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Down here in South West Louisiana we get a great number of shotgun barrels with stuck chokes. A bit of wheel bearing grease would have prevented this! Some we can get out be soaking in Kroil, sometimes transmission fluid. Other times we have no choice but to cut the choke out with Dremil tools and chisels. We have perfected the chisel method to alow us to save the barrel and NOT damage the choke threads. The major drawback to this method is that in some cases it takes 4 hours or more. TIME IS MONEY! We have saved a great many barrels that other gunshops wouldn't touch. We could and need to be doing a lot of other things. What are some of the methods you folks use? Rod?  Doug Humbarger NRA Life member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 72'73. Yankee Station Try to look unimportant. Your enemy might be low on ammo. | ||
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We have several long threaded rods that have a plate at one end retained with a nut and washer. This end of the rod protrudes from the barrel breech. On the other end of the rod at the muzzle/choke end is a hardened steel tube/socket with the choke drive spokes and wrench flats machined on it. This slips over the threads and inserts into the choke tube. We have one for each gauge. To use, insert the rod from the breech. Attach the end plate. Slide the choke drive socket over the other end and insert into the choke tube. Use a washer and nut and tighten down on the drive socket. Secure the barrel with rosin coated wooden blocks in the vise and use a big wrench on the socket to turn out the tube. Takes about ten minutes not counting penetrating oil soak times. | |||
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the brownell's tool is cheap and it works. It does destroy the choke tube though. | |||
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I hold the chamber end of the barrel gripped tight in the 3 jaw of the chuck of the lathe, lock the spindle and insert a choke tube wrench. Then I run a center up to the wrench (most have a hole in them of sorts to center on) and I put about 200 pounds of pressure on the wrench with the tailstock so that it cant back out or slip. I then warm the barrel in the choke area to spitting hot with a heat gun and put an extension or pipe wrench on the choke wrench and lean into it. Most come out without damage to the choke. Don't forget to loosen the tailstock as it unscrews. Failing that it's the Brownells tool or cutting them out. When I was a kid. I had the stick. I had the rock. And I had the mud puddle. I am as adept with them today, as I was back then. Lets see today's kids say that about their IPods, IPads and XBoxes in 45 years! Rod Henrickson | |||
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Here is how I deal with it; I tell them I do not work on shotguns nor 22s. Problem solved, for me at least. | |||
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I have set the barrel up in the lathe and bored them out to just short of thread diameter, pick at the thread and pull it out like a long piece of wire. Jim Kobe 10841 Oxborough Ave So Bloomington MN 55437 952.884.6031 Professional member American Custom Gunmakers Guild | |||
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Thanks for all the input. There is certainly no easy way to remove those rusted in tubes. Doug Humbarger NRA Life member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 72'73. Yankee Station Try to look unimportant. Your enemy might be low on ammo. | |||
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I have managed to break 2 of the Brownells tools. I'm glad to get some of these tips! Bill Jacobs NRA Endowment Member US Army Veteran CWP Holder Gunsmith | |||
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I would have thought by now that Dave Kiff or one of the other reamer cowboys would have made a left hand cutting reamer designed to simply cut the different models of chokes out with a T handle. Basically just a piloted chucking reamer that cuts .004 inch under the ID of the threads. Possibly there is more to it than my widdle bwain can wrap itself around. I've never given the matter a lot of thought and made any measurements. When I was a kid. I had the stick. I had the rock. And I had the mud puddle. I am as adept with them today, as I was back then. Lets see today's kids say that about their IPods, IPads and XBoxes in 45 years! Rod Henrickson | |||
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Why offer anyone who is too lazy to take care of their shotgun the option of fixing it for them  On a more serious note, why are so many chokes becoming stuck? Is it laziness or use of too tight a choke with steel shot? Maximum recommended choke in our neck of the woods for steel shot use is half choke. I've used a Miroku O/U shotgun for near on 40 years now for clay target and bird shooting. I remove both investor chokes after I clean and swab out the barrels after each use so I can clean both the barrel and choke threads and apply a small smear of anti-seize grease to the choke threads. Never had a problem with stuck chokes. I have however removed one stuck choke tube from a Winchester semi-auto gun, a soaking in WD40 and some judicious use of heat and it came out (was not my gun). | |||
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Well now, we actually like people who stick chokes. In truth we LOVE them because they give us $100 to UN-SCHTUCK them. And you would love people too, if they gave you $100. LOL There are lots of reasons for them becoming stuck. The most common is that the oil or grease gets burned out of them and they rust in place. Some times the chokes are of poor quality and are a loose or poor fit and will leak and the threads actually carbon up and freeze. I have also seen times where they will shoot loose and plastic runs between the choke and barrel wall. The worst is when a choke swells. Some of them seem to have improper heat treat and after repeated hammering they swell up and stick fast. The ABSOLUTE worst, is when you get a slight, pretty much invisible bulge in the choke and bore. You get it out and clean everything up and find that it won't go back in so you assume it's too soft and has swelled and you sell the guy a new tube and on the first firing it is stuck fast too. Once the barrel itself has that slight bulge in the threads there is no coming back from it. Just leave the choke stuck in it and shoot it like it is. I removed and put three new tubes in one gun before I figured out what was wrong. Careful examination with a telescopic mic or gauge will almost always show a .002 or greater expansion in the thread area when this has happened. Often it's nearly or totally invisible from the outside. When I was a kid. I had the stick. I had the rock. And I had the mud puddle. I am as adept with them today, as I was back then. Lets see today's kids say that about their IPods, IPads and XBoxes in 45 years! Rod Henrickson | |||
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Often wondered how well the Briley thin walled chokes stand up to the hammering they must get. These are often used for existing barrel muzzles that were not originally made for removable chokes. My Miroku O/U has the 'flared' muzzles to take the quite solid investor chokes. There was originally a chrome Miroku sticker on the flared part but this only drew attention to this area which to some looked 'odd' on an over and under but once I got rid of the stupid sticker you don't really notice this slight tapered flare at the muzzles. damn good system. Also have had a Turkish made Atlay semi-auto shotgun for a couple of years. Very well made gun and has a full set of beautifully polished thin walled stainless steel chokes that are a nice snug fit in the threads. | |||
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My experience has not been good.......had a 30" super black eagle cut back and threaded for Brimley tubes........3 stuck so far. The last one will remain. I think those flat threads Riley used are jus asking for stuck chokes. I've never stuck a remington or Browning......... . | |||
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OR, Don't use screw in chokes, go back in time and use old timey chokes cut in the barrel like Full or mod. or IMp etc..get to buy more guns that way..  Actually I use a mod choke for everything, keeps life simple, and yes I miss a bird now and then.. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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I take any threaded item at the end of a barrel off after each shooting or hunting excursion and clean and oil said item and threads on barrel. Includes, but not limited to: shotgun chokes, suppressors, muzzle brakes, and thread protectors for suppressors and muzzle brakes. "Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid" -- Ronald Reagan "Ignorance of The People gives strength to totalitarians." Want to make just about anything work better? Keep the government as far away from it as possible, then step back and behold the wonderment and goodness. | |||
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