doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A question regarding Briley chokes.

Stan
I had stopped at the Briley Show Room on the way to Eagle Lake , TX and ask them what choke to use for 3.5 steel T's. They told me to use the extended choke for steel and the I Mod for T's. This was prior to Ti chokes. 20 years later I am still using it.
Briley extended I MOD chokes were tested against other constrictions at our club in a series of informal test and were the only chokes that gave good patterns at 40 yards. Most of my friends from all parts of LA use them and shoot up to six flats of steel per year. No damage to guns or chokes and dead ducks.

bill

I agree, bill. I was only referring to the titanium chokes they sell. They say not to use anything but lead in them. I'm sure you are referring to their chokes made of steel.

I have been impressed with their quality, as regarding their chokes. I have accumulated somewhere around 23 or 24 S-1 series Briley thinwall flush choke tubes. I have never ordered a one from them, except for one order where I used two gift certificates I won at a sporting clays tourney and used to have a Perazzi MX-8 threaded and got about 8 tubes with the deal. The rest have come with guns I have bought used. Recently I got concerned that by switching the tubes between guns I might have some that were differing in I.D. and get myself into trouble. If the "lower" end of a choke tube, the end away from the muzzle, is not sized very properly to the bore diameter at that point, i.e., if the i.d. of the tube is less than the i.d. of the bore the wad can and will catch on the edge, start shaving plastic from the wad and compressing it behind the choke tube, forcing it inward until a shot charge in a wad hangs on the deformed end of the tube and blows the tube out and/or splits the barrel. I took all of them and carefully measured the i. diameters of all 23 to see if any were made for different bore diameters. They were all exactly the same diameter. They all also are large enough diameter, in relation to the bore, that as the wad enters the choke tube there is actually about a .004-.005" enlargement so that there is no possibility of the wad ever catching the edge of the choke tube as it enters it.

This is how all are supposed to be made, but many aren't, much to the dismay of shooters who have blown up their muzzle and didn't know why. Of course, letting a tube get loose and backed out a few thou can also allow this plastic to get shaved off and caused this problem, but by assuring that they are sized properly to YOUR bore, this shouldn't happen even if you inadvertently let a tube loosen a slight bit.

SRH

I have been using Briley chokes on several guns for many years. What's the deal about some chokes are good for steel and some aren't? Jess Briley won't tell you on the website. What is the difference? Popular belief would lead us to believe that wall thickness is what protects a barrel from damage from steel. Is that true or not?

Don't understand the ins and outs, Bill, but their website states that their titanium chokes are to be used with lead only. I have a few S-1s that are marked on them lead only.

http://www.briley.com/faq-2.aspx

SRH

Titanium is brittle? Steel is not? Why not make all Briley tubes in steel?

There are some target shooters that think the weight difference in steel and titanium is not only perceptible but conducive to their shooting better.

You know, "new and improved !!"

SRH

Titanium has what's called creep. All metals have it. But titanium has a much higher creep than steel. Creep is when metal permanently deforms from repeated or sustained stress that is below the elastic limit.

I have a set of Briley's for a Browning 2000 3" in IC,M, & F marked for Steel. Have used the M & IC for waterfowl without any problems, these are flush chokes too.

I have no tools for measuring constriction, and my memory is probably messed up -- but I somehow seem to recall them telling me they mark their steel shot tubes for the patterns they throw with steel rather than by lead-derived standards for constriction. Can someone here confirm or set me straight?

Jay

The reason the titanium chokes are not compatible with steelshot is not because they are flush, It's because the metal will creep. Repeated firing puts high stress at the constriction area. This area will "creep" to a larger diameter over many firings and the choke will lock up in the barrel.

The mechanics of creep usually involve elevated temperatures as well as elevated stress. Chokes see both conditions.