Poly-choke?

O

oldbillthundercheif

Moderator
I recently inherited a winchester 1300 with a poly-choke. It sure looks nice but are these worth a damn?

I'll take it out and pattern it soon but I have never used one of these before.

It has a "slug" setting... I don't really plan on shooting any slugs out of this one but can this big, honking choke thingy really spread out far enough to shoot slugs through?
 
I have one on an 1100. All a Poly Choke consists of is a segmented collet assembly with a threaded reducer. The more you screw it in the more the segments of the collet inside reduce in size, hence the "tighter" the choke. The design has been around for years. It was just reciently that Poly Choke came up with screw in versions to fit todays multitude of different screw in choke designs. Mine is from the early 70's and is permanently mounted. The "Slug" setting is simply wide open with no constriction at all, i.e. cylinder. Bill T.
 
If it's installed properly, it'll work fine- even for slugs. Some people find they shoot low though, since the thinckness of the device moves the bead up higher and makes the shooter depress the muzzle a bit more. Try it and see if it's manageable for you, someone spent a good bit of money to get it put there and you should try it before you toss it.

lpl/nc
 
I never cared for the "lump" at the end of a barrel. My opinion aside,they do in fact pretty much perform as advertised. One of my shooting buddies has one on his Ithaca 37 and he is deadly with it.
 
Other than ugly and the funny looks you get, I've one on a Ithaca Mod 37 16ga since the early 1950's and it patterns like a champ!
 
Had a Stevens model 69 in 12 and 20 gauge with a polychoke on each. Had the muzzle brake version. Nice to just turn to the choke setting I needed and could change without any trouble. No wrenches or other chokes to keep track of. Recoil with 3 inch shells was deminished considerbly. Cleaning took extra effort, but for me the results were worth it. Had a white bead that came with the installation of the polychoke. Busted clay pigeons with ease. Patterns if shot were as good as other brand chokes. Traded the both Stevens away and went tactical with my shotguns due to security leaning now. Polychke is still with us at Lyman Products or Marble. If the gun hasn't been used in awhile the choke setting may have set and be very hard to turn. Shot only a few slugs through the Stevens and they worked ok. One person quite a few years ago installed a polychoke himself but made a minor mistake. Fired a slug and the whole assembly game off violently. So one has to follow directions carefully.
 
I had a similar adjustable choke on one of my guns and it was great, but mine had a rib.

A buddy had a Poly-Choke installed on his plain-barrelled 870 and it always shot way low after that because the bead was much higher than before. The fist time he shot it after getting it back, he missed a grouse sitting in the road about 25 yards away. He was really ticked!

I understand that Poly-Choke used to bend shotgun barrels to get them to pattern close to the same as before. Poly-Choke ribs probably were designed to correct the low shooting problem.

Picher
 
I shot it today.

I like this thing! It patterns very well from "slug" to "x-tra full" and shoots exactly where it should. Those birds won't know what hit them.
 
Poly-choke

Hey Chief,

Is yours the perm-mounted or the screw-in model?

I had one on an 1100 that I loved.. could alllllmost change chokes for each bird! I lost that one in a house-fire. Was looking at them for my current 870 and was wondering about yours....

r
 
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