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Opening the choke on a sbs.


mudpatten
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I`ve tried a couple of gun shops near Portsmouth and Chaplins of Winchester. Both of the Pompey ones would have to send the barrels away and Chaplins seem to just think of a number and then add noughts to it.

Reigate is not too far from me. Anyone know of a gunsmith any closer to Portsmouth. I`m not anxious to have to send the barrels away if I can possible avoid it.

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If Reigate is not to far to drive; have a look at F A Anderson`s website in East Grinstead. Pretty sure he was quoting a price for choke adjustment (under servicing & repairs) & would expect it to be circa £60 per barrel. Expect to pay more if they are internally chromed.

Edited by JJsDad
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I decided to have the chokes on my recently acquired 16g AYA opened out from 1/2 & full to IC & 1/2 and it's costing me £100. I probably could have found cheaper, but the gunsmith is local so I'm prepared to pay for the convenience and no carriage costs.

OB

 

 

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Big trouble with the gun trade is that so many "gunsmiths" do not do a wide range of work and put out , as they have always done , to those specialists who have the tools and equipment  . After all you want a good job done and I have seen and had to correct far to much work carried out by men who think they can do work which they can not . 

Another problem is that with carriage being expensive and problematic many shops are not sending individual items away so time factors increase .

Add in the factor that those like myself who did a lot of trade work ,including choke boring , have now retired there are less and less people who can actually do work around . 

As a result costs rise and distances have increased . With more people shooting O/U's with multi chokes the need for choke boring is lessened so the knock on effect is that , as with all else , quantity kept costs down  .

It is a sad state of affairs that will only get worse  as time goes by . The gun trade as I knew it is no  more and I see little chance of it getting better .

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2 hours ago, Gunman said:

Big trouble with the gun trade is that so many "gunsmiths" do not do a wide range of work and put out , as they have always done , to those specialists who have the tools and equipment  . After all you want a good job done and I have seen and had to correct far to much work carried out by men who think they can do work which they can not . 

Another problem is that with carriage being expensive and problematic many shops are not sending individual items away so time factors increase .

Add in the factor that those like myself who did a lot of trade work ,including choke boring , have now retired there are less and less people who can actually do work around . 

As a result costs rise and distances have increased . With more people shooting O/U's with multi chokes the need for choke boring is lessened so the knock on effect is that , as with all else , quantity kept costs down  .

It is a sad state of affairs that will only get worse  as time goes by . The gun trade as I knew it is no  more and I see little chance of it getting better .

Agree with all you say Gunman ! Why do you think no one is filling the gap in the market ? Is it basically not profitable enough to run a workshop ? 

Many people would like work done on guns but the inevitable timescale dissuades many from having it done imho.

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On 5/2/2018 at 11:47, matone said:

Agree with all you say Gunman ! Why do you think no one is filling the gap in the market ? Is it basically not profitable enough to run a workshop ? 

Many people would like work done on guns but the inevitable timescale dissuades many from having it done imho.

Thats one of the problems , with security licencing , public liabilities insurance , rents rates and utilities etc.the cost of running a shop means these costs must be factored in to the hourly rate ,add in set up costs of buying  tools and equipment plus specialist tools like bore gauges , chamber reamers ,lathes, honing machines etc.  plus each  we all like to eat and have reasonable standard of living . The hourly rate is not going to be cheap

It is unfortunate that your hobby is our livelihood and you the shooter quite understandably wants things as cheap as possible as you are on a budget . The trade has been hit by several factors , the internet and people buying directly from abroad hitting the spares ,accessories market ,  with most modern guns parts are interchangeable so no or very little fitting is involved .The simple fact that guns can be bought cheaply and so not the money spent on repairs plus rising costs have meant that restocking or sleeving a box lock  or O/U for that matter no longer economic .

New shooters do not want  older English side by side guns so a whole market and there care has gone , the on going threat of a ban on lead shot , hence the drastic drop in their price in recent years .

