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tramroad28,

If he uses some RST or Poly SpredR loads in the old gun, it should pattern perfectly for Grouse, Woodcock, Quail and even Pheasants.

Very nice Classic American double gun for sure!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 12 Mar 2012 Posts: 684 Location: Ontario

Total guesswork on the chokes because you don't know the bore and IMHO, you can't assume anything about bore dimensions on 100 year old guns.

There is however, an easy and most accurate way of determining your chokes. Pattern the gun, count the pellets. Choke, technically, is not a constriction per se but the actual pellet count percentage due to whatever constriction is in the muzzles.

So we never actually need a bore gauge and choke gauge to know for sure. We just need some ammo, a big piece of paper , a place to shoot and the ability to count.

canvasback,

Actually that is correct, what you want to see is the actual pattern thrown by your gun using any particular shell. You also want to see if the pattern thrown is repetitive. In reality the measurement of your choke is not all that important, what you want is a good killing pattern for hunting what ever birds or Ducks you happen to hunt most.

It is good however to know the exact measurements of your chokes if you want to have the chokes opened, if you pattern happens to be a lot tighter than you want to see.

Testing each barrel of your gun with the shells you most use is the only way to actually see how the gun is patterning. The numbers do not always tell the story. My modern 28 gauge L.C. Smith patterns very tightly unless I use the RST or Poly SpredR's, no matter which screw in choke I happen to use.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 444 Location: WI

I mostly use RST Lite in #7, it is a good low pressure round with mild recoil and kills birds dead. Also Gamebores too, between those two, RST is preferred because pattern quality or not I just think I’m more consistent with them.

Gentlemen,

Wanted to pass one more suggestion on to you guys. I started using this new Gun21 treatment on my barrels too see if it would live up to the hype. Man it works great, after using it for less than one season nothing sticks to the inside of my old Classic guns barrels, no more plastic residue. Looks like I will not need the Burch Wood Casey cleaner any more. I cleaned the gun with it and used the Gun21 after I wiped the BC out, what a difference. No powered residue or plastic adheres to the barrels after gunning, no matter which shells I happen to use. The Gun21 is a great product! It lives up to the Hype.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith man