So I have been patterning my new Carlson longbeard choke and I was getting great numbers but some significant gaps. So I decided to deep clean and polish my choke using the same method recommended for barrels. Now all of the sudden my numbers are abysmal. Like only around 50 pellets in the 10". Does anyone have any advice or word of wisdom?
Couple of things.....
Are you shooting at a large piece of paper?
Are you using a leadsled?
Are you cleaning the barrel with a boar snake after each shot?
Is the weather the same.... Temp/ wind....
Do you think you opened up the choke? Micrometer to check it
Any one of those could be the factor.
After thinking about it, I'm betting temp and wind are the issue. Also I magazine end cap torque is a possibility I'm considering. Will check the bore with some mics when I get to work tomorrow night ( am a machinist.) I was shooting a standard size target in the sitting position, no leads led though. Guess I'll just have to experiment more but I was pretty shocked
Right on wind can really play with it. Also at 40 yards I like minimum 3'x3" paper. Even If I know my gun is shooting point of aim. If I'm helping others I try and layer 4'x4'. The circle the 10" and 20" at the greatest part of the shot.
It's easy to flinch also. Small targets don't always show you that.....
Good luck.
I've always just cleaned the choke thoroughly and never polished. I've polished the barrel on two guns.One it made a difference and one it didn't. I've heard on some guns it can actually make patterns worse. Myself personally.. I wouldn't do anything more than clean the choke thoroughly. Polishing takes metal away. I'm no gunsmith though and just my opinion.
I'd also tighten the cap,shoot on a calm day preferably from a gun rest and some type of Lead sled or equivalent to take human error out of the equation as much as possible.
I had a couple of the original Primos Jellyhead for the 835. They had a visible ring just before the parallel section of the choke. I got it in my head to polish one of them. RUINED that choke. The rings in the longbeard chokes are there for a reason and removing any metal or softening the edges of those rings basically cancels out their purpose of why they're there-to slow the wad and compress the shot column. Cleaning is fine, but you just might have ruined your choke...
For my numbers to drop from the 180's and 190's to 53, yeah I'm thinking I just killed my choke blew 50 bucks.
Sounds like it. Sucks man. At least you know now.
In order to ruin a choke by cleaning, you would have to use something that was able to take the metal off...
I use a bore brush with a drill, and it has not opened my choke... What exactly did you do to clean the choke? What do you think you would have done to actually physically open the choke by cleaning it?
You are more likely to open a choke using hard metal shot than by cleaning.
I used JB bore cleaner and JB bore Brite with Kroil oil and a Scott Brite pad
Quote from: Claybirdd on April 30, 2018, 01:09:31 AM
I used JB bore cleaner and JB bore Brite with Kroil oil and a Scott Brite pad
When I polished my barrel with the items you listed along with marcs I would assume brass borebrush and drill I removed my good expensive chokes and replaced them with inexpensive chokes so I wouldn't remove metal out of my good ones or alter them in any way.
All you can do is shoot it in good conditions and if your numbers aren't up to par use it for your choke when you want to polish again. Lesson learned at least it wasn't 100$
From what I understand, it's not a good idea to polish your choke. When polishing your barrel, it is recommended that you take out your turkey choke and use a smooth bore choke (improved cylinder) to polish the barrel. Internal geometry is built into most turkey chokes to strip the wad from the shot to get better patterns. If you have damaged that then..... The only thing I have ever done to my turkey chokes is clean them with a toothbrush and some bore cleaner and spray them with brake cleaner to remove the plastic that gets stripped from the wad. I hope some of the choke manufacturers will chime in on this post.
Some guns shoot better with the barrel a little dirty,so you might try putting 2-3 rounds thru a clean bbl. then change to your Clean Turkey choke and see how it does.
I clean my turkey choke after every shot or two and my bbl when the pattern starts to fade,probably every 10-12 shots.
The choke gets either a brass or stainless brush depending on what the choke is made of,then after every 10-12 shots it gets soaked in Goof Off overnight,then brushed,that will take care of any plastic etc. that is lodged in the choke.
In my bbl. I use pre soaked pads made for cleaning Muzzleloader bbl's.,then dry patches,then a couple of oily patches then at least one more dry patch for excess oil.
Greg
I plan on calling carlson's tomorrow and talking with them. Also I'm gonna go to the range and put a whole box of heavy dove loads through the longbeard choke. I'll try it dirty and clean just to see if it makes a difference.
