Celebrity Talk

Welcome to the Shotgunworld Celebrity Talk. This section of Shotgunworld will be used to bring you interviews with industry leaders, authors and shooting innovators. These will be celebrities that you want to hear from. In conjunction with this we will also provide a section in our Celebrity Forum for you to ask questions directly. Often the celebrity will offer a free prize giveaway on the forum. All you have to do is enter your name in the Celebrity Talk Forum. Lets get started...

This weeks interview is with George Trulock. George is the owner and president of Trulock Chokes. Trulock Chokes are known throughout the industry for their high quality chokes and outstanding record of customer satisfaction. They stand behind this commitment to quality with a lifetime warranty on all their products. Trulock Chokes provides chokes for not only the big shotgun manufacturers, but for Tri-star, Verona, Stoeger and a gazillion others. If you're looking for a choke make sure you stop by their website at http://www.trulockchokes.com. Now let's talk to George Trulock.

SGW: How long have you been manufacturing chokes?
GT: I designed the Tru-Choke in 1981 and started production in 1982. That was
followed by our style of Win Choke tube in 1983. That would put us with 21 years in the choke business.

SGW: So, what made you decide to go into the choke business?
GT: I had been heavily involved in custom pistolsmithing for several years doing caliber conversions on N frame Smith & Wesson revolvers and the manufacture of specialized tooling for gunsmiths. Ralph Walker of Walker Arms asked us to make some duplicates of the Win Choke for gunsmiths to retrofit into fixed choke shotgun barrels. After examining this style of choke I thought that a different design with a smaller outside diameter would allow gunsmiths to install them in smaller diameter barrels. The Tru-Choke was the result of that design project.

SGW: What makes Trulock chokes better than manufacturers chokes that come with a
shotgun?
GT: Quality and choice. Our chokes are offered in .005 thousandths increments and are guaranteed to be exactly as marked. As you know, all shotguns do not shoot the same and by offering the chokes in close increments it makes it possible to go up or down one step to obtain the percentage of pattern you want. In our most popular lines we offer chokes in both flush and extended. In most of the extended versions we offer both a bright and black oxide
finish. With the exception of our Super Waterfowl and a new Ti choke we will bring out later this year, all of our chokes are made from high strength 17/4 stainless steel. We back this up with a lifetime warranty and a customer satisfaction guarantee. If for ANY reason the customer is not satisfied with our products within sixty days from the date of purchase they
can return them for exchange or refund of purchase price. The only thing that is required to do this is a copy of the purchase invoice.

SGW: For years fixed chokes were the norm, so are different removable chokes really that important to a shotgun owner?
GT: Very much so. With any given choke, either fixed or interchangeable, they will throw different pattern percentages with different loads, different sizes of shot and different brands. The ability to change the degree of choke gives the shooter the ability to get the pattern they want. With a fixed choke gun you are limited in the ability to do this.

SGW: If a person could only possess three chokes, which three would you recommend?
GT: That is a loaded question if I ever heard one! My answer will be controversial whatever it is. My picks are Skt 1, Skt 2 [Light Mod] and Improved Modified. My reasoning behind this is that these will function quite well for all upland bird and small game hunting with the appropriate shell. They function very well with steel shot for waterfowl shooting and
one could get by with the improved mod and Hevi-Shot for turkey hunting if you picked your shots.

SGW: What are the advantages of the extended chokes?
GT: There are several. Generally they will give a more uniform pattern with lead loads. In our testing, steel loads have always shown an improvement in the patterns with extended chokes. They are easier to change and our marking on the head makes it simple to determine what degree of choke you have in the shotgun. It really bothers me to see people looking down the muzzle of a gun to try and count the notches on a choke tube. This is the reason that we do not notch code our flush style chokes.

SGW: Recently we've seen increased popularity of the ported chokes...is this justified in your opinion?
GT: Ported chokes will reduce recoil by some amount. I honestly cannot tell any significant difference. I have had people who are sensitive to recoil tell me that they can. They will get dirty much quicker and they do increase muzzle blast.

SGW: Years ago the Adjustable choke was introduced. In your opinion why did the
Adjustable choke fall off the map?
GT: While adjustable chokes function very well I think that looks played the major role in its decline. Most shooters I know either really like or dislike adjustable chokes. There does not seem to be much middle ground with this style of choke. Those that did not like them were almost universal in the opinion that they did not like the large object on the end of their gun
barrel. When internal interchangeable chokes became readily available they then shifted to this style.

SGW: What do you think has been the most exciting advancement in shotguns over
the last 20 years?
GT: I'm going to have to say the internal, interchangeable choke tube. I'm sure my answer was the "Big Surprise" of the year! Technically this started with the Winchester in the 50's which is slightly more than 20 years ago but if we cheat a little and say it really caught on in a big way in the early 80's I can squeeze it under the wire.

SGW: What new products can we look forward to from Trulock Chokes?
GT: We plan to introduce replacement extended chokes for Perazzi, Krieghoff and Lanber in 12 ga.  From my perspective the most exciting thing we will do for 2004 will be the introduction of the "Trulock Ti Choke" line of choke tubes. These will be made from a titanium alloy and we plan to have each degree of choke with its own unique color. We will start with the Perazzi, Invector Plus and Beretta Mobil choke in 12 ga extended and go from there.

SGW: So I understand you brought us some goodies to giveaway.
GT: You bet, a set of three chokes in one of our plastic choke clamshells. We'll let the winner decide between  the Sporting Clay or Precision Hunter model.

SGW: Thanks a heap for doing our very first Celebrity Talk interview, George.
GT: My pleasure Jay.