doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Winchester model 42 chokes

While looking on another site, I found a model 42 owner who says that the original full choke for the model 42 is .020.
I'm not sure how He knows this, but it fits in with what I found on my own gun.
I'll bet that a lot of these chokes were altered over time.
Pete

My "42" has a prototype poly attached. It has five settings which work effectively. WES

A friend that is a quite a collector of 42's said .017 was typical. Given that production spanned a few decades, I can see it varying. As a baseline for those that may not have perspective of what a few thousandths of an inch is, .003" is about a hair on the average person.

I measured six Model 42 skeet barrels with an inside measuring dial caliper and got .398, .398, .400, .400, .400, .402. I measured one full choke barrel and got .382. I am not sure whether the caliper is accurate to the thousandth on inside measurements, but I thought it was interesting that the difference between skeet and full is between 16 and 20 thousandths. There also seems to be considerable choke in the skeet barrel. In the days of paper shells and fiber wads, quite a bit of choke was apparently neccesary to reliably break skeet birds. I did not measure bore diameters of these barrels.

As another point of reference, I've had .410 guns that had bores from .406 to .421

I would assume that Model 42 bores are all pretty much the same, but measuring .410 bores accurately is not easy with the tools we normally have access to. The most accurate I have found with normal machinist's tools is a "small hole gauge" inserted into the bore, screwed tight, and then driven out the breech and measured with a micrometer. Unfortunately, it is not easy. I have not used a .410 bore micrometer, but I assume they are also quite accurate. Have any two posters on this thread come up with the same bore diameter on a 42?

Of our posters, Technoid, Replacement, SxSman1, and Chuck H have stated constrictions without stating bore diameter. I am assuming that these four guys have access to machinery that measure bore diameter. What are you guys using and why don't you share these bore diameters with us?

Bill, I can now measure .410 bores, but my guns and my mic are about 100 miles from me, until next week.

What do you use, and do you recommend it?

Bill,
I do have bore diameters and gave them in the range I provided. However, I don't specifically recall offhand what the M42 was in bore size, just the constriction from several years ago. I'm not at home and frankly, I'm going home from work soon and pack up for a dove hunt trip. So, it'll have to keep.

I have dial bore gauges, some gauge pins, inside dial calipers, inside spring calipers, hole mic's, and small hole gauges.