Threading Shotgun Barrels

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Dr Killdeer

New member
I have an older Charles Daly field grade 12 Guage O/U with 30" fixed tubes in mint condition.

I want to have the barrels threaded to accept Briley chokes, but no gunsmith in my area has the capability to do it.

Anybody know of a reputable shop in the lower 48 that that I can call?*
 
What is the OD of your barrels? most doubles have thinner barrels to keep the weight down so you have to go with tru-chokes to keep from blowing out the side of your barrels when you tap it.
 
I'll measure the O.D. but I thought Briley titanium chokes prevent just such a thing from happening. That's why I need to talk to an experienced 'Smitty.'*
I know it the job won't be cheap, but it beats the cost of a Citori.
 
I suggest you talk to Mike Orlen. He installed choke tubes on my Franchi AL48 and it had a very thin barrel.

He is well respected on this and other shotgun forums and is located in Amherst Mass.

P.S. Mike's work is very reasonably priced and done quickly.
 
My standard reamer is .825 so if your barrel is not .865 or more it makes it too thin when you thread it. I have done many single barrels but never tried it on a double .
 
I called Briley and spoke to "Gary" in the tech department. He was knowledgable and eager to help, but he said I'd have to ship the barrels to him for evaluation and we'd go from there.*

Their standard package to do both barrels is $469. Not including tax, shipping and incidentals. It includes five flush chokes. But I want extended chokes, which, naturally cost a lot more. That sounds steep. What do you think Roughedge? Is that anything close to what you paid Cowboy?

I'm going try to make contact with Mike Orlen up in Mass. before I do anything. Thanks for the heads up Cowboy.*

I have two Brownings, an A5 and a Citori. I already have a collection of Invector Plus chokes, so I might as well have the barrels threaded to accept them to save a few bucks, if it can be done.

I'll keep you posted.
 
Seams a bit much but when you consider how long it takes to set up a double in the lathe and the cost of the reamer and tap ($300.00) its may be about right.
 
I'm going to be learning how to do that soon.

Two Mondays ago I lengthened the forcing cone on a shotgun and this past Friday I backbored another shotgun. :D
 
Lengthening a forcing cone and backboring is good IF the barrel has the wall thickness; same is true for threading fixed choke barrels - IF the muzzle has the meat, then it can be easily done by a competent smith. Mike has a good rep on Shotgun World; Briley is the 800# gorilla when it comes to chokes; you might also contact George Trulock and Carlson's for quotes.

Briley sounds a little high but they are the Mercedes of the choke tube world
 
BTW, if you send it to Trinidad JC, c/o L Taper, he can do it. He has 17 yrs. experience as a machinist making parta for NASA. He can even time choke tubes (no one actually does it, but Taper being a machinist proved it could be done). Let me know if you want contact info.
 
Older A5 in my experience require a thin walled tube.
Mike Owen should be able to do that.

One reason Birley is so high is I do believe they make the tubes to fit your barrel

The rest of us are just installing commercial made tubes
 
Hi, the tooling I used was new and sharp (it's probably not as fresh since I used it though ;). Even before polishing the bore it looked pretty good. The program is going to acquire more tooling too since the class has a queue to use the stuff.
 
Here's the latest! I called Mike's shop and Mike himself answered the phone. I told him what gun I have and what I want done.

He already knew the barrel thickness without me telling him and he said it would cost me $55 per barrel to tap them for the chokes, not including the return shipping charge for UPS.

Do the math! That's about one third*of the price I was quoted by Briley. I'm going to ship my barrels to him tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted.
 
I called Mike's shop and Mike himself answered the phone.
Click to expand...
:)

That is typical of my experience with Mike. I think you will really like his work and like you I couldn't believe his prices.

Glad I could help you out:D
 
guncrank - I did another 12 gauge bbl forcing cone today and it turned out great. I then tried to do a 20 gauge forcing cone and the reamer only polished the barrel. It hardly did a thing. I borrowed a rearmer from a student who bought his own.

BTW, we were taught today to do chokes. I'm going to order a choke from Brownell's before I try it on a shotgun.
 
I have threaded a number of old shotguns barrels to take screw in chokes.
I bought the rem choke reamer, bushings, and tap.

Another thing to look out for, is shotgun bores that are off center. This really is a problem. Cut an inch off the end of a shotgun muzzle and you can often see it with the naked eye.

I find I can do a barrel much faster [not that time matter much for some old retired guy] if I make a drawing of what the reamer is supposed to do, and cut some of the metal out of the way with a boring bar. Then the reamer, then the choke tap. Some guys tell me my reamer is dull if I do that. It is not. I am reaming slowly and it fills with chips. The boring bar.. I can run the lathe at high r.p.m.s.

There are some straight forward cautions from Brownells:
http://www.brownells.com/UserDocs/Miscellaneous/Screwinchokeinstallation.pdf

CREW-IN CHOKE INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS
Before accepting a barrel for machining to accept screw-in chokes, you must measure the outside diameter (O.D.) to determine
if there will be sufficient wall thickness after machining. “Mike” the O.D. of the barrel and the O.D. of the tap for the particular
gauge. Subtract the O.D. of the tap from that of the barrel, divide by 2, and this will give the wall thickness after machining,
providing the O.D. of the barrel is concentric with the inside diameter (I.D.). A sample calculation appears below.
Barrel O.D. (12 Gauge) .850"
Tap O.D. (12 Gauge) Win-Choke™ – .814"
.036" ÷ 2 = . 018" Wall Thickness
We DO NOT recommend installations in barrels where the resultant wall thickness will be less than .015", providing the I.D. of
the barrel is concentric with the O.D. If the I.D. is not concentric with the O.D., you will have to make your own decision as to
whether the installation will be safe. In addition, you CANNOT install screw-in chokes in barrels whose inside diameters (I.D.)
exceed the following dimensions:10 ga. - .780";12 ga.- .735";12 ga. Thinwall- .728";16 ga.- .666";20 ga.- .624". Exceeding these
dimensions WILL CAUSE DAMAGED CHOKE TUBES and there is a GREAT POSSIBILITY OF CAUSING A BARREL BLOW-OUT!
Check EVERY installation before firing to make sure the tube does not protrude into the bore. Back-bored or jug-choked barrels
are usually NOT suitable for screw-in choke installation.



http://www.midwayusa.com/product/93...w-in-choke-reamer-tru-choke-thinwall-12-gauge

Specific Choke Types:

Tru-Choke for use with barrels that are too thin for Win-Choke. Outside diameter .020" smaller than Win-Choke.
12 gauge .795" - 44 tpi, accepts standard Tru-Choke tubes. 20 gauge .675" - 44 tpi

Tru-Choke thinwall for over and under, lightweight single shot, side by side with thin barrels. 0.020" thinner than standard Tru-Choke tubes.
12 gauge .775" - 44 tpi, accepts thinwall style tubes only.

Win-Choke for threading barrels to accept original equipment tubes from Win-Choke, Mossberg AccuChoke, Weatherby, Browning Invector.
12 gauge .814" - 32 tpi. 20 gauge 11/16" - 32 tpi.

Rem-Choke barrels will accept Rem-Choke and Remington factory tubes.
12 gauge .814" - 32 tpi.
 
BTW, we were taught today to do chokes.
Click to expand...

Gary, you're lucky, as us old timers had to learn the business the hard way, especially starting with the Lyman, and Polychoke systems. As Archie and Edith Bunker sang, those were the days.
 
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