Install screw-in choke tubes

Put a little choke lube on an improved cylinder tube and install it in the barrel. It should screw in smoothly and fit flush with or a little below the muzzle when it has seated.

Now put a light up the barrel, checking to be certain the seating edge of the tube is resting squarely against the bore, which is smaller in size. It will look like a ring. You can, and should, make a simple tool to double check this visual inspection. Take a 6- to 7-inch piece of welding rod or a piece of coat hanger and sharpen one end to a point.

The feeler should catch in the seat on the way in and pass over the tube on the way out. Remember, improperly seated choke tubes can catch shot, wad, or both, and be torn out of the gun. I mean every tube, not just the IC, and test fire the gun before returning it to your customer. If you have doubts—and you may have some the first few times—mount the shotgun in a rifle vise, clamp the vise to the bench and tie a long enough string on the trigger to keep you well back from the firing line.

If you mess up and leave the testing to your customer, it will cost you a whole lot more. A few, related, afterthoughts about sights seem appropriate about now. There might have enough thread left on the bead for you to reattach it with epoxy laced with powdered steel. You can also replace a bead sight by soldering on a ramp drilled and tapped to accept a new bead.

If you plan to do so, however, you must do your soldering before reaming and tapping. The heat from a torch can warp a previously machined barrel and its threads in the process. Whether the barrel will require reblueing depends on how good and careful you are when it comes to sweating on ramps. The most profitable alternative may be to replace any lost sight by mounting a Polychoke rib. Before tackling your first choke installation job, though, I seriously recommend a few practice runs.

Scrounge around for an old barrel, cut about 10 inches off and use both ends of the piece to develop your skills. Finally, always use choke tube lube.

It contains metal particles to support the threads. And periodically check the unloaded gun to make sure the choke tube is fully seated. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Create an account. Password recovery. Gun Tests. Now the first step on the reamer is entering the bore. Continue machining until your reamer is 0. You will cut this remaining amount after the threading operation. Remove the tool from the bore and from the drive adapter.

Be careful not to disturb the adjustments on your cross slide or milling vise. You will be putting the barrel back on the lathe after the threads are cut. Shake the tool around in the pail of solvent and remove the pilot. Shake the barrel around by touching it with the tap. Put the pilot on the tap and secure your barrel in a bench vise, again making sure that you left enough barrel exposed to the tool so that your pilot will not enter the section of barrel held within the vise jaws.

Threading is done by hand, following the same instructions given in the earlier section. When threading is complete, return the barrel to the lathe and set it up for final machining.

This will take no time at all since the milling vice and cross slide have not been disturbed. Machine the last 0. You have just cut the choke seat, insuring that there are no marks on it caused by touching it with the tap.

Screw-in a choke and inspect your job under a good light. Again you want to see the face of the choke seat all the way around to be sure that the bore is slightly smaller than the entrance of the choke. With very little practice, you will be able to install a choke in about 15 minutes using this method. Using the power feed on your lathe has made this job incredibly easy. If you have a long lathe, you may want to machine barrels between centers.

You will need some sort of chamber mandrel to attach the chamber end of the barrel to your tailstock. There are expanding mandrels available, and Brownells sells a chamber mandrel with a lock pin to prevent the barrel from turning around it. Attach your mandrel to your tailstock and place the barrel over it. If you are using a mandrel that requires a lock pin, insert the pin. Put a dead center in your headstock for setup and a steady rest at the halfway point of your barrel. Adjust the steady rest with the muzzle aligned in the headstock center then slide the tailstock to the right and remove the center.

Some gunsmiths mount their reamer to the headstock in a collet but I prefer to use some sort of floating adapter. Colonial Arms provides these in Nos. Set the lathe to run at or below 75 rpm and manually feed the barrel over the reamer, using the tailstock handwheel.

This is very much a matter of feel. If the barrel is choked Skeet, or if shortening the barrel is part of the job, removing the chrome is very easy. Just sand the face of the muzzle, either by hand or with a power sander using the miter table, to remove the chrome from this surface. Your reamer can now be used safely, since the first step will be contacting the bore below the level of the chrome.

This can be a very tedious job if you rely on a brake cylinder hone for removing the chrome. Insert one end of a piece of coarse emery cloth 3 inches wide by about 8 inches long in the slit and wrap the rest clockwise around the dowel. Experiment with the length of the emery cloth to get a tight fit in the choke.

Lube the choke with penetrating oil and, with the sanding fixture started in the bore, turn on the power while holding onto the barrel.

