Forcing cones date back to the beginning of breechloading shotguns. If you find a vintage gun without them it would have been chambered for brass hulls. The earliest hulls were paper, which was the "magic bullet" for breechloading guns. The paper expanded in the chamber providing an excellent seal against gas blowback. The forcing cone was generally fairly short, seldom more than about 1/2". Reason for the short cone was so as the fiber wad passed from the hull into the bore the front of the wad would already be in the bore before the rear left the hull. That decreased gas blowing into the shot charge.
Choke bore didn't really get started until the late 1870's. Expect any gun made earlier to be cylinder. And there were still a lot of cylinder guns being made well after choking became popular.
Determing if barrels have been cut is sometimes a subjective guess. Usually you can spot a suspect gun but I've seen some that left me scratching my head unconvinced.
Last edited by Joe Wood; 01/09/14 10:14 PM.