So like many trades the gunsmith is a dying breed like television engineers, domestic appliance repairs  and car body shops etal getting fewer and farther between so less people to pass on hard earned knowledge  .I wont even start to consider the amount of cost and paperwork involved if taking on an apprentice 

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9 hours ago, Gunman said:

Thats one of the problems , with security licencing , public liabilities insurance , rents rates and utilities etc.the cost of running a shop means these costs must be factored in to the hourly rate ,add in set up costs of buying  tools and equipment plus specialist tools like bore gauges , chamber reamers ,lathes, honing machines etc.  plus each  we all like to eat and have reasonable standard of living . The hourly rate is not going to be cheap

It is unfortunate that your hobby is our livelihood and you the shooter quite understandably wants things as cheap as possible as you are on a budget . The trade has been hit by several factors , the internet and people buying directly from abroad hitting the spares ,accessories market ,  with most modern guns parts are interchangeable so no or very little fitting is involved .The simple fact that guns can be bought cheaply and so not the money spent on repairs plus rising costs have meant that restocking or sleeving a box lock  or O/U for that matter no longer economic .

New shooters do not want  older English side by side guns so a whole market and there care has gone , the on going threat of a ban on lead shot , hence the drastic drop in their price in recent years .

So like many trades the gunsmith is a dying breed like television engineers, domestic appliance repairs  and car body shops etal getting fewer and farther between so less people to pass on hard earned knowledge  .I wont even start to consider the amount of cost and paperwork involved if taking on an apprentice 

Thanks for your perspective .

Sad that `the knowledge `is being lost .Most real skills have to be learnt by experience and cannot be acquired from a laptop !!!

Edited by matone
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On 28/04/2018 at 14:36, steve d said:

Welshwarrior aka Daf is in Farnborough

Thanks for the recommendation however I’m no longer offering this for lots of the reasons Gunman highlighted. 

I still do stock work and a few other bits but focus is now instruction and gunfitting for me. 

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On 02/05/2018 at 09:24, Gunman said:

Big trouble with the gun trade is that so many "gunsmiths" do not do a wide range of work and put out , as they have always done , to those specialists who have the tools and equipment  . After all you want a good job done and I have seen and had to correct far to much work carried out by men who think they can do work which they can not . 

Another problem is that with carriage being expensive and problematic many shops are not sending individual items away so time factors increase .

Add in the factor that those like myself who did a lot of trade work ,including choke boring , have now retired there are less and less people who can actually do work around . 

As a result costs rise and distances have increased . With more people shooting O/U's with multi chokes the need for choke boring is lessened so the knock on effect is that , as with all else , quantity kept costs down  .

It is a sad state of affairs that will only get worse  as time goes by . The gun trade as I knew it is no  more and I see little chance of it getting better .

In the mid 80s the advent of opting out/SERPS whatever, meant that in Norfolk in one particular year the reasonably intelligent school leavers that would or could have made good apprentices for whatever engineering disciplne were all taken up by one particular 'Union' - there's a clue there -  which was offering a starting wage way in excess of what any bona fide apprentice could expect. Which youngster is going to work for peanuts for 5 or 7 years and then earn comparatively little at the end of it because their skill has priced them out of the market.

Re-line brakes, scim discs, re-bore the engine? Nah, change the car.

Make and replace broken pin, make and replace top lever spring, make and resleeve the barrels? Nah, change the gun.

Enjoy your future, it's around the corner.

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On 08/05/2018 at 16:48, Pushandpull said:

Back in the day, a chap I knew who was a fairly serious clay shooter lapped his bores with valve grinding paste. Every so often he emerged from his workshop and took a breed at his pattern plate until the scatter was what he wanted.

Hmmm - wasn't sure if I should post this, but what the hell. Shoot me down if you must.

I recently bought a battered old O/U for hide shooting. I like open chokes, but this was half and full. I was quoted £60 per barrel, but the gun was only £105, so I decided to do it myself. I have a pillar drill so it was a question of wrapping some emery cloth round a brass jag on my sturdy two piece aluminium cleaning rod, sticking in the chuck and going down from the breach end to work on removing the chokes. It all got a bit warm, so a bucket of water to cool the barrels periodically sorted that. I went steady and spent a couple of hours at it, on and off.

Very unscientific and I only did it because the gun was a cheap one, but I reckon I have about quarter in the bottom and half in the top. It shoots really well on the pigeons now and I have much more confidence in it. Looking down the bores it looks no different to a factory gun. 

 

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