If you are installing a lot of screw-in chokes, and do a lot of fixed choke adjusting, you should consider investing in a Sunnen sizing hone. These machines make short work of chrome removal and they can usually be obtained quite cheaply. Ask your local automotive machinist where to find one; they are the same machines used to size connecting rods and king pins.

Most shops charge a little extra when chrome has to be removed before choke installation. Often, the Rem-Choke system can be installed in these barrels. Measure the original choke tube O. If you find that the Rem-Choke is larger than the original system, you can run your Rem-Choke installation tube right over the old installation. The Winchester Super-X shotgun has been very popular. On the later models, and on most high rib models, the vent rib is retained at the front rib post often by an unsightly Allen screw and floats freely everywhere else.

I have found that this retainer is not strong enough after a screw-in choke has been installed in a Super-X barrel. The front rib post will be ripped out of the barrel by the weight of the recoiling vent rib, nd the vent rib will slide rearward across the top of the receiver. The latter method is my preference because it takes very little time and I have not seen one of these repairs fail. Always look for this when the owner is present. This is no time for the owner to discover this condition.

Explain to him from the start that your machining is fully piloted and accurately follows the bore of his shotgun barrel. There are also safety concerns when a bore is off-center. Measure off center bores very carefully to be sure that you will not leave one side of the barrel dangerously thin.

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Gun Tests. Would I do it again? Ken Ken. Ken: I forgot to mention Carlson's. They make good inexpensive Choke Tubes and they make some of them on a machine I made. IN the machine shop world, and gunsmithing is part of the machine shop world, it is best to do what you do best and farm out the rest to places where they commonly do what you need to do, that you don't commonly do.

It is not cost effective to do jobs that may only come around once in a long while, due to two major factors. One is tooling and the other is learning curve. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn how to do more kinds of work, I am say "Why Bother! Now if you want to take on this type of work as another facet of your business, all you have to satisfy is, "can you get enough of this new work to justify taking it on in the first place? I can do lots of things in my shop.

However when it comes to specialized operations, I farm the work out because I lose money on things I can't do effectively. I farm out Blanchard Grinding for parts that are not standard material dimensions to start. It is far easier, way more cost effective, and produces a better product, if I start machining on a part that is already ground to net overall dimensions, than if I spend the time to square up a bunch of parts on the mill, which will look like ship and then start machining them to final configuration.

It is not even close. IE: they can do a better job than I can, and I actually know what I'm doing on this one. I could, in my shop, thread a shotgun barrel and after I researched exactly what needs to be done for the specific gun I was doing,,, I could get it right the first time.

Last edited by W. Buchanan; at PM. Well said, Randy. Buchanan, I think you are exactly right This job should be done by someone that is qualified to do it. Carlson's did a great job for me and they do this sort of thing regularly and are good at it.

I would think that it would be difficult for a small shop to compete. NOTE: We take great care to prevent damage to the checkering and to maintain the sharp detail of the stocks contour. The oil finish is then applied by hand, buffed, rubbed and re-applied the following day. This process takes 6 to 12 applications, depending on the type of wood and the woods density. The masking is removed from the checkering.

The checkering is chased, cleaned and oiled. The stock is hand oiled and the gun is reassembled. Turnaround time is 4 to 5 weeks. Muzzle brakes installed. I install muzzle brakes on bolt-action rifles and large caliber single-shot pistols.

The installation of a muzzle brake can add between 1" and 1. Upon your request, I will cut the barrel to any length you desire at no extra charge.

All work is performed on a state-of-the-art lathe. Blue or Stainless Steel. Remington , Mossberg M Winchester , Please call or e-mail us at the numbers provided below:. Map and Directions Courtesy Of. We currently accept payment through the following methods.

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Realize that packing for shipping is different from packing for moving. Package and freight carriers are far rougher on boxes than are movers.

Place the weapon back in its original box. If you no longer have the original box, wrap the object in a similarly sized box with enough packaging so that you don't hear anything move when you shake the box.

Pack the first box into a slightly larger box. Insert at least two inches of padding between the inner box and the sides of the outer box. Include a short letter with. Phone Number, with area code.

A detailed description of the problem or work to be performed. Your preferred method for return shipment. Ship the box. Registered Mail. Provides maximum protection and security for valuables. May be combined with COD, restricted delivery, or return receipt. Only items with no declared value may use registry service without insurance. Priority Mail. Priority Mail offers 2-day service to most domestic destinations. Items must weigh 70 pounds or less and measure inches or less in.

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