What Causes Shotgun Choke Tubes To Lock Up Or Freeze In The Barrel?

Part 1 of 2


I’m sure a lot of shotgun shooters have encountered this dreaded problem. You start to remove the choke from your shotgun and it will not budge. You increase the pressure on your choke wrench and still get no movement. You eventually end up putting enough torque on the wrench that it causes your face to turn red and your arms too start to tremble. The choke still does not move. You then find some sort of tool to give you additional leverage on the wrench and the darn choke tube still refuses to budge.

You start to wonder what you did to cause this problem!!

There are basically three things that will freeze shotgun chokes in the barrel.
· Rust
· Residue build up from fired shells (unburned powder, fiber, plastic, etc.)
· Choke tube expansion (Creep)

If you want to keep your shotgun chokes functioning as they were intended then the below maintenance items should be followed on a regular basis.

1. Loosen and retighten the choke on occasion. Even better if you remove the choke and reinstall in the barrel on a regular basis. This will break any bond that is attempting to form.
2. Clean the choke body and remove residue from the threads with a stiff brush and solvent of some kind.
3. Clean the internal threads and choke counterbore in the barrel using a bronze bore brush and solvent.
4. Wipe all surfaces dry after cleaning and lubricate them with a few drops of high quality gun oil.


Choke tubes like this are what you are trying to avoid


This is not how you want to remove a choke tube

I always use grease on my tubes, you say oil the threads. Is there a reason to use the oil and not grease? I pretty much do everything you do with exception of the oil.

Grease for me too. A light film of STOL on the threads and entire outside body before it goes in the barrel.

Grease or oil will work. The main thing is to use "something" that helps keep residue from hardening, lubricates and protects.

In some instances choke tubes that want to loosen under recoil work better if they are installed without grease or oil. However closer attention is really necessary if you choose this option.

George Trulock

Grease or anti-sieze?

I have used all three over the years. All of these worked fine.
The main reason I use oil now is that it is somewhat easier to remove when I pull the choke for cleaning. Anytime I get around grease it seems to have the ability to get on my clothes and works up my arms to my elbows. :)
George

I've used grease and oil on choke tubes and both work well. Just be sure to use something and loosen them up (then retighten before shooting) from time to time.

Usually at the end of the shooting day, I'll loosen the choke tubes in the barrel before putting the gun away. I change chokes often enough that a stuck tube is not a worry for me. But nevertheless, I keep them oiled anyway.

If your chokes vibrate loose when shooting, try a layer of teflon (plumber's) tape around the choke threads.

Oil migrates; I went from grease to anti-seize and save that expensive grease for hinge pins and knuckles. From everything I have seen, it seems that shotgun folks do the opposite of the rifle/pistol folks. We tend to use oil on things that slide and grease on things that rotate; whereas pistol folks do the opposite.

"Expensive grease"??? For about $8 you can buy a 10 year supply at the local auto parts store. You don't need to ration it.

Great post Trulock.

And I'm with the crowd that uses grease on threads for the most part. Plus correctly use grease on things that slide and bear on each other; and oil on rotating parts.

I like RIG+P on Stainless and other pistol slides; hinge pins and trunions. And certain pump slide parts.

And a light bit of RemOil or CLP on things that need oil.

Here's another tip as a follow up to the OP. If you have badly stuck chokes or something - have a good gunsmith!

Our son guides on the side for waterfowl, and mainly uses a BPS and Wingmaster.

His BPS has seen a LOT of harsh duty and is often in the bottom of his jet boat, kayak or raft.

We're sending it off to have it refinished and coated by Black Ice in Utah. (I'll be refinishing the stock). Could not get the butt stock off no matter how hard I tried after completely stripping everything else down.

Put some CLP on the bolt, then PB Blaster last night. Still wouldn't budge.

Took it to Ronnie Cox here in Greenville, SC today who was highly recommended. 30 seconds - stock is off.

Which was fortuitous because I need some recoil pads installed on a few guns, trigger work on a deer rifle; and some scope work done. After seeing Ronnie's shop and his work - he's getting all my business.

Oh, and he didn't even charge me for loosening the butt stock even though I tried to pay him. I hesitate to mention his name selfishly because he's pretty backed up with work and I'm taking two rifles there tomorrow LOL.

