Cutting my barrel down on Cooey 12ga

lord-humungous

lord-humungous

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I'm coming to the realization that it may be best to take a few inches off the barrel on my Cooey 84. It's a nice enough gun that I want to keep it and make it useful for steel shot. It has a fixed full choke (30" barrel) that I measured at 0.6875" inside diameter at barrel. This is just a little small for a dime... As mentioned, I'd like to shoot steel so my idea is to trim 2" to 4" off the end, recrown it and hopefully be left with a modified or improved cylinder constriction.

Does this sound reasonable? I know it will bubba the gun, but let's face it these are probably the least valueable guns on earth. Function over form here. My end use will be ducks, geese, rabbits, grouse and maybe (just maybe) a deer slug or some buckshot. I also like to shoot clays in a sandpit with it, but I can't see this affecting it's ability to do any of these things unless I don't cut it straight.
 
You might end up losing alot of your choking by doing that. I have been shooting steel through a mossberg 400 with a full choke for years and it hasn't bothered. The barrel is heavy enough at the end like your cooey but you could always have it reamed.
 
likely will lose all of your choke, plus need to drill tap and install a new front sight. if you are that worried about the steel shot get it reamed out, or plenty of material to even go to a screw in choke.
 
IIRC the later years of cooeys were crimped to get the full choke and not milled to that spec of choke. I think getting it reamed would be a better choice. then you may have the same sight picture that you are use to by retaining the bead sight.
If you really wanna open the choke, get a hone on a drill and hone that sucker till its the choke you want. Im not sure what the imp cyl choke spec is, but the amount you cut off the end of the barrel may open it to much.

Good luck either way.:wave:
 
billdick said:
You might end up losing alot of your choking by doing that. I have been shooting steel through a mossberg 400 with a full choke for years and it hasn't bothered. The barrel is heavy enough at the end like your cooey but you could always have it reamed.
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The Cooey has a pretty heavy barrel. If I go ahead and and shoot steel as is, should I use a lighter/smaller shot to be safe? Or will that make a difference. I'll be using steel for geese.
 
Go ahead and cut it off - it will handle so much better. There are ways to rechoke it that sound brutal, but actually can be cleaned up to look fine.

Trim it to length, then set up an acetylene torch and heat it red for an inch or so.

Then tap it with a hammer to shrink the barrel to choke it.

File and sand and finish it.

Now - starting at the beginning again with a little more detail:

Set up some wooden support for the barrel - a v -block for the chamber end and a steel v-block - maybe a piece of angle iron in a vise to back up your peening. This v-block should be at the angle that you want the taper of the choke to have.

Set up your torch so it that you don't have to hold it as you spin the barrel over it.

Don't quench the tube when it is very hot - it will harden to be brittle.

Do wrap a wet cotton cloth around the barrel to keep heat from wrecking too much blueing.

Don't focus your tapping on the end, you want to taper it - not just curl the end over.

Then use a wooden dowel with sandpaper to smooth the inside of the muzzle to about the size you want. and then a dowel with a flapper of sandpaper on a slit dowel to smooth further back.

Now draw file the outside to take off the rough spots, then use a long band of emery cloth to smooth it nicely and make it look machined.

It is a little thicker as you cut shorter. Cut one or two inches off and do a practice taper, then cut a little more off and do a final job.

I would likely not fire slugs from it if I had brought it right down to a full choke size again. Slugs will go through a factory full choke, but ...

Finer sandpaper will make it ready to touch-up blue or paint it black if you like.

I have one that I will do in the next day or two - I can take pictures - two partridge on the lane this morning.
 
"...like to shoot steel..." You don't get a choice for ducks and geese.
Pipe cutter, then file off the burrs. You will definitely end up with no choke at all though. You could have interchangeable chokes installed, but it'll cost. Epp's wants $100 plus the cost of the tubes.
 
If you amputate the barrel, you have little or no control over the resulting choke. You have an inexpensive but durable gun and you need a practicable solution so consider this idea - it has worked for me. Measure your bore diameter behind the swaged choke section - it should be close to .028". The choke section will be only an inch or so long and right at the muzzle. For steel shot you need only about .020" choke for a "Full" choke pattern or .010 to .015" for "Modified" so decide your objective - not some arbitrary number related to current choke diameter. Obtain a 36" X 3/8" steel rod and saw a 1-2" slot in one end to hold emery cloth. Wrap a strip of emery cloth around the rod until it fits snugly into the choke end the soak it with light oil or varsol. Now, using an electric drill on the rod, centered from the chamber end. polish out as much choke as you need to get down to your chosen constriction. Keep the emery oscillating forward and back for a couple of inches and start with #100 emery, then when you get close to final dimension, go to finer grit until you finish with #400. Be patient as the polishing will likely take 20 minutes or so but you will have a very effective choke for steel and lead shot. Good luck .
 
Ol' Flinter said:
If you amputate the barrel, you have little or no control over the resulting choke. You have an inexpensive but durable gun and you need a practicable solution so consider this idea - it has worked for me. Measure your bore diameter behind the swaged choke section - it should be close to .028". The choke section will be only an inch or so long and right at the muzzle. For steel shot you need only about .020" choke for a "Full" choke pattern or .010 to .015" for "Modified" so decide your objective - not some arbitrary number related to current choke diameter. Obtain a 36" X 3/8" steel rod and saw a 1-2" slot in one end to hold emery cloth. Wrap a strip of emery cloth around the rod until it fits snugly into the choke end the soak it with light oil or varsol. Now, using an electric drill on the rod, centered from the chamber end. polish out as much choke as you need to get down to your chosen constriction. Keep the emery oscillating forward and back for a couple of inches and start with #100 emery, then when you get close to final dimension, go to finer grit until you finish with #400. Be patient as the polishing will likely take 20 minutes or so but you will have a very effective choke for steel and lead shot. Good luck .
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I like this idea. I may have questions after I think about it for a bit.
 
Stewienb said:
Please do!! And post a thread, i woulld LOVE to see how that is done!! :):wave:
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Okay - I started at exactly 2 Pm with no preparations and put the final touch-up blue on at 3:01.

I did it exactly as described - except I did not bother with a heat sink - and the final choke is slightly tighter than full. I will likely widen that just a smidgen when I get home.

During that time I had three long phone calls - one which calls me out of province.

I am on dial-up, so pics take too long - I will try to get first and last.

Admittedly, it needs a little more blue - which seems to colour better if left overnight.

IMG_2641.jpg


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If you leave the barrel as is and want to learn how well or poorly it shoots steel, then shoot a pattern or two on paper or cardboard with the old lead goose loads you formerly used the a couple of patterns using the steel loads you propose to use and compare results. If you find the steel pattern wider than the lead then you probably have more choke, not less, than what is optimum for the steel loads. If you haven't bought your steel goose loads then I recommend trying Kent Faststeel 1 1/8 oz of #2 or BB at 1560 fps. My goose shooting clients have had good success with these for the past 5 or 6 years and we shoot a lot of them each fall. Do the barrel work only if you are not satisfied with the initial steel results.
 
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