Best choke tubes to use when threading a 14" barrel?

MapleSugar

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I've got two 14" barrels that I want to have threaded for choke tubes.

One is a Rem 870 Express and the other is a Mossberg 590A1. Both are Cylinder Bore.

I've heard that Winchokes are good, but I also have Browning BPS Invector Plus chokes already.

If it means anything, I'd probably just be running 00 Buck and #6 or #7.5 birdshot through them.

Are the Winchokes that much better, or could I get away with just using my stockpile of Invector Plus chokes?
 
I have Rem chokes, Win chokes and now Tru chokes in 870 barrels. I haven’t patterned the Tru chokes yet as I just got it back from threading, between the Rem chokes and Win chokes I get better patterns with Rem chokes. With a mod Rem choke I get the same 00buck and birdshot patterns as a full Win choke but the mod Rem choke shoots slugs accurately out to 40y, the full Win choke doesn’t shoot slugs accurately. Hopefully the Tru chokes give me something similar to the Rem choke, which is what I’d pick if I could have one choke system for all my threaded barrels.

If you can find someone set up to thread for the invectors and they pattern well in your other gun I’d give that a go, I now have a lot of chokes lying around. Especially is you add in the Fabarm chokes, which makes four varieties lol.
 
I have Rem chokes, Win chokes and now Tru chokes in 870 barrels. I haven’t patterned the Tru chokes yet as I just got it back from threading, between the Rem chokes and Win chokes I get better patterns with Rem chokes. With a mod Rem choke I get the same 00buck and birdshot patterns as a full Win choke but the mod Rem choke shoots slugs accurately out to 40y, the full Win choke doesn’t shoot slugs accurately. Hopefully the Tru chokes give me something similar to the Rem choke, which is what I’d pick if I could have one choke system for all my threaded barrels.

If you can find someone set up to thread for the invectors and they pattern well in your other gun I’d give that a go, I now have a lot of chokes lying around. Especially is you add in the Fabarm chokes, which makes four varieties lol.

Thanks for the feedback, Bill.

I haven't even shot my BPS yet, so I don't know how it will pattern.

I'd like to stick with just one brand of choke tubes though, if I could.

I have too much stuff laying around too.
 
I recently had a 14" 870 barrel and a 590a1 barrel threaded for Rem choke. Hard to beat the options with that system.
 
Forget your Browning Invector Plus chokes, they are made to fit a much larger internal bore size than the others. Of the few gunsmiths who are set up to install removable chokes, most are only tooled up for one system ( thread pattern) such as Rem Choke, you will need to find a gunsmith who installs the system you prefer. The system used ( Rem Choke, Browning Invector, Browning Invector Plus, Beretta Mobile , etc) is of little importance for practical use, they all produce fine patterns but they are not interchangeable between systems. To confuse some people, many companies auch as Carlson, Briley and others make chokes in all guages and constrictions for all of these proprietary systems.
Don't confuse "best" patterns with tightest patterns. Best patterns are the most evenly distributed patterns for the given choke constriction, allowing less chance of a target or bird to slip between the pellets. A "best" Cylinder, Modified or Full choke will all give evenly distributed patterns with a preferred load but the amount of space between the pellets will vary of course between the different chokes and therefore the practical range varies as per the choke. The tighter Full choke will hold the pattern together for a longer distance than the more open Improved Cylinder choke but when used at short distances the much smaller pattern can result in clean misses or mangled birds. Conversely, the Improved Cylinder choke results in a much larger pattern that is great for shorter ranges but will result in targets being missed at longer ranges due to the sparser pellet distribution. Forget about system or brand, pick your choke constriction according to your most likely target ( clay or game) distance and bang away. This is why doubles are so versatile, you usually have the choice of two different chokes for two different distances.
 
Different chokes will require different barrel diameter/wall thickness. A 14 inch bbl will generally be thick enough to install anything you would like but if cutting a longer barrel down, it might govern your choice more than preferred brand or what you have in hand.
In general most smiths might have tooling for tru choke, invector/win, or remington. The wall thickness required goes up in that order. Brownells and (i think) ptg has charts/instructions regarding these dimensions to help purchase the tooling.
In general the most common is the standard invector/win/mossberg/stoeger etc, etc choke
If your concern is pattern, get the forcing cone done first.
 
