Sawed off shotguns, a bad idea that can be fixed

Polar_Hunter

Polar_Hunter

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We have all seen barrels cut to the shortest legal length for one reason or another (mostly due to influence from Hollywood I would guess). The problem is that, once cut, the resulting cylinder bore isn't much good for anything other than the imagined need for self defense. As a hunting gun it is close to useless.

In the past I have taken a few of these guns and installed chokes on them to return them to a useful life. (some photos below) They all turned out to be good shooters but in the back of my mind I have always wondered how they compared with the original long barrel.

I recently acquired a very beat up 20 gauge that was uncut so I used it as an experiment. I first turned out a screw on choke to the exact inside dimensions of the original full choke (not all are manufactured the same size). I then fired one shot with the original to have a reference pattern. After cutting 7" off the barrel and installing the new choke I test fired again at the exact same distance with the same shell. The two shot patterns are the same. While doing a job like this is not cost efficient it does make a nice short brush hunting gun that is handy to carry on the bike or in the truck.

I still have a lot of work to do on this old gun so no photos of it yet.



 
I am going to watch this. I hope it develops into a place where we can send our barrels for this kind of work in Canada. I have found that Poly Choke in the states is only @50% with me. They did one great job and one terrible job.

Darryl
 
I prefer threading the last couple of inches of the original barrel and reinstalling it.
Put the bead on the shortened barrel so you don't have to worry about a perfect index to get it in the right spot.
Anyone competent with a lathe can do this for you.
 
Here is a photo of the Remington cleaned up a bit and a close-up of the new full choke. As I said at the beginning, this kind of job is not really cost efficient. I would have to charge about $150.00 for a job like this to make it worth my time,,, not sure that anyone would be willing to spend that on an old single shot.





I now have two "Grouse Guns",,, the Cooey has an adjustable choke robbed from an old Mossberg bolt action.

 
I love old single shot Cooey's, I wish they made rifles based off of that action. I'd love a Cooey 84 chambered in 45-70, 9.3 x 73 R, 38-55, 375 H and H flanged, etc...... Off topic kind of, but I would spend money on an old single shot for something like that. Call me crazy
 
Brownells sells sleeves that are installed by turning the OD of the barrel, then sweating on the sleeve. The sleeves are internally threaded to use commercial choke tubes. Used a couple of these, and they work well, and are reasonable priced.
I do not know what their current export status is.
 
OldSavage said:
I love old single shot Cooey's, I wish they made rifles based off of that action. I'd love a Cooey 84 chambered in 45-70, 9.3 x 73 R, 38-55, 375 H and H flanged, etc...... Off topic kind of, but I would spend money on an old single shot for something like that. Call me crazy
Click to expand...

I suppose that a barrel breech could be threaded, and a rifled barrel installed. Firing pin should be bushed to a smaller diameter. I would be very cautious to select a rifle cartridge that produces no more backthrust that the shotgun shell.
 
tiriaq said:
I suppose that a barrel breech could be threaded, and a rifled barrel installed. Firing pin should be bushed to a smaller diameter. I would be very cautious to select a rifle cartridge that produces no more backthrust that the shotgun shell.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the complications and costs associated would make me think twice for sure. I have all sorts of dumb ideas
 
Well it does make for a gun that's, um... er... can we say "interesting"? I suppose if the gun otherwise has some built-in value such as a Model 870, 1100, 37 or 12; then what's another $150 bucks on top of Bubba's work in order to bring back some function? A utilitarian tool that will fit just fine in the truck box, nestled between the chains and the bottle jack ;)
 
ninepointer said:
A utilitarian tool that will fit just fine in the truck box, nestled between the chains and the bottle jack ;)
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LOL,,, Well said!

I got both of mine for $0.00 and the work put into them was just plain fun. Only thing I use now for Grouse hunting, great on the quad and excellent for stocking in the thick brush. Definitely "utilitarian" ;)
 
Can you post some detailed pics of the machining that you did?

I'd love to see the threads on the barrel, and what the inside of the choke looks like.
 
