Jug choke or tubes?

[Huntnut]

I'm going to get a 12ga double that is not choked. I'm going to use it for turkey, waterfowl and shooting rock. I was wondering if I should have choke tubes installed or have it jug choked or leave it alone. The draw back to tubes is it takes to long to reload, no biggy for turkey but for waterfowl it will suck. The draw back to jug choke is shooting steelshot or hevishot in it is hard on the barrel but could use bismuth shot. And the draw back to leaving it alone is it probably won't have a good pattern for turkey but would have a good one for decoying waterfowl.

 

[Rebel]

I liked my double with cyl. bores. You should shoot it for a while before doing anything. You may find it will do all you want to just like it is.

 

[roundball]

I'm going to get a 12ga double that is not choked. I'm going to use it for turkey, waterfowl and shooting rock. I was wondering if I should have choke tubes installed or have it jug choked or leave it alone. The draw back to tubes is it takes to long to reload, no biggy for turkey but for waterfowl it will suck.

Also, another thing to consider is that you'd be making it almost a modern shotgun if you installed screw in chokes in it.

The draw back to jug choke is shooting steelshot or hevishot in it is hard on the barrel but could use bismuth shot.

If I'm not mistaken, whether it's "Jug Choked" or not is not the determinging factor regarding the use of steel shot...heavy protective plastic shot cups are always recommended for using steel shot regardless of the type of smoothbore barrel.

In fact, the use of tough stiff shot cups for steel shot would offset the effects of the Jug Choke as the shot could not expand into the expansion chamber...the whole plastic shot cup would go right past the Jug Choke...but the good news is that the shot cup itself would produce some tightening of the pattern.

The draw back to leaving it alone is it probably won't have a good pattern for turkey but would have a good one for decoying waterfowl.

If you got it Jug Choked it would be good for turkey, and you could still use it for decoying waterfowl by manipulating the powder/wad/shot/card configurations to open up the pattern.

Also, you might consider getting just one barrel Jug Choked...odds are Turkey is going to be a one shot deal...then for waterfowl you'd have open and full chokes.

NOTE: Jug chokes work by honing out an expansion chamber starting just inside the muzzle for a few inches...takes about a .030" over-boring larger than the cylinder diameter to get the effects of a full choke in a .20ga so I assume it would be the same for a .12ga...check to see if your barrel walls are thick enough to do that safely.

 

[Wehrmacht]

First off, if you have-or are getting-a double that is cyl already, you're facing an impossible task in trying to get either barrel jug choked. If you started from scratch and had someone- Ed Rayle,for example (he's OUTSTANDING) make barrels for you, then I think the barrel(s) could be jug choked before assembly into a double barrel. Then I think regulating the barrels would be very difficult to impossible-I've been reliabily told that.

As a rule double barrels will have a cyl barrel and a barrel choked by tapering and not jug choked. A tapered barrel can be regulated with a cyl barrel easy enough.

This will cause a lot of conflicting opinions,but if I were to have a double gun made, I would have the RIGHT barrel choked and the left barrel cyl bore. It's easier to reach up and back the right hammer than it is the left hammer because you're reaching over the lock to back the left hammer. I have a 16ga double, and I got Ed Rayle to choke the right barrel and leave the left barrel cyl. It works GREAT!

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I believe the famed V.M.Starr made his living largely from jug chocking old original doubles, he seemed to make them work pretty well. :grin: