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Joined: 13 Jul 2019 Posts: 3 Location: United States

Editing post to be link instead of improper embed

So I picked up a pretty butchered browning auto 5 from a pawn shop for $250. I love browning A5s and it was too cheap to ignore. My problem mainly right now is the barrel. It has an extremely short barrel, that doesnt hit anything that flies and has some sort of adjustable choke on the end. I was wondering if anyone had seen this choke to see if maybe I am not using it correctly, or can give me advice on how to use it, or can tell me to go get a new barrel and maybe where to. I got this gun as basically a fun gun to do some quail and pheasant hunting. Per the barrel markings, and gun markings and serial the barrel is original and from the 1920's (I want to say it was 1926 but I looked it up a while ago). This gun will shoot the 2 3/4 shells, I think the previous owner had trouble with the gun cycling because I took it apart and it looked like they sprayed oil into there to fix it (not just a light coating.)https://imgur.com/gallery/G8N5deT

*Last edited by skeettx on Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:06 pm; edited 1 time in total*

Hello C-taylor
Welcome on your first posting Smile

Nice looking gun!

Looks like an early polychoke

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=198971&p=1641743

I HATE to say this, but you need to pattern the gun to see where it is shooting.

Get a 3 foot square of butcher paper put a black dot in the middle and stand back 30 yards shoot at the paper. This will tell you high, low, left or right.

Set the Poly-Choke to its tightest choke pattern. Tighten the threaded sleeve around the choke by twisting it around. The tightest setting is called "Xtra-full." Adjust the choke pattern for your desired shooting result. Tight patterns are useful for shooting long distances, while wide-open patterns are more effective at short-range hunting. The three wide-open patterns can be achieved by loosening the choke one full turn or more.

I would set it on Mod or IC for the pattern test.

Again, welcome
Mike

Fun watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-xVuX-90Wk

Joined: 13 Jul 2019 Posts: 3 Location: United States

Thank you for your reply Skeettx, I have a pattern board at my local shotgun clay club I need to try that on, do you know about how far i would need to unscrew it to get closer to modified? Has anyone had one of these chokes without any markings on them and somehow marked it for easy field changes? If it comes down to it, i have a set of choke tubes on another gun and can adjust until the pattern is right and mark it somehow.

Normally screwed on tight is super full
Then each click or graduation unscrewed is one degree more open
Patterning may be necessary to find the pattern you desire

Mike

Joined: 13 Jul 2019 Posts: 3 Location: United States

Unfortunately with this choke it has no indicator and does not click at all.

It’s a early Polychoke or a clonE. I don’t remember clicks on Polychokes but there was a line on the top of the barrel and index marks on the sleeve. If it’s a clone it might not be marked but you should be able to measure it to get some idea.

I agree with what SkeetX said, I learned to shoot with a Model 12 equipped with Poly Choke. It is effective and hand if not very esthetic. However, I recently traded a M37 Ithaca that had a Poly installed. Point of Impact varied considerably as the housing was rotated between settings. Some Poly Chokes were installed by local gunsmiths, so these chokes may or may not be aligned with the barrel.

I agree with what SkeetX said, I learned to shoot with a Model 12 equipped with Poly Choke. It is effective and hand if not very esthetic. However, I recently traded a M37 Ithaca that had a Poly installed. Point of Impact varied considerably as the housing was rotated between settings. Some Poly Chokes were installed by local gunsmiths, so these chokes may or may not be aligned with the barrel.