If all else fails and I did dull the edges on my rings/grooves, then I'll just put it in a lathe and see what I can do.
Keep us posted!
Well I miced my choke and apparently polishing it opened th I.D. to .664 so that's most of my problem. Shot 2 boxes of dove shells with no cleaning whatsoever not even a bore brush, and my patters are almost back to normal. 30 and 35 yards are killer but at 40 it opens up a lot. So much I can't tell the difference between a 3" longbeard #5 magnum out of the longbeard choke and a 3" turkey thug out of my other .670 choke.
I'd get a new one. ;)
Quote from: Claybirdd on May 02, 2018, 01:23:27 AM
Well I miced my choke and apparently polishing it opened th I.D. to .664 so that's most of my problem. Shot 2 boxes of dove shells with no cleaning whatsoever not even a bore brush, and my patters are almost back to normal. 30 and 35 yards are killer but at 40 it opens up a lot. So much I can't tell the difference between a 3" longbeard #5 magnum out of the longbeard choke and a 3" turkey thug out of my other .670 choke.
Was this choke a .665 ID choke before polishing? If it was, polishing has only took out 1 thousandth out of the choke, which is very, very minimal. What probably happened was you smoothed up the rough edges of the wad strippers so the strippers aren't doing what they were designed to do. If it is a .670 then it surprises me that scotch brite can remove 6 thousandths of hard stainless steel from a choke.
Shotguns do not have lands and groves. No idea why N.Y. one would deep clean a choke
It was a .660 choke. So the scotch Brite took out .002 per side, or .004 overall. New size is .664. I fully agree that a rounded the edges on the grooves\steps. It's still a damn tight choke at 30-35 yards which is my prime kill zone anyways. I think I'm gonna hang on to the choke and play with different loads. Who knows.....
Quote from: Claybirdd on May 04, 2018, 06:21:43 PM
It was a .660 choke. So the scotch Brite took out .002 per side, or .004 overall. New size is .664. I fully agree that a rounded the edges on the grooves\steps. It's still a damn tight choke at 30-35 yards which is my prime kill zone anyways. I think I'm gonna hang on to the choke and play with different loads. Who knows.....
Did you measure before polishing?
I have found that "a majority" of aftermarket chokes (i.e. Briley, Trulock, Angleport) are not the constriction they are supposed to be. When ordering after-market chokes, I specifically tell the person I am ordering from that I will be measuring the bore (so that they are more likely to be careful making them).
In fact, I purchased a gun a few years back, and checked the chokes before paying... Several of the chokes were mis-marked... They were way off...
However, I have never had an after-market choke company that did not stand by their product. Were I you, I would call the company, and tell them exactly what happened, and see if they will not send you another choke???
Quote from: Marc on May 04, 2018, 07:09:37 PM
Quote from: Claybirdd on May 04, 2018, 06:21:43 PM
It was a .660 choke. So the scotch Brite took out .002 per side, or .004 overall. New size is .664. I fully agree that a rounded the edges on the grooves\steps. It's still a damn tight choke at 30-35 yards which is my prime kill zone anyways. I think I'm gonna hang on to the choke and play with different loads. Who knows.....
Did you measure before polishing?
I have found that "a majority" of aftermarket chokes (i.e. Briley, Trulock, Angleport) are not the constriction they are supposed to be. When ordering after-market chokes, I specifically tell the person I am ordering from that I will be measuring the bore (so that they are more likely to be careful making them).
In fact, I purchased a gun a few years back, and checked the chokes before paying... Several of the chokes were mis-marked... They were way off...
However, I have never had an after-market choke company that did not stand by their product. Were I you, I would call the company, and tell them exactly what happened, and see if they will not send you another choke???
You can buy 2 exact same shotguns and measure the inside bore of each barrel and they arent the same also most generally.
That's a negative. I did not mic it beforehand.
Just thought that I would give everyone a final update. After a whole lot of extensive testing with various shells ranges and conditions. I finally decided to call my turkey choke dead. It just will not pattern like it did whenever I first bought it. So I trashed it and ordered a new one. Looks like you can polish a nun stepped choke to a mirror finish and it has no negative effect. But the Step chokes like the cremator and long beard have to have those sharp edges.
Fortunately, found a place online that was having a close out sale and got one for $35
Where??
35 hook a brother up
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Live and learn. At least you found a deal on a replacement. I personally wouldnt polish any type of choke though.
Quote from: ltprod on May 18, 2018, 07:53:32 AM
Where??
35 hook a brother up
Amazon.com
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