Took my brand new Remington 870 out to shoot it for the first time and shot out the improved cylinder rem choke that I'd installed. Not sure why. Details:
Choke: Rem choke improved cylinder. Extended choke. Approved for lead and steel shot. Felt like I tightened it down really hard before I started shooting. Applied a few drops of oil to the threads beforehand.
Ammo: I shot about 25-30 shells through it before I noticed the choke was gone. Started w/#8, then #7.5, then #4 steel birdshot, then some 2 3/4 #00 buck followed by 3'' #00 buck. A few random rounds after that. My buddy said he could see fire coming out of the barrel with the 3'' #00 buck. Was that the choke?
Also, did I almost just kill myself?
Barrel seems fine, factory choke reinstalled without a problem. Was firing off the rounds fairly quickly, didn't check the tightness of the choke between rounds, probably should have.
Clearly I'm new to this. What should I do to prevent losing my chokes and/or having a barrel explode in my face in the future?