Will firing with no choke installed damage threads?

[Harry Callahan]

Seems to me this would not be a good idea but had to ask.

 

[BigJimP]

Yes, its a bad idea ...but in theory - the only thing that will touch the threads is the plastic wad ...and you'll get a lot of plastic fouling in the threads.

I've seen a few guys ( of questionable intelligence in my opinion ) do it intentionally - because they think they're cool or whatever ....but I've seen it happen once in a while, where someone forgets to put a choke tube into the gun ...( including one of my kids - on one of my Brownings) ...and I think we were lucky that it didn't cause any damage - but he only fired 3 or 4 shells before we realized it.

I wouldn't do it intentionally ..and balistically, there isn't any reason to do it - if you have a Cyclinder choke...that's as open a pattern as you'd ever need.

 

[Harry Callahan]

Thanks, BigJim. Just didn't sound right but wanted someone with more experience than me telling me so.

 

[BigJimP]

For what its worth -- I always store my guns now with choke tubes screwed into the barrels ( they're cleaned and lubed regularly ) ...but if they go into the safe with choke tubes installed ...they at least come out of the safe, before they go into a travel case - with something in them ...

but after that incident / where we had 5 shooters using my guns ...I didn't have enough modified extended chokes for all 5 Browning 12ga Over Unders ...and in the confusion of getting everyone set up with a gun / looking at my son on the firing line - I just assumed that gun got a pair of the flush chokes installed ...and while he shoots with me quite a bit / he was helping one of his buddies get set up and just forgot to check his own gun.

So it happens ...

Kind of like bringing a 28ga gun to the club ....and loading 15 boxes of 20ga shells.../ and having to pay $ 12 a box for 28ga shells ....

 

[zippy13]

The screw-in choke tube also contributes to the structural integrity of the muzzle. Sometimes there is more metal in the choke tube than there is in the barrel.

 

[zippy13]

Kind of like bringing a 28ga gun to the club ....and loading 15 boxes of 20ga shells.../ and having to pay $ 12 a box for 28ga shells ...​

Big Jim, ol' buddy, can you spell T-U-B-E--G-U-N ?

 

[BigJimP]

and after I posted that yesterday ...I check the back of my vehicle a 2nd time to make sure I had a 20ga gun in the case and 20ga shells yesterday ....

I'm just too cheap to invest in a good carrier barrel like you big dogs ....

 

[oneounceload]

The threads in most choke-tube barrels are very fine and not very deep. Shooting without tubes in there exposes them to unnecessary potential damage beyond the plastic fouling. - In short, use the tubes when shooting

 

[94bluerat]

You can run the engine in your car for a few minutes with no oil, "just to see what it does". But, I wouldn't recommend it....

 

[LSnSC]

Lead shot, no. Ive seen one of the top shooters in the nation do it several times in a sporting clays match for in your face targets. Done it myself once or twice.
Steel shot possibly.

 

[clemsonbloz]

If you've seen top shooters in clays do it, they are not likely very worried about barrel damage.. The big dogs usually have gun sponsers and get the latest and greatest toys before we can buy them..

Shooting without a choke tube will cause possible barrel damage from the ultra thin wall that the tube fills up..

I am sure 90 times out of 100 it'd be ok,,, but I like my barrels!`