I just had my 14 inch 870 barrel threaded for remchoke by Casey at tactical ordnance. Great service. I chose remchoke because I have lots and they are readily available everywhere.

I recently had a 14" 870 barrel and a 590a1 barrel threaded for Rem choke. Hard to beat the options with that system.

That's vote 3 and 4 for the Rem chokes. Thanks, guys!
 
Forget your Browning Invector Plus chokes, they are made to fit a much larger internal bore size than the others. Of the few gunsmiths who are set up to install removable chokes, most are only tooled up for one system ( thread pattern) such as Rem Choke, you will need to find a gunsmith who installs the system you prefer. The system used ( Rem Choke, Browning Invector, Browning Invector Plus, Beretta Mobile , etc) is of little importance for practical use, they all produce fine patterns but they are not interchangeable between systems. To confuse some people, many companies auch as Carlson, Briley and others make chokes in all guages and constrictions for all of these proprietary systems.
Don't confuse "best" patterns with tightest patterns. Best patterns are the most evenly distributed patterns for the given choke constriction, allowing less chance of a target or bird to slip between the pellets. A "best" Cylinder, Modified or Full choke will all give evenly distributed patterns with a preferred load but the amount of space between the pellets will vary of course between the different chokes and therefore the practical range varies as per the choke. The tighter Full choke will hold the pattern together for a longer distance than the more open Improved Cylinder choke but when used at short distances the much smaller pattern can result in clean misses or mangled birds. Conversely, the Improved Cylinder choke results in a much larger pattern that is great for shorter ranges but will result in targets being missed at longer ranges due to the sparser pellet distribution. Forget about system or brand, pick your choke constriction according to your most likely target ( clay or game) distance and bang away. This is why doubles are so versatile, you usually have the choice of two different chokes for two different distances.

Different chokes will require different barrel diameter/wall thickness. A 14 inch bbl will generally be thick enough to install anything you would like but if cutting a longer barrel down, it might govern your choice more than preferred brand or what you have in hand.
In general most smiths might have tooling for tru choke, invector/win, or remington. The wall thickness required goes up in that order. Brownells and (i think) ptg has charts/instructions regarding these dimensions to help purchase the tooling.
In general the most common is the standard invector/win/mossberg/stoeger etc, etc choke
If your concern is pattern, get the forcing cone done first.

Thanks for the detailed info, guys.

I'm not planning anything special for these barrels, I just want them to give me a tight pattern with buckshot and birdshot out to about 25m.

Accuracy at a longer range would be a pleasant bonus.

The Mossberg is a heavy-walled barrel, so it should be fine with just about anything. It's the Remington Express barrel that I wasn't sure about.

The consensus here seems to be for Rem chokes, so I think that's what I'll have them threaded for.

It's good to know that the Invector Plus are a no go. I would have preferred to use them if they were feasible.
 
I have a 12.5 inch dlask barrel on my 870 that I had dlask thread for rem chokes like the one fellow already said play with your choke and ammo combinations and you will be very surprised with your results. My set up with that barrel is my go to gun for all my small game hunting it’s so fast to point and swing in the thick bush it’s almost not fair to the grouse and patterns very well at 40 yards with buckshot
 
another thought would be trying flite control buckshot. it apparently gives tight patterns out of cylinder bore guns. i have not tried it myself and am only going on what i read . i have a similar setup as jimbo45 using a 12.5 dlask barrel with remington chokes. i find it will work if you feed it ammo that it likes . experiment with various ammo and constrictions is my advice .
 
another thought would be trying flite control buckshot. it apparently gives tight patterns out of cylinder bore guns. i have not tried it myself and am only going on what i read . i have a similar setup as jimbo45 using a 12.5 dlask barrel with remington chokes. i find it will work if you feed it ammo that it likes . experiment with various ammo and constrictions is my advice .

I've seen those too. They look impressive, but are expensive as hell.

It would still be nice to have the option of using different chokes for various purposes though.
 
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