the lathe carriage. I will show you how to make a full choke barrel, but if you want to make a modified
barrel, this can be made on the finish reamer.
There is a lot of arguments from various shooters on chokes, lengths of barrels, etc. In the old Black
Powder days a long barrel was needed for getting maximum power out of black powder. I don't know
how many times I have been told about a person having a long tom shotgun that would shoot like a rifle,
and out shoot other shotguns.
SHOTGUN CHOKES
To the average sportsman the term "CHOKE BORE" MEANS THAT THE DIAMETER AT THE
MUZZLE (BORE) IS LESS THAN THE DIAMETER AT SOME POINT BEHIND THE MUZZLE. ANY
SHOTGUN BARREL CONSTRICTED AT THE MUZZLE TO THE EXTENT OF .005 OF AN INCH MAY
BE TERMED A CYLINDER BORE.
After passing a certain limit in reduction, the choke always defeat its main objective by giving erratic
patterns with large holes in them. The larger the bore the greater the reduction of the bore must finish
close to a given length, and that should be approximately 1 3/8, or better as a standard should be about
1 inch.
There is also another great misconception on chokes, and that is measuring the choke with a dime.
How often we see a person take a dime from his pocket to see if it will enter the muzzle? Such a test
doesn't tell him much. If you were to measure a dime you'll find that it measures about .705. Even on
some American guns it would go into a full choke. If you were measuring a Browning modified choke
barrel you would probably find the dime would not enter the choke, as it measures .701.
If you do very many pattern testing you may find that some modified chokes will shoot tighter than a lot of
full chokes. Once you have the reamers made, now get some fairly heavy wall tubing. This should be 1/2
inch for the 12 gauges. You will need to thread one end so you can screw a fitting to that end, so the
high-pressure oil line can be attached. All you need then is a fixture to mount in the carriage where the