[CrusherT]

Here is a newbie and today's trivia question. In all the reading I've done over the last year or so since I bought my first gun, an 870 Express, I haven't found anything to explain the purpose of extended choke tubes. I bought an extended skeet IC choke tube off ebay last year because I needed an IC choke to shoot slugs, but I've always wondered what, if any, was the purpose of making the choke tube extended. It occurred to me that maybe it was because you could switch them out quickly using just your fingers instead of fiddling around for your choke tube wrench when you needed to swap one out on the trap/skeet/clays range, but that's the best I could do. So, is there some other reason (or any at all) in making the choke tubes extend beyond the barrel?

 

[wwb]

You have hit right on the primary and, I believe, only reason for the extended tubes... no wrench necessary.

 

[jlptexashunter]

The only other reason I've ever read was to gradually choke the shot down to the desired constriction, theoretically allowing the shot to flow more freely thus not deforming pellets and improving your pattern. This was on a marketing slick as I recall.

 

[clayshooter25/25]

I don't like extended chokes because poly chokes do it all comparred to extended chokes.

 

[SG Tanasi]

The biggest reason for extended tubes is that you can tighten them on the fly without using a wrench.

 

[Sander]

The only other thing I can think of (aside from what everyone already mentioned about not needing a wrench) is that with an extended tube, you can color-code it or print the constriction on the side, making it easy to identify which choke is in the gun without having to count notches...

 

[chad e]

Extended tubes may pattern better, because the shot is constricted more gradually than with a short choke tube.
Also, the design and enginering of it may be better, compared to a factory choke tube, giving better performance..

Chad_E

 

[uglydog]

A couple other reasons:
One is for steel shot, some manufacturers place the constriction in the extended portion of the choke so if there is any expansion due to the shot, it would only damage the tube, not the threads. I don't think this is much of a concern with rather modern guns and stell shotshells made in the past decade or so.
The other reason I can think of has been alluded to already, maximize pattern percentage and pellet distribution when using parrallel choke. Different choke constrictions require differing lengths of parrallel sections with the tightest choke using the longest section for best reasults. This often cannot be accomplished in a flush tube and the extra length is needed for this reason. A parallel choke has the constriction followed by a length of straight bore which improves patterns, especially with #6 and larger shot. The other type of choke is shaped like a cone hence its name, conical.

 

[shotgunworld]

Hellooooo! Ya'll forgot the most important reason....It looks really cool

Jay Gentry
Shotgunworld.com

 

[Nortonics]

Ya'll forgot the most important reason....It looks really cool

Hahahaha!

Especially when they're ported too... :wink:

 

[Guest]

I have a gun with the briley thin wall chokes. It will not shoot steel/tungsten with the flush chokes, it will shoot steel/tungsten with the extended chokes.

According to briley, a 12 gauge choke works better if it is longer than the std. flush choke lengths, so they expect that in 12 gauge the extended chokes will work better (better shot distribution between the center and the edge).

I know that my extended choke in skeet constriction shoots a larger and more uniform pattern than the flush tube in the same constriction.

What looks "really cool" is one extended and one flush in the O/U, but at 100 bucks I really don't want to buy another extended now.