Reducing tubes in an old shotgun

[Bud Tugly]

All the talk about old shotguns got me thinking. I've always wanted to own an old SxS but would hate to have it as just a wall-hanger.

So what about this idea - suppose you took an old 12 gauge double and put reducing tubes in it. You''d probably want to stick to 28 gauge or ,410 tubes and you'd want to have the gun carefully inspected to make sure it was in otherwise good condition.

I'm thinking that the initial pressure of the shell explosion will be confined by the tubes and by the time the charge reached the end of them and expanded to fit the bore the pressure would be much less. Wouldn't this work to keep well-preserved oldie shooting instead of gathering dust?

 

[Bailey Boat]

Have Briley make full length tubes in the gauge of your choice, assuming that the parent gun is 12ga...... Google www.briley.com

 

[oneounceload]

They can make you subgauge tubes in 16,20,28,or 410 if you start with a 12. Another option is sleeving, where they make the gun able to shoot the gauge it started out as, by inserting thin sleeves, (think barrel liner like some handguns and .22's). More expensive, but it doesn't throw off the balance of the gun.

First things fiorst, any old gun needs to be checked by a 'smith WHO KNOWS OLD GUNS. Not every 'smith has the knowledge or skill to do that.

There are low pressure shells made for 2-1/2 and 2-3/4" chambered guns from Polywad and RST, which can do the job if your gun is pronounced safe to shoot with smokeless loads

 

[Bud Tugly]

I know full-length tubes and sleeving would work, but how about the short tubes? Wouldn't the expansion of the gases as they enter the larger bore reduce the pressure significantly?

I know the gun would have to be thoroughly checked out to make sure it was otherwise safe.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Maybe. Some Gauge Mate adaptors (the Browning lil skeeters are crap), are not solid. There is a slight gap in the side, and they work fine in a modern gun, though the hulls split. If the chamber on an old gun wouldn't take the pressure of 12 gauge shell with 1 oz of shot, I don't think they'd take a 20 gauge shell with 1 oz of shot, and the adaptors in some cases don't shield the chamber of the gun. Smokeless powders develope much higher pressures than BP.

Now if the the chamber adaptor was solid, you might be good to go (or you might crack the adaptor or blow up the gun), but if you go too small in gauge, you may defeat the purpose. As the shot cup exits the adaptor it opens to the full diameter of the interior of the barrel. Well 12-16 works well, and in my case 16-20 works fine, but when you go from 12-28 or down to .410, you get a shot cup opening so far, and so loose a fit, that the gas may mix with the shot..., which in some cases blows up your pattern.

It might work. It might not.

LD

 

[Bud Tugly]

Yeah, I suppose the only real answer is that it depends on the integrity of the gun. No simple blanket answer is going to apply.