Determining unknown choke ...

L

Legionnaire

New member
Any way to tell what choke an unmarked barrel is? I have a Savage 24 .22mag/20gauge combo. The shotgun barrel throws foster-type slugs all over the place. I've heard that these shoot best through I/C tubes. Any way for a layman to gauge a barrel to determine its choke?
 
I read one source that indicated (although not authoritatively) that the Camper models were cylinder, whereas others were full. I'd love to figure out a way to measure mine. I suppose I could just take it to a smith ...
 
If you have a set of calipers for measuring, you could measure the constriction and figure it out from there. Otherwise, take it to a gun shop, mos of them have measuring devices.
 
It won't, obviously. But it might help me understand why the gun is inaccurate with slugs, and if the problem is too tight a choke, I assume that a smith could open the bore up a bit. So just exploring the options.
 
When I bought my Model 24, .22 Mag/20 Gauge, there were no options - the shotgun was full-choked. That was back around 1963, maybe '64. Options may have been available later. It was originally for my brother, who used it to hunt deer. It did pretty well with Foster slugs as I remember - he got a few deer with it. Now I have it again, but mostly use the shotgun barrel to shoot Punkin balls.

I guess slug shooting depends a lot on the individual gun, but brand of slugs can make a big difference too.

DC
 
I had a 24 that was 22LR/20 gauge. It was marked Modified, but patterns were pretty tight.

It worked well with the Rottweil Brenekke slug. YMMV.
 
I do need to try some other slugs. I just did a web search, and the tables at this site provide enough detail to "guesstimate" the choke simply by measuring the diameter of the bore just inside the muzzle. My 24's barrel gauges at 0.587, indicating full choke. I guess to be precise, one would need to measure the length of the constriction (choke) and the diameter of the bore in front of the constriction, but I'm not sure what I'd gain by that ... unless the choke proved to be too short, in which case I'd have a different problem to solve.
 
I had a model 24 DL with that same combo, 22mag/20mag and it was a full choke and all the ones i've seen in that config. were also full choke. I sold the gun some time ago, it did not handle slugs well at all.
 
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