doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com To open or not to open, that is the Super question

I acquired a 2bbl 20g 1961-2 LTRK Superposed a yr or so back. The gun was very lightly used but the stock had been cut down to about 12 3/4" LOP including the 1" pad that was added. The story is that the gun was bought by a man for his little lady in Canada and was not used much. The metal condition bears this out.

I have used it for quail and a week ago, pheasant. All use has been with the 26" MOD/IC marked barrels. I've always felt the chokes were too tight on this gun. I've measured them and can't recall offhand what they were but they seemed 1 step tighter than what would be called MOD/IC today. Some have said this was because the gun was made for felt wads. I dunno. But it shoots like a IM/LM choked barrel.

Should I open them up? I'm thinking just open them to todays MOD/IC dims right off the Briley chart (.015/.009)

JMHO......open them up Chuck!
The gun already been tinkered with, having the stock cut.

I'd open them. You'll have a more efficient gun, especially for quail.

JC

Chuck:
Timely topic for me. Not sure if concern is value or effectiveness and I am guessing the latter.

I have a 16 that is choked .010L/.001R and I use it for grouse/woodcock and I would like to use it more for pheasant. It is proofed for 1 oz loads and I have been using RST's. It seems to work fine for grouse, but I missed a crossing shot this fall at maybe 30 yds with nothing between me and that bird and I am fairly certain I was holding where I should have been on both barrels. It was the last grouse shot of the season, over a perfect point, and it will haunt me until I drop another grouse.

Since that time I have tried it on pheasant and missed the same shot at about the same distance. At 15 to 20 yds the gun seems to be deadly, but over maybe 25/30 yds I drop, but do not kill the pheasant. I prefer clean kills so I have taken up my 12 again for pheasant. It's interesting that it is .002 in R barrel and that extra 1/8 oz of shot seems to make a big difference.

I would hunt with it a bit more, because unless you know you will only use it for quail and fairly close shots you may want the restriction back. In a perfect world I would like two sets of barrels for my 16 with one tighter for pheasant.

How is that pup doing after surgery?

Mike

Mike,
My little lab is doing great! She's been 100% since the surgery. Not only that, she's become a darn good upland birdog. She had a full season of quail last year and the one SD phez trip. This yr, she's had another SD phez trip and one quail day here in Calif, then two dove weekends with a walk-on special phez hunt where she was spectacular. As I look at her by my wife's side and type this, I couldn't be more pleased with her. I'd do it all again.

On the gun, it's a 2 bbl set, supposedly 26" M/IC and 28" F/M. In reality, all barrels are choked tighter by about one step. I'm thinking I'd just like it a bit more open on all the barrels.

I think I would try to get another stock before I permanently changed the barrels. Brownings have a history for tight chokes. Or maybe I would put another spacer of some type on the gun- maybe a slip on pad. Good luck.

Over here BASC have carried out some ballistic test with the Royal College of Military Science (Army Boffins to you and I )exhaustive tests have shown that modern Felt wadded cartridges are the equal in most cases to plaswad and Modified choke is the most universal.
IMHO, leave it alone and shoot it more often.

I think fiddling with chokes are a pastime, most chokes do their jobs quite well. I would look to kinder ways of opening a gun.

Open them up.

Who are we saving these guns for?
Our spouses after the auction? Guns are not investments.
The next generation? If we're so damned worried about the next generation, let's fix Social Security.

Apres moi, le skeet et modifié.

Besides, most public lands will be used for housing units for the new arrivals from south of the border!