Shotgun Choke tap and reamer

[rarms]

Anyone have any experience in cutting their own choke? Anyone have a tap and reamer I could borrow/rent?

Found a few in the states, but crazy money!

[Gunman]

I have had quite a bit of experience in DIY choke reaming . Best advice is that unless you have some practical experience of metal work and metal working tools , dont bother . 

Reamers bought for a few pounds on eBay are usually **** [I tried one and binned it  ] they will almost certainly  need leads grinding and entering them from the muzzle end is a good way of getting off center chokes .

If the bores are chrome then reamers  will not cut evenly ,if at all,  so the chrome needs to be honed away first .

So yes I have had experience of DIY choke boring  , from the point of trying to get them right afterwards , ending up with chokes bored far more open than wanted ,frequently still having tool marks . 

All my choke reamers  had ground leading edges , were fixed to long piloted shafts and driven from the breech . Chokes were then honed to the exact size required and polished .

Why risk damage and loss of value to your gun for the sake of a few pounds ?

 

[London Best]

Everyone should listen to this man.

[wymberley]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

Everyone should listen to this man.

We've had the technically correct/common sense answer, but I wonder what he, Gunman, really thinks. It usually takes more effort in terms of time, equipment and cost to rectify a bodge than it does to do the job properly from scratch. Consequently, the final job has often been paid for twice. I want to have a local 'smith available when I need one and one way to ensure this is if they can be gainfully employed in the meantime. I don't care too much - and I suspect neither do they - about the nature of the work that keeps them in existence so crack on, the bigger the pig's ear the better.

[bruno22rf]

My smith charges £50 per tube - is it worth trying to do it yourself? Don't understand why you want a Tap? unless you are considering trying to fit your own multi chokes?

[McSpredder]

Read what Gunman has said.   Ignore any of those USA videos you might have seen on the web from “I’m Larry the Lamb, and that’s the way it is” (cannot remember his actual name).    If you feel the need to ask for advice, better leave the job to a professional.

I have successfully opened out chokes, using an expanding reamer (followed by a brake cylinder hone, from the local motor factor), BUT please note that:

1.  this was only on a cheap S/S BLNE, and I would never dream of trying a DIY job on a gun of any value;

2. after 50+ years in engineering, I did have prior experience of using expanding reamers on thin-walled tubes (they are fairly nasty tools, to be honest, and can very easily “chatter” or actually bind in the tube – nowhere near as good as a proper set of solid reamers);

3. I own a lathe that I used to make the long shaft and its pilot bushes;

4. as a pensioner with time on my hands, I was content to proceed very slowly, never trying to take out more than 2 thou in each pass.

[Gunman]

 

Thanks for the comments .

Having re read  rams original post , is it about fitting a multi choke not just choke reaming .

If that is so DONT even think about it unless you have ALL the right equipment which will include a barrel mounting jig and all the appropriate pilots and some one to show you how to do it .

[243deer]

£50 a tube sounds like a bargain to me. Going to have the full choke on my sbs taken out during the summer as it has always whacked the second pigeon too hard and I now want to be able to future proof carrying on using it on game shoots with steel - all this changing over to bismuth when shooting ducks in land and not even over water is a pita.

[rarms]

Thanks for all the comments.

Yes I want to cut a multi choke thread in a single barrel. I am willing to give it a go myself but would get it done in a lathe.

I am not particularly fussed if it works or not as it will be a cheap spare barrel for a semi that I want to try a project with.

If anyone has had choke threads cut by anyone in the UK apart from Teague I would be grateful for contact details.

Failing that then back to my original question of does anyone have or know of a tap and reamer in the UK before I go and spend £250 on PTG or Brownells...

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I had barrels done by Chris Potter Guns in Tunbridge Wells with the Briley System.

01892 522208

[Old farrier]

5 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I had barrels done by Chris Potter Guns in Tunbridge Wells with the Briley System.

01892 522208

How do you find the Briley chokes over the teeuge ones 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Much better, I have both in various old Beretta's.

[rarms]

14 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I had barrels done by Chris Potter Guns in Tunbridge Wells with the Briley System.

01892 522208

Brilliant. Thanks. I'll give him a call. Im after just a standard factory choke rather than a specific aftermarket one and Teague will only cut his own thread. 

 

Anyone else know of anywhere that can do it?

 

Thanks

[rarms]

Chris Potter can only do Briley chokes!

Might just buy another gun at this rate!

[bruno22rf]

If you have a Lathe then surely screwcutting is the best option? Will it need re-proofing afterwards?

Edited December 15, 2019 by bruno22rf

[figgy]

I prefer Briley chokes to Teague chokes. 

Bruno22rf you would have to be very competent with a lathe. Yes you could do it all yourself and make your own chokes.

Edited December 15, 2019 by figgy