Choke in a smoothbore?

[Hawkdancer]

I have a 20 ga.(.62 cal) smoothbore drop in barrel for my Hawken rifle, my question is since this will be a dedicated shotgun, what
choke would be better, modified or full?  I am leaning towards full, as most of the shots around here are longer range.  The choke I'm considering is the Invector type screw in.  I may even have one in the shop, I would find a gunsmith to install it as I don't have the right tools.
Hawkdancer

[Gimlis Ghost]

Have you given thought to a "Jug Choke"?
With a jug choke the muzzle remains the same diameter as the bore , the Jug is formed by material being removed from a point several inches into the bore for a short distance.
Back boring is another option. Both are more period correct for muzzle loaders.

[Eric Krewson]

All of us traditional type flintlockers that choked their gun had a jug choke cut in the barrel, done correctly they do very well and you do have a choice of how much choke they cut when you have it done.

I haven't heard of a TC smooth bore barrel being jug choked but I could ask on one of my favorite M/L boards for you, I am sure guys have done it but need their direct response.

I had two smoothie barrels jug choked, one came out a 40 yard turkey gun and one 25-30 yard gun. It costs around $120 to have one jug choked.

Here is how a jug choke works; and expansion chamber of .025 is reamed out for a full choke about 1" inside the barrel, this chamber is tapered on each and back to the barrel diameter. Shot comes down the bore, expands into the chamber then hits what amounts to a tapered forcing cone on the muzzle side. This directs the shot into the center of the bore to form a long narrow shot string.

Here is a jug choke and a pattern I shot with mine (the 25-30 yard gun) at 25 yards.

[Eric Krewson]

I asked about TC jug choking on the M/L Forum, will let you know the answers.

[Eric Krewson]

So far I only got one answer on the M/L Forum; one guy said he cut his own jug choke with a brake hone and it worked well for him.

I have a friend who has cut a number of jug chokes with a brake hone in his smoothbores, this is an iffy job that may or may not come out well. I had mine done by a guy who specializes in the procedure and would go that route if I had another done.

[Hawkdancer]

I forgot mention the barrel is a Sharon Rifle barrel, marked 20 ga., not a TC.  I am not sure of the jug choking as I have not heard of it before.  Gunsmiths in general are a bit scare around here, one that is familiar with muzzleloading are even more rare, which is why I thought of the threaded type insert.  Thanks for the information so far!
Hawkdancer

[Eric Krewson]

There is a dedicated smoothbore crowd out there that shoots nothing else, all are familiar with jug chokes although there is some miss information about shooting a round ball out of a jug choked barrel. Some say a round ball won't shoot well out of jug choked barrel, those of us that do find no difference in shooting a ball in a jug choked barrel, it is all about working up a load.

Here is one of my round ball targets, I shot .690s and they were all over the place. I switched to .700s and they shot mighty well. I think this is at 25 yards, I was shooting 100 gr of 1F with a .023 patch. And yes, the recoil was significant. I have a rear sight on my fowler.

[Eric Krewson]

Jug choking is not something an average gunsmith can do properly, you would have to send your barrel off to have it done. I used Danny Caywood, a guy named Lowell Tennison is also very experienced at jug choking.

Before you do anything google a Skychief load, the shot pattern in my picture above is a jug choke with a Skychief load. The wad column is contrary to everything you ever read about loading a shotgun but it works and will really tighten your pattern.

I tried in my cylinder bore 20ga that I couldn't get more than just a few pellets in a piece of notebook paper and got a squirrel killing pattern at 20 yards with this crazy load.

I don't have a before but it was pitiful. This is an after picture of loading the Skychief load. This gun shoots to the left.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Here is link to a Skychief load.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/skychiefs-shot-load-link.127394/

[JW_Halverson]

The "Sky Chief" load flies in the face of what is oft called common sense, conventional wisdom saying that a heavy wad ON TOP of the shot charge will cause you to have a doughnut pattern on paper.

That being said, I fully intend to try this combo soon with my short cannon barreled smoothbore because it will not pattern ANY combination tried to date. I would hesitate to use this gun on a turkey at even 5 yards with an ounce and a quarter load with as crappy a pattern as it throws for shot. However, it does excel with roundball and I had one great day hitting three half gallon milk jugs in a row at 50 yds offhand!

[Eric Krewson]

In my 20 and before the Skychief load my whole pattern would be like the 4" of cardboard on the far left side of the picture above.

[mullet]

I also tried the Skychief load in my .62 smoothbore. It greatly improved the pattern and I killed a fine Gobbler the first time out at 38 yards with #6 shot. Before the pattern was spray and pray.

[Hawkdancer]

Off to the range to try the "Skychief" - when and if the wind stops blowing 20-40 mph plus, and I can get a 20 gauge ramrod made up, will likely use my .58 bench rod at first!
Hawkdancer

[Gimlis Ghost]

I could be wrong but I suspect the shot column pushing into a soft and sloppy lubed wadding might tend to force the column into an elongated cone shape. Each piece of shot would be so greasy none could stick to another and the whole column would just flow down the barrel with out picking up any individual spin from the bore wall so there would be no bernouli effect to scatter the individual shot once they left the muzzle.

[Eric Krewson]

I just found out that Rice Barrels will jug choke one of their fowler barrels for you when you order it. I don't know what that would add to the cost but suspect it would be very well done.