Jug Chokes

[Zonie]

In the "Stump the Experts" article on page 63 of the September Issue of "Muzzle Blasts" Bevel Up and Bevel Down explain the principals of the Jug Choke, a barrel configuration that makes your cylinder bore barrel shoot patterns like Modified and Full choke shotguns.

For those new to Muzzleloading, "Muzzle Blasts" is the magazine you get with your membership when you join the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.

Without getting into the "They have articles about (Censored) Lines" debate about the NMLRA, they also always have articles in the magazine which are interesting to me about Traditional guns.
I don't even think the $40 membership fee is too high. (Why, I know people who spend that much on beer in a year.)

Anyway, the Jug Choke is basically an area about 6-8 inches long inside the barrel which is enlarged leaving about 5/8 inch of the original cylinder bore right at the muzzle.

As the shot travels up the bore and comes to this larger area, it starts to expand only hit the smaller (original) area of the bore. This makes the shot act like it went thru a normal choke in a modern shotgun resulting in Improved, Modified or Full choke patterns depending on the amount of material removed from the bore in the Jug area.

Because the muzzle is still at the Cylinder bore size, loading the gun is the same as loading any cylinder bore muzzleloader. There is no undersize "choke" to have to deal with.

Thought you'd like to know. :front:

 

[musketman]

I don't even think the $40 membership fee is too high.

Not with the kind of money you make... :haha:

Back to topic:
But what happens when you shoot a patched roundball through a jug choked barrel? :hmm:

Does the jug choke allow enough room for the patch to slip off the roundball as it is being shot?

 

[Mike Brooks]

I've been using jug choke for flintlock fowling gus for the past 20 years. It's the ONLY way to go for a dedicated shot gun. One of my customers tried round ball in his jugged 10 bore.It has just over .035 jug in it for turkey. He stated he had no problems what so ever, and it shor RB quite well. I've heard others report the same thing. Not what I would have expected to hear!

 

[Dave K]

I do know it is something I seriously want to try on one of the shotguns. I agree, it has to be the answer for getting a choke in a barrel you need to send cards and cushions down.

 

[roundball]

I do know it is something I seriously want to try on one of the shotguns. I agree, it has to be the answer for getting a choke in a barrel you need to send cards and cushions down.

Dave, FYI:

05/15/03 - Gunsmith who does 'Jug Chokes'
$75 for a .20ga smoothbore
Gene Reem, Illinois
309-526-8466

HIS JUG CHOKE DESCRIPTION
"A 6 inch long modification starting just inside the muzzle, consisting of three sections with the following dimensions:

A 1.5

 

[Riley/MN]

Mike,

Do you do Jug Chokes? where in IA are you?

 

[Mike Brooks]

I use a guy in Bluegrass Iowa. Email me and I'll send you his telephone # . He charges $50.

 

[ffffg]

a couple of comments.. the jug without tapers needs to be just a little longer than the column, if someone is making it longer it may be an advantage, i dont know. . any choke can be achieved with a jug choke, not just modified and full.. the down side of a choke on a flintlock is you have to be a better shot. it will kill at longer ranges, but its harder to hit a bird at 40 yards with a mod-full choke than at 27 yards with cylinder bore.. i belive the best choke for all arround shotgun is impr cyl to modified in that range.. if your good stalker or know how to use dekoys the full in my opinion is too tight especially with a flintlock.. or for instnace if you use a dog.. the upside is if your gun is choked to tight you simply hone the down range portion of your bore (area past the jug choke) larger till you get the choke you want.. i have a mortimer 12 ga jugged to full choke and it has been the death of many ducks 15 or more years ago.. now i use a chambers 16 gauge mark silver smoothbore and prefer that.. yes i get less birds, but flintlock is about the challange to me.. i can see where you would want improved cylinder in a 20 gaugue tho.. i use up to 1 1/4 oz shot in my 16, so im not handicapped in shot amount.. dave.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I have an english 1/2 stock flint fowler with two 12ga. barrels. The short one is 32" and has .005 jug that I use for skeet. The other is 38" and has .015 jug and I use it for hunting pheasants with a close working dog. I use 1oz. for skeet and 1 1/4 for hunting.

 

[varsity07840]

Gene did my flint Mortimer. Excellent patterns. Well worth the price.

 

[rayb]

i have a jug choked shotgun that produces a very tight pattern IF you use the right loads. In the case of this choked shotgun, more powder and less shot from a equal volume basis works best... exactly the opposite of what works in my cylinder bored shotguns.

:results:

rayb

 

[Bob J]

i have a jug choked shotgun that produces a very tight pattern IF you use the right loads. In the case of this choked shotgun, more powder and less shot from a equal volume basis works best... exactly the opposite of what works in my cylinder bored shotguns.

:results:

rayb

Couldn't get decent 25 yard turkey huntin' patterns with the right barrel of my Pedersoli 10 ga. (impvd cyl) until I got away from the old volume-for-volume load and went up to 4 drams of 2f and 1 1/2 oz. shot. Volume-for-volume load of 3 1/2 drams and 1 1/2 oz. was no good. The left barrel is "modified", but the impvd cyl barrel gives tighter patterns - go figure!

 

[Mike Brooks]

Let me wrap up this thread by staing all jug chokes are not created equal. Some guys know how to put them in and some don't. I wouldn't even know how to begin to jug a barrel, but I know a good shooting one when I'm at the pattern board. I know Gene Reem and Lowell Tennyson personally, and they both know how to jug a barrel to get it to throw excellent patterns. I primarily use Tennyson because he only lives 12 miles away. ::