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I recently received a Cyl. choke tube for my Citori from Briley. Being the curious type, I measured the tube and it is .663". The 2 Browning I/C tubes I have both measure .662" so I went to my gunsmith and had the bores on my Citori measured. The top barrel is .6693 and the bottom .6686" for an average of .669. This means the Browning I/C and Mod tubes that came with the gun have the correct dimensions. The Full tube is extremely tight.

Thinking that Briley had mis-labeled a SK tube as Cyl. I called them this morning. I spoke with a very pleasant, informed, and helpful lady in the Technical Dept. She informed me that all Briley 16ga. invector tubes have restrictions based upon a bore diameter of .665" and that the tube I received is their version of a Cyl choke tube. I told her this would not work for me and she told me to send it back and they would ream it out to what ever I wanted it. I asked what this would cost and she said nothing! In fact she told me since they do not make tubes that correspond to the Citori bore size they would make me anything I wanted and only charge me the normal price. I was really impressed with this kind of service. I didn't ask if this service included any chokes in the 16ga. line or just the flush mount tubes like I ordered.

The reason I am posting this is so anyone ordering choke tubes from Briley for their Citori knows that the tubes are .004-.005" too tight. I don't know what the bores measure in the Japanese Auto 5's. Maybe they are .665" so Briley assumes all Browning 16 gauge bores are .665". The bore on my Belgium Auto 5 is 16.9mm which converts to .6653". Citori bores certainly are not. I am assuming that Citori bores are 17mm which converts to .6693".

I also asked if the new stainless tubes Briley is making for Browning are made to Browning's specs and was told that they are.

I hope this helps someone in the future.

Dennis

Yes they are 17MM. I think you will find the Miroku made auto 5, 16 ga. guns also have 17 MM barrels. Plus, the barrels on these guns runs very uniform at plus or minus .001". The slightly larger bores also help the guns pattern very well. However, .669" bores are not overbored as some dealers including B Hanus have claimed. You can have the factory full choke bored out to .630. This will give you 29 points of choke and nice useful full choke patterns.

16gg,

I already had the full choke tube reamed out to .025" restriction, light full.

Dennis

That one will work very well with 1-1/4 ounce magnum loads of #4 shot for some nice full patterns out at 40 yards or a bit. .028-.029 works great with #5 shot as well as #6 shot.

I've found the biggest pellets a bore will handle well do better through a slightly more open than standard full choke. Overly tight chokes of 32 points or more might work ok with fine shot, but tend to throw bigger pellets into patterns with dense cores but weak annular rings . There is little to no room for error with a pattern like this. At 40 yards, we need all the room for error we can get.

Another clear demonstration that the $90 bore gauge from Brownells (Item # 843-200-126 Skeet's Bore Gauge www.brownells.com ) is money well spent-and would be even cheaper if 3-4 shootin' buddies went in together on the purchase.

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 1257 Location: Nebraska

That might be the same gauge I picked up, mine will measure 12ga and 16ga.

My Citori measures out at .668" top barrel, .667" bottom. The factory Browning chokes came in at .664" for IC, .657" for the Mod and I couldn't get the gauge in the Full. Calipers dialed it in to .621" at the muzzle end.

Some of those new stainless Briley-made tubes showed up at .665" for Cylinder, .660" for Skeet and .646" for a Mod. Those seem just about right to me.

My gun also came with X2 extended Brileys, with IC at .656", LM at .650", Mod at .645", IM at .640" and Full had to be dial-calipered, coming in at .628". These have a .75" parallel running to the muzzle. After patterning most of these chokes, I wound up selling the Full and Mod and picking up a Cyl to end up with choices of .002", .011", .017" and .027", approximately, and that's plenty for any target shooting. I've weighed the X2's against flush-mounted chokes; combined they add around 1oz of weight although it is way out there at the end of the barrels. I don't think they do much more than give an easy-reading choke marking.

The rest of the collection gives combination choices among .002", .003", .007", .010", .021" and .046", again based on the upper barrel with the lower .001" off.