Teague chokes

[GB79]

Are Teague chokes worth buying rather than using Browning Invector ds, like the idea of 3/8.

[Scully]

I’m a big fan of Teague, but then I also am of Briley and Muller. 
I doubt any would be as popular as they undoubtedly are if they didn’t perform. 
I think 3/8th is also the best all round choke for live quarry of any description, and my Teague 3/8ths throw superb patterns, but so do the Brileys. After that it’s down to cartridge preference. 
Not helpful I know, but that’s my experience. 🙂

[GB79]

Thanks for the reply, lots of people on you tube use teague, and a lot are using 3/8, but you never know if there's a bit of sponsorship going on, I've had one person say don't bother with Teague.

[JohnfromUK]

Can't comment on 'relative performance' of the chokes as my gun was 'Teagued' by a previous owner before I bought it.  It performs fine as far as I can tell.  What I can say is that;

1. I have had no problems at all with the chokes (sticking, crossed threads, damage etc.)
2. When I did get in touch with Teague to get an additional choke tube, they were very quick and efficient to deal with
3. I believe that they are now part of the Westley Richards business.

[Fellside]

On 02/02/2025 at 15:18, GB79 said:

Are Teague chokes worth buying rather than using Browning Invector ds, like the idea of 3/8.

Short answer - yes. 

Longer answer. I have used them in Browning shot guns for probably 20 yrs and have been seriously impressed by the pattern quality. In fact the quality of the pattern allows you to go down a choke constriction - and have the advantage of a wider pattern but with a good even shot distribution (if that makes sense). I have found the Teague half choke like using 3/4. I nick named it ‘the long range assassin’. Just a bit of silly fun, but it makes a point. Re cost, it’s an expensive indulgence by the time you buy their dedicated choke key also, but who ever said shooting was a cheap sport…….?! BTW I’m not sponsored, wish I was……. 🙂

[Wylye]

Can't beat Teague for product quality and service. Second to none.

[Mulligan]

I just happen to have a 3/8 and a 5/8 teague super extended pair of chokes for sale as I have changed gun, I must say that I was very impressed with the breaks whilst using them

[Scully]

22 minutes ago, Mulligan said:

I just happen to have a 3/8 and a 5/8 teague super extended pair of chokes for sale as I have changed gun, I must say that I was very impressed with the breaks whilst using them

Which gun/model do they fit? 

[redial]

Forgive my ignorance but do companies such as Teague make chokes to fit older systems like Browning invector for example and if so what would be the advantages. Thank you.

[Westward]

23 minutes ago, redial said:

Forgive my ignorance but do companies such as Teague make chokes to fit older systems like Browning invector for example and if so what would be the advantages. Thank you.

You could always ask them...

[redial]

1 hour ago, Westward said:

You could always ask them...

You are correct. I could but with all of the knowledge on here. I would like unbiased opinions from shooters who may have purchased and used such products.

[Fellside]

2 hours ago, redial said:

Forgive my ignorance but do companies such as Teague make chokes to fit older systems like Browning invector for example and if so what would be the advantages. Thank you.

In short yes. Advantages are various: conical continuous taper, they are closer to the gun’s barrel diameter than factory chokes - i.e less of a step from barrel to choke and they are exactly per choke designation. Basically you get what you pay for in chokes. Usually those supplied with a gun (not always) are made to a lesser standard to cut costs. Does it matter as much as we think? Probably not. However would some of us like to have any advantage we can grab, what ever it is? Definitely. 

[redial]

Thank you for that, very informative.

[enfieldspares]

I think that Teague chokes, as far as I am aware, are machined to give the correct degree of choke relative to the actual specific diameter of the bore of the barrel that it is to fit. I don't know if the gun is then put to a plate and those chokes then fine tuned. As used to be the case with British fixed choke best guns. That the gun was put to a plate (as in a pattern plate) and the chokes fine tuned to the cartridge the buyer had told the gunmaker they wanted it it regulated to.

I think that off volume makers such as Beretta, Browning, Miroku off the shelf screw chokes, as far as I am aware, are simply all machined to a set diameter to match the supposed set diameter of the barrels of their guns. So let say that maker B or maker M bores its barrels to 18.ZZmm then they will supply a set of chokes of 18.YYmm, 18.YXmm, 18.XXmm and 18.XZmm and mark them up as quarter, half, three-quarter and full. There will no actual measuring of the individual barrels of an individual gun. Just one size fits all.

I have only ever had two guns put to a plate (that was my Powell sidelock when Powell's were still Peter and David Powell and it was plated in the Proof House at twenty yards) and also a Webley I had from Elderkin's who plated it in their workshops at twenty yards. This was back in the day when the only cartridge I ever used were Eley Grand Prix 1 1/16 #6 in the orange paper case. That (but at forty yards) is how proper choke regulation is done. By what the pattern plate tells you. Not what a bore gauge measuring tool tells you.

Every other gun I have had the chokes done has been done, as I think most are now, by boring the choke to correspond to what a table of relative choke says should give improved choke or half choke in relation to the differences between the bore and the constriction. And at no point was the cartridge ever considered. I have never then put the gun to a plate to check as I have enough experience to know that cartridge "recipes" change so much that in these modern times it has lost its point.

So the advantage of Teague chokes is the same as when a fixed choke gun is properly bored. That someone measures the precise bore of the actual barrel to be shot and matches the boring of the choke insert to go in that barrel and give exactly the correct bore restriction in relation to that actual barrel. Are they then put to a plate? I don't know.

With the volume makers I think it is just putting in the packing carton chokes that are bored to specified constriction to make the supposed factory standard barrel diameter of the gun in the box they are being packed in the carton with. They certainly aren't ever at the factory put to a plate!

Edited 4 hours ago by enfieldspares