and gunsmiths on there are always talking about point of aim and barrel regulation. According to them, if you take a pattern board and aim for the centre but it shoots 3 feet high, then it is not shooting to point of aim which they claim has to do with poor barrel regulation. I am not trying to be a jerk here, just trying to understand more of gun function, especially SxS's.
On point three I totally agree.

Shot gun barrel are not "regulated" like rifle barrels. When they are built the muzzel ends are brrought together to be parralel and in such a way that the boers are straight and not bowed in or out. Thats the way the gun has developed over the last century or so .On a side by side at 30 yards, the right barrel will generaly shoot to the left and a little high of the "target" if you were to aim it like a rifle ,the left barrel will do the oppersit. An O/U will generaly shoot top barrel flat and bottom high ,Hence a high ribb to average it out.

You can work this out mathmaticaly so its no secret.
I do not understand what people are talking about with comments about reglation as to do what is suggested would make your barrels look awful ,and pray tell me how do you do this to barrels that have braised ribs?
May be some of these experts would like to explain exactly what it is they do.

I spent 9 years building new guns and I never once heard this mentioned . I have been sleeving guns for 30 years and agian never had any request or instruction to do this. So to my original comment, let me rephrase it , A shot gun will shoot to a specific place, not nessesarly the point it is "aimed" at. A shooter with a well fitting gun will be able to shoot to that same place consistantly. It is down to his ability to put that place in the correct place to hit his target.

Gunman, what is the brand name or names of the guns you built over nine years? Thanks kindly for your reply.

Thanks for the info. As I said, I'm just looking to expand my knowledge. What others are talking about when referring to regulation I do not know. But often I have read comments that one of the reasons lower priced SxS's and O/U's are poor guns is because their barrels are not regulated very well as it takes time (and money) to regulate them properly. Also I have read that according to some, these low cost guns do not fire anywhere to where one is pointing, again because of poor barrel regulation in the building process. So I don't really know what others are trying to say but it has come up quite often on shotgun world.

Now this definitely needs some explanation. The bores start wider apart at the breeches than they end up at the muzzles. There is "Absolutely" no way both bores can be straight with out bows & end up "Parallel".

To my knowledge I have (Fortunately) never owned a gun which you had anything to do with building. Over the years I have looked at quite a few double shotguns & done some measuring on a bunch of them. I have never checked one which had the bores parallel for any portion of their length. They all converged toward the muzzle for their entire length.

In the L C Smith Plans & Specifications book a drawing is shown giving the amount of convergence for their 12ga bbls & the distance from the muzzle at which the axis crosses. I have checked several of my Lefevers & they would appear to be built to near identical specs.