Have an opportunity to buy a ‘48 16 gauge with a hideous looking Cutts. Do you guys like them or not?
Personally, I will not purchase any shotgun with a cutt or a polychoke. I wonder if we can remove them and have a modified choke barrel?
I’ve thought about that too. Would it be more of a cylinder or open choke with it removed? Wonder what Briley would charge to cut it off and put the thin wall chokes in
I like both the Poly-Choke and the Cutt’s Compensator. They are period accents to our old guns, and they work. I also find that extra weight at the end of the barrel smooths my swing. By the way, I understand why Biz wouldn’t want one. He collects high end guns, and there, they’re out of place. But for a shooter, I think they’re great. And they have the advantage of decreasing value. It’s nice to get a gun that ordinarily would sell for $750 for $500 because it has the accessory I want.
Got a line on a 1948 with a Cutts. Looks like the wood was refinished. It’s a little pitted. Possibly reblued over the pits. The guy wants $500 shipped. I tried to negotiate a lower price but he is firm. Thinking I’m going to pass on this one. I was just curious what you guys thought about the aftermarket chokes
Well, you said the Cutt’s looks hideous, so maybe you should avoid them. I think they look cool. I agree that $500 is high for the gun you mentioned.
I have a handful of A5s with Cutts and Poly's. I have noticed they do lower the prices most of the time generally speaking, and personally don't care whether one has been installed or not. I will also mention when I was shooting sporting clays with the guys awhile back, I happened to bring one that had a Poly on it As they were fumbling around changing their chokes in between stages, more than one person remarked how handy it was for me to just give the Poly a twist. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, they don't look quite as good as a barrel without one, but overall--I consider them to be part of the tradition.
You’re right Rudolph, as a collector à find them not very elegant but the polychoke is certainly a nice feature. Interestingly, the polychoke seems to be essentially present in the U.S. or as Bill mentioned it, it is part of your tradition. One of my friend in France wanted a Stevens 520. I fond one that was equipped with a polychoke and told him that I didn’t find that desirable. But to my surprise, he want it, and mentioned that in is firearm lovers circle it was a nice curiosity. I would prefer a nice auto-5 with a two or three barrels ensemble all serialized to the same number.
There’s a game we found on the internet called Coon Ass, which we changed to Bits ‘n Pieces. It’s played at Skeet stations 3, 4, and 5 by teams of two. Each team gets two High House targets and two Low House targets. Standing side by side, the shooter on the left breaks the High target, and the shooter on the right breaks a piece of the broken bird. If they’re successful, they score one point. If either one breaks the bird, that’s zero, and if both miss that’s minus one point. On Low House targets the shooter on the right shoots first. Games have been won with a score of Zero. Most guys use O/U’s with different chokes. With a Poly I can just turn the dial to switch, and it’s damned handy to go to Full when I’m teamed with someone who waits till the last moment to shoot. It’d be a real pain to keep switching barrels, or even choke tubes.
Well then, maybe I should explain it further. After your team shoots the first four birds, the other teams shoot. Now your team shoots again from the same station, after reversing positions. So all teams shoot twice from each station, and each guy shoots from each side. After station 5, everyone should have one shell left. We go back to station 4, and sometime after the shooters call ready, a random bird is released. Each guy watches his side, and if it appears, he calls it (I always forget) and shoots. This is the hardest target to score on. We've had to make up rules for situations that always arise. Let’s say the second shooter doesn’t shoot. Maybe he had a malfunction, or he wasn’t ready when his partner called for the bird. Or, there simply wasn’t anything left to shoot at. It counts, they get a zero or minus one. But, that shooter has an extra round to fire at any subsequent bird. Sometimes they’ll score two points on a single bird. The only restriction is, if you’re the first shooter, you can’t take a second shot until your partner shoots. In this situation it’s wise to brief your partner. Usually it’s best to use the extra shells when you’re shooting second. We tend to miss more at this game than we do at the same targets when shooting regular Skeet. There’s an advantage to shooting quickly to give your scoring partner the best shot. Quick shots lead to more misses for the duffers (me) among us.
Sounds like a lot of fun. I’ll have to print out your rules when winter leaves. I am getting pretty impatient waiting for our range to open
One night I was partnered with Ted, who brought a Model 11 with an IC choke. I had the 1938 Sweet Sixteen with a Modified. We swapped the guns back and forth so the second shooter had the tighter choke. Worked great, and my friends said it looked cool. (The clip isn’t from that day.)