12 gauge double

[kayja]

In the 40s we had a 12 gauge double on the farm and someone held a dime between thumb and finger and stuck the dime in the barrel edge wise, he said that barrel was standard, the dime would not fit in the other barrel, he said that barrel was choked or modified..it had damascus barrels.. has anyone ever heard of this old method?
Also I watched my older brother take the shot out of some shells and reload them with rock salt to shoot at people stealing gas and wood peckers on the barns. has anyone done or tried this with a muzzle loader??

 

[silverfox]

A dime in a 12 ga. Yes I was told that this would distinguish between a cylinder bore and a choked bore. Don't know how much choke though.
Rock Salt could get you into trouble shooting at people what if you loaded wrong either way a Lawyer might be in your future. The woodpeckers would'nt like it either. While on the subject how about bacon and rocksalt. Now thats a hot????? load comes out frying hot. Don't recomend that either on people does move stray dogs out of the pasture.
Fox :hatsoff:

 

[kayja]

in the early 40s lawyers weren't around and if you caught someone stealing gas, they needed a Dr., not a lawyer. lawsuits were unheard of.

 

I have been told that a dime won't fit into a full choked ga. bore as you described ,and being the curious type I had to see for myself. I tried it on 3 different 12 ga guns. ALL modern style , and it is true. A dime will NOT fit into a full choked barrel . Nopt sure what they considered full chocked on a ML. But I would thick chocked full is just that .

 

[rebel727]

A dime will go about halfway into a full choke and about a third of the way into an extra full.

 

[robinghewitt]

Hot dickerty, maybe I should start importing dimes and selling them over here as bore gauges :thumbsup:

 

[Rebel]

Well i would be glad to sell you all the dimes you want for $.5o apiece. :grin:

 

[robinghewitt]

I don't actually know how much a dime is :rotf:

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

A dime is 10 cents or one tenth of an American dollar. It's the shipping and handling fees that bump the price to 50 cents.

 

[Wes/Tex]

I miked 3 dimes from 3 different years and got .702", .703" & .705". Cylinder bore for a 12 guage is .729", so they should go in an unchoked 12 guage barrel. Not sure of the exact bore size of the different chokes in 12 guage but it may be the dimes won't fit choked bores. :winking:

 

[Capt. Jas.]

The dime thing is an old falsehood just like measuring length of pull by putting the butt stock in the crook of your arm. Choke is only relative to the actual size of the bore compared to the choked dimension and of course in the tell tale of how much of the shot patterns.
Like Jack O'Conner used to say, "I dont care if you can get a Brittany Spaniel down the barrel, if it shoots 70% of the pattern in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards its a full choke!"

 

[rebel727]

The dime thing is an old falsehood just like measuring length of pull by putting the butt stock in the crook of your arm. Choke is only relative to the actual size of the bore compared to the choked dimension and of course in the tell tale of how much of the shot patterns.
Like Jack O'Conner used to say, "I dont care if you can get a Brittany Spaniel down the barrel, if it shoots 70% of the pattern in a 30 inch circle at 40 yards its a full choke!"

Try it. I've got fifteen 12 gauge shotguns, six of them doubles. A dime will not go thru a full/extra full choke but will fall thru anything else.

 

[kayja]

I've tried dimes in hundreds of 12 ga in the past 50 yrs at the hunting club and have yet to see a dime go in a full choke barrel.

 

[rebel727]

I've tried dimes in hundreds of 12 ga in the past 50 yrs at the hunting club and have yet to see a dime go in a full choke barrel.

It would have to be a barrel worn mighty thin fer sure.

 

[Todd Rickard]

IMO a dime (even a Canadian one) is a good way to determine if the bore has been restricted with a common full choke dimension at the bore.
No matter if a dime will fit in or not... or what choke is marked on the gun, if it will not throw 70% of its pattern into a 30" circle it is NOT a full choked gun.
A shotgun may fail to throw full choke patterns with certain shot sizes, or loads. Also a dime would fall right into a jugged 'full' choked 12ga. barrel.
On the other hand, a modified barrel may throw full choke patterns with certain loads.
So you see, the true test of choke can only take place on the pattern board.

 

[Rusty Old Gunns]

I have a few 12 gauge doubles that are cylinder bore.

I guess I could use them to roll coins. Just have to figure out how many dimes stack in a 28" barrel.

Anyone know what gauge a quarter is? :youcrazy:

Seriously, Paul is right. It all depends the inside diamater of the barrel at both ends. We all know few "old Timers" measure out exactly the same, so to figure out the choke, you have to know the relationship between the diamater at the breach and the front hole.

(Did I say that? I'm sure I meant the muzzle.)

 

[paulvallandigham]

A quarter measures .957" in diameter, making the 5 Gauge the closest ( .955") .

A dime measures .703, according to my caliper. Since the bore of a 12 gauge is nominally .729, that would indicate that a " FULL " choke has .026 or more of constriction. I have read in many places that you need " 28 points " of constriction to get full choke patterns. These are close enough for anyone who knows much of anything about how barrels are made and measure with tolerances thrown in. ( usually plus or minus .001") For those reasons, the old " rule of thumb "that says a dime should not be able to pass into a full choked barrel is correct. It doesn't help you figure out what constriction is needed to get a full choke PATTERN using steel shot( most guns achieve that with a modified or slightly tighter constriction choke, depending again on the size of steel shot you use. ( I got full choke patterns with Steel #1 shot, but a pattern that was less than 70% shooting steel " T " shot, and Steel BB shot in commercial shells. I might have been able to improve those patterns by reloading, but buying and reloading steel shot is an additional expense I was not willing to spend considering the limited use I had for the ammo. Now that competitors exist and have been approved to meet the non-toxic shot requirements, the cost of the products may come down to a point where you can justify loading the newer composites, and shooting them more. I am still waiting however, to see the cost of the shot to come down, and to be available for reloaders. The new shot that is a polymer and iron combination that they say will produce full choke patterns out of older choked guns, without damaging the chokes is a hunter's dream. But I haven't see the stuff show up. This would be my choice to use in my ML shotgun, too, if it becomes available.

As for shooting a round ball out of a choked 12 gauge barrel, stick with a .67 to .69 caliber round ball at the maximum, with a cloth patch, so you don't endanger the choke on an old gun. If you ever pulled the slug on a modern 12 gauge shotgun slug round, you will find that the slugs are substantially smaller than the full choke constriction, so the company is not being sued for damaging choked barrels.

 

[Todd Rickard]

Choke is measured by pattern density, not the size relationship to anything. A full choke pattern can be achieved several ways, some of which will allow a dime down the bore of a 12ga.
I have never seen a modern full choked 12 ga shotgun that will allow a dime into the muzzle, but it is possible with a jug choke or a back-bored barrel.
Again.... choke is not the restriction at the muzzle, but a percentage of the pattern in a 30" circle at 40yds.