# Old Gun ?



## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

I spent a couple hours today taking apart my great grandfather's old shotgun so I could thoroughly clean it. As I cleaned and disassembled, I was reminded of the fixed full choke on this gun. Last week my grandpa gave my brother another old shotgun, which is the same model, but a 12ga, and I believe just a few years newer than the one he gave me. I noticed it also had a fixed full choke. 

This got me thinking, was a full choke the industry standard back then? I know interchangeable chokes are a relatively new thing (at least in relation to the guns I am referring to), but I would have figured that some of these old guns would at least have modified chokes. Did they make guns with different choke constructions back then, or were they all the same? Maybe my great grandfather just preferred to shoot fulls? I guess this is a possibility, as they loved to shoot trap, and if they like seeing clays dusted as much as I do, that would make perfect sense. 

Any thoughts?


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

Most manufacturers gave you a choice of chokes. I don't know the percentage breakdown, but generally waterfowlers preferred full chokes and upland game hunters opted for modified chokes. So choke size was a buyers preference.


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

Back in the day, we didn't bother with those fancy multiple chokes. We all used a full choke, and just let them get out there a ways so we didn't hammer everything we shot. At least that was the theory that we went by. Didn't always work in practice. But then again, we never got caught with the wrong choke tube in the gun. I guess now days we just have better excuses for poor shooting.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Loke said:


> Back in the day, we didn't bother with those fancy multiple chokes. We all used a full choke, and just let them get out there a ways so we didn't hammer everything we shot. At least that was the theory that we went by. Didn't always work in practice. But then again, we never got caught with the wrong choke tube in the gun. I guess now days we just have better excuses for poor shooting.


I agree with that. Most shotguns back in the day were full choke, especially the single-shot shotguns. Doubles would have a modified barrel. Guys with money that spent too much time reading sporting magazines had adjustable Poly-chokes.

Geeze, we just grabbed a shotgun and went hunting, didn't worry about such things as chokes. We just shot, hunted, all the time. You pulled the trigger and the critter died. We didn't have outdoor forums back then so we didn't know any better. :roll:

I remember shooting a box (25 in a box back then) of deer slugs thru a 16 ga 30-inch long full choke barrel and my dad giving me hell for turning a full choke gun into a G^* D*^# open choke.


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## James (Oct 7, 2007)

You could get different chokes on the barrel of your choice. Most of the people I knew all used and recommended a full choke, so that is what my first shotgun had too. Turns out it was a good choice for the hunting I did with the shotgun.


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Hey Goob! I guess your dad could have "choked" you for that!


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## Cooky (Apr 25, 2011)

Wads, powder and shot are better now. You needed a full choke to not have holes in the pattern. Like Loke says, you would find the range your pattern was about right and try to keep your shots close to that.
I’m sure you know, but for those that don’t, steel shot will ruin those old barrels.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

Cooky said:


> Wads, powder and shot are better now. You needed a full choke to not have holes in the pattern. Like Loke says, you would find the range your pattern was about right and try to keep your shots close to that. This is what bothers me about the fixed full choke...If I want to hunt pine hens in tight cover, I'm more or less screwed. I either miss it completely, or blow it to smitherines (which has happened...blew a grouse clean in half at 20 feet.)
> I'm sure you know, but for those that don't, steel shot will ruin those old barrels.


Yeah, I know. (Good reminder for everyone though) This is another difficulty I have. I would like to use these old guns to hunt ducks like my grandad used to, ya know, kind of a nostalgic type hunt. I know you can shoot bismuth out of them, but I just don't feel like spending $35 a box on the stuff. I just wondered if they did make them in other constrictions besides full. Sounds like full was the standard.


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

The full choke is ideal in tight cover on grouse when you sneak up and pop them in the head while they are sitting on the branch. If you want to get the old gun shooting on ducks again, any good gunsmith should be able to open up the choke to a modified constriction. That is said to be safe for steel shot.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Bears Butt said:


> Hey Goob! I guess your dad could have "choked" you for that!


he, he, he. I get it!


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

I have a worn out shotgun with 3 brand new choke tubes that have never been used; cylinder, improved, and modified. I put the full in when the gun was new 20 years ago and have killed a little of everything with it never once wishing I had used the cute little wrench to change out the shiney metal tube. It is an old model Remington 1100 2-3/4 with a 26" barrel. Maybe I'm unrefined or a piss-poor shotgunner with no class but I have killed ALOT of birdies ranging in size from a few ounces to nearly 20lbs without any problems. I don't hunt ducks, so I have never fired steel through it.--------SS


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## Frisco Pete (Sep 22, 2007)

I don't think that old time shooters weren't all that scientific about stuff like chokes. I think that they just went by the Conventional Wisdom of the day - and that seemed to be that full choke was somehow better or "shot harder". Another example of this is the old time notion that longer barrels "shot harder". While true in the black powder era, it wasn't in the new smokeless powder era. But hunters were big on word-of-mouth and short on reading. And of course the black powder/smokeless eras overlapped for a long time. Many used black to reload with. So you see a lot of full-choked long-barreled old shotguns. Certainly the older shotguns in my family all seem to be choked Full. I also think that waterfowl was THE biggest use for area shotgunners back in the day. Therefore full chokes, rather than upland-game-oriented Modifieds or Improved Cylinders are more common. Waterfowl was the primary game the shotgun was bought for, and upland game secondary. Therefore if only one choke is offered, Full would be the logical choice.

_Cooky_ was right when he said that "_Wads, powder and shot are better now. You needed a full choke to not have holes in the pattern._" Modern shotshells are better and except for loss-leader 'Mart loads, usually shot tighter than they once did.

But as was mentioned above, it seems that shooters can do with with most any choke, as long as they have a lot of shooting under their belt with their chosen choke. And the loads they chose may have something to do with that.


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