But you really appreciate good, honest hard-working craftsmen like that and if anybody in the upstate needs and Gunsmithing done; I'd be checking out Ronnie Cox in Simpsonville first.

Compared to the $2.99 tube that will last me three lifetimes, yeah - EXPENSIVE grease.......I use RIG...............

That's why I don't like anti-seize, it's just too dirty. Plain old Hoppe's Gun Grease works well and is cheap enough.

Super Lube threads and body. Its a clear synthetic grease when it gets too Black simply wipe off and re-grease, same with the barrel threads. Learn this with muzzle loader breach plugs. TC makes male & female plastic thread chasers that work great for thread cleaning, just some thing else some one could market for chokes.

Thank you for the info.
I will look into this.
George Trulock

[color=#000000]I have a peanut butter jar with the copper anti sieze that drillers use on well drilling rods. It keeps stuff from seizing together. It was a "gift" out of their 5 gal bucket of the stuff. Lots cheaper than the $$ for a little tube at the auto parts store but about the same stuff. Also, my friends, one more question. I want to try gambling, but I have some fears about it. How do I overcome them? I recently became interested in slot machines, I went to some advertising link just to try and play, and you know I liked it. From that resource went because only a few machines there were. Recently fouhd this river cree casino shows, found it here rivercreetickets.com, I would like your opinion on all this, any reply would be valuable to me. Thanks.

>>A light film of STOL on the threads and entire outside body before it goes in the barrel.<<

STOL is what I use exclusively. It's clear, applies easily, and is non messy. There's no need to use messy anti seize compounds.

Okay, I agree that oil and grease both work very well in preventing chokes from locking up. I have a slightly different perspective for my clay target guns that get shot several thousand rounds a year. The biggest annoyance I encounter with oiled or greased chokes is that they inevitably shake loose and then crud and lead and nasty stuff sneaks into the threads. Also, I fear that lead shot loads will suffer some extra barrel scrubbing if the choke is not seated tight as designed. Barrel scrubbing causes some shot to run out of the pattern and not a good thing if you are keeping score. As to the mentioned barrel scrubbing, I have no data to prove this theory but I think it could likely be the case. (I like to cite actual data or studies when I can to verify my opinions but here I am all educated guess.)

So my practice for my target guns (just 1 or 2 guns per season) is to clean the threads and chokes early season, again after 1000 rounds or 4-5 months and to use no lubrication at all. This allows me to tighten the chokes so that they don't easily get loose. If they do get loose, crud quickly builds up on the threads but this is rare as dry chokes tend not to come loose easily. I don't screw them down real tight. I finger tighten and then give them a firm, one time nudge with a notched choke wrench.

In my guns that are not shot frequently or that are stored for 9 months or more they are ABSOLUTELY OILED OR GREASED to prevent rust or lockup. In case of any doubt as to how long it might be before I use a shotgun, I will oil or grease the chokes. As mentioned in the great posts above, a stuck choke is a big PIA and should be avoided.

I write this post only to say that a dry choke will work in guns that are shot frequently, cleaned on a regular basis and not stored for a long time with dry chokes. The upside of a dry choke is that it will be less likely to shoot loose. When I clean, I use a firm brush, on a power drill, to scrub my chokes and threads squeaky clean! A firm clean. NO bore snakes allowed. They do not clean at all and only smooth over the crud and fool you into think that you cleaned your barrel. Use a brash brush with vigor and a lot of elbow grease.

This is an interesting thread. I thank the OP and all the contributors. Hope this provides another perspective on choke maintenance that will be useful .

I think dry choke threads are asking for trouble. Taking guns outside from an air conditioned environment in the summer, or from a heated environment in the winter, might cause condensation which could deposit moisture in the threads. Getting caught in a rain could do the same. The result over a few weeks, if not days, would be rust. George Trulock has been making chokes for a long time and knows what he is talking about. Better to keep the threads lubed and check your chokes for tightness regularly, IMO.

I use anti-seize and remove the chokes and clean them when I clean the gun - which is not every time I use it, but pretty close to that. Judging from the photo of the choke tube in the OP, the owner might want to consider cleaning the gun a bit more often! JMHO