I'll take some photos on the next one that I do. It should be noted that not all barrels can be done this way. They are a thin wall tube so if the bore is off center (as some are) there is not enough metal to work with. I recently had a 20 G Cooey come in that was not doable. The bore on this Remington was dead on concentric and .762" OD. As I need a minimum OD of .750" it was an easy job.

To turn out the choke is easy lathe work but rather than cut the threads with a single point cutter I ordered a special tap. (3/4" x 24 tpi) The 24 tpi is nice to work with, not to deep so as to weaken the muzzle, and just a few quick passes when threading the barrel on the lathe.

Dexter Morgan said:
Can you post some detailed pics of the machining that you did?

I'd love to see the threads on the barrel, and what the inside of the choke looks like.
Click to expand...
 
Polar_Hunter said:
We have all seen barrels cut to the shortest legal length for one reason or another (mostly due to influence from Hollywood I would guess). The problem is that, once cut, the resulting cylinder bore isn't much good for anything other than the imagined need for self defense. As a hunting gun it is close to useless.

In the past I have taken a few of these guns and installed chokes on them to return them to a useful life. (some photos below) They all turned out to be good shooters but in the back of my mind I have always wondered how they compared with the original long barrel.

I recently acquired a very beat up 20 gauge that was uncut so I used it as an experiment. I first turned out a screw on choke to the exact inside dimensions of the original full choke (not all are manufactured the same size). I then fired one shot with the original to have a reference pattern. After cutting 7" off the barrel and installing the new choke I test fired again at the exact same distance with the same shell. The two shot patterns are the same. While doing a job like this is not cost efficient it does make a nice short brush hunting gun that is handy to carry on the bike or in the truck.

I still have a lot of work to do on this old gun so no photos of it yet.



Click to expand...

No one else has yet, so I'll gently take you to task concerning your opinion of the utility of short barrel, open choke, shotguns, although admittedly I never went shorter than 20". I generally disapprove of shotgun or rifle barrels so short that you could inadvertently reach the muzzle with your support hand when the gun is shouldered. I can't imagine a better arrangement than an open choke 20" single shot shotgun for grouse or ptarmigan in heavy cover where the range is often 30' or even less.

In the mid to late '70s I had a number of Cooey/Winchester single barrel shotguns (one of which was a 20 ga) cut down for trail use, and tried various configurations to see what proved the most useful. All could be broken down easily and carried in a pack, and all could be carried slung without effort. I had unventilated Polychokes installed on two of them (I had herd somewhere the ventilated Polychokes weren't as good if you shot slugs). They looked cool, I'll give them that, but I'm not sure if I got more versatility out of the guns with the polychokes over the ones with a plain barrels. I found that patterns from the plain barrel guns generally improved as the shot size increased, so my ptarmigan/grouse load was low brass #4s, geese were the old 3" 27/8 oz BB lead shot loads, then I had buckshot and slugs for incidentals. I killed a couple of Canadas with 00 Buck, but decided there weren't enough pellets hitting the birds.

The gun I liked better than the rest was a Winchester 37 with a set of Remington rifle sights attached to the 20" open choke barrel, I shortened the LOP to 13.5" including the good recoil pad, narrowed the forened, and carved the stock to fit my hand comfortably. The forward sling swivel was attached to a ring that was silver soldered to the barrel just ahead of the forend. This was the gun I carried for bear protection for the first few years I lived up here. I even used the little gun on snow geese, when a group of us were stuck out at a remote camp known locally as Nestor 1. Snow goose meat boiled with Lipton chicken noodle soup mix, in a coffee can, over an open fire when you're cold and tired is pretty good stuff. I can't say that any of my cut down 37s/840s were a result of Hollywood influence, but they did serve as versatile survival guns in some pretty remote spots - the farthest flung being 350 miles NW of Resolute Bay.

I still have one of these guns, the last one I acquired, its a Cooey 840, with a 20 inch barrel, with a bead sight on a pedestal, and is threaded for RemChokes; it's modified choke has been in there for so long I don't know if it will even come out. The stock hasn't been carved, but it does have a Decelerator on it. Mostly though, this thing is a cracker shell gun, as I've pretty much got away from single shots for serious work, and now when a shotgun is called for I have a Mossberg 590.
 
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