Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Anyone have chokes installed by Briley?

I'm thinking of having Briley thread and install interchangeable chokes in my 50's vintage Ithaca M37 20ga. It's choked full--quite full--right now but it carries so well that I'd like to make it a bit more versatile so it could see more field time. Anybody here have Briley-installed chokes in their shotgun? If so, what was their service like and how do the chokes work for you?

I know Mike Orlen is one of the go to guys here, but I found another worth mentioning.

Steve Rose at Rose Action Sports in Pembroke, Kentucky. He does some fantastic work and was very quick in turnaround, less than 2 weeks from the time it left my doorstep until it arrived back. I had him install Invector/Winchoke choke tubes in a 930 18 1/2" barrel and the job is perfect.

If you need some barrel work or other work done, I highly recommend him.

Rose Action Sports





Now if my pictures were half as good as his work, we'd be in business.

The cylinder Trulock just happened to be the first one I grabbed. I plan on hitting the range at the farm armed with some #4, #1, 0 and 00 buck for some extensive pattern testing.

Why not just open the choke up a little and keep the gun closer to orginal? You go to a Mod or Lt Mod.

Briley has a reputation that's hard to beat.

Their prices are another thing... you'll pay dearly for their services.

As MCH mentioned, why not ream it out to a Mod-I/C-ish constriction, and just go with that. It will do just about anything you want to do, at MUCH less cost.

I figure if I'm going to alter it, I might as well go all the way

I've never used Briley, but I've never heard anything negative about them that I can recall. I'm just on this thread to pitch Mike Orlen.

Mike Orlen via Randy Wakeman's Site

Another option is to contact Les Hovencamp at Diamond Gunsmithing. He was the head gunsmith at the original Ithaca and is now in business for himself. I've got the same issue as you, 1949 gun that is choked super full. I don't want to mess with the original barrel, so am thinking of having Les get me a barrel and opened up to a light modified.

Mike would be a good choice. I hate the thought of threads in that barrel!

Added pictures

I have had Briley install chokes on one of my guns. I don't think I will send another one to them if I have another option for several reasons.
1) they thread your barrel to where it will only accept their chokes. You are forced to buy chokes from them at about 3 times the price of just about any other choke tube on the market.

2) Tehy screw up the bluing on my barrel. When I called them about it, they said, "NO WAY WE DID IT" until I faxed a copy of the bill to them where I had just gotten the barrels back from Kreighoff the day before I gave them the barrels at the Grand American. They did fix them but they were not happy about it.

A friend had a fine German drilling (a 1930's Sauer in fantastic condition), and he wanted to have interchangeable chokes to make it the "ultimate do everything gun".

The barrels were thin, thin, THIN! Nobody else would touch the job except Briley.

Briley fit their "thin wall" or "ultra thin" chokes (I forget the name now) and they did a perfect job.

My friend has a serious case of "turkey-itis" and uses the gun for serious turkey hunting. He had patterned it before and after the choke tube install and the centre of impact was the same, indicating good alignment.

My friend was very happy with the even pellet distribution as well. I think the crazy bastid must have counted dozens of patterns so he could compare standard deviations of pellet counts in the core vs the periphery... as I said, a serious case of "turkey-itis"!

This was about 8 years ago -- no idea if anything has changed at Briley since then.

John

I had Briley put tubes into a nice Perazzi 28 gauge, and I was quite disappointed with their carelessness in marring the outside of the barrels. The chokes were well cut, were nicely done. I wasn't interested in sending them back again.

As others noted here, I'd consider have the choke opened to a light modified or IC choke (.008 to .012 or so of choke). I've grown less enamored of the multiple choke business as I've gotten older...

O45: before messing with the original barrel, or even buying and having a second barrel fitter to the Ithaca, think about trying some spreader loads or some soft lead loads. They may open up the pattern to modified, which might be all that's required. Polywad makes spreader loads.

Briley installed choke tubes in an old Win. Mdl 12 that I inherited from my Dad. It was an old nickel steel thin walled barrel made, if I remember right, in 1921. Everyone else told me choke tubes could not be put in that gun. They did a great job and I got three tubes, skeet, light modified, and full, my choices. A few years ago but I think it cost around $150.00. The cokes pattern tighter than what is marked on them. I was very satisfied.

They've done a lot for me. Subgauge tubes in a few, chokes threaded in a few. Only downside I've had is the lead time and the price is up there a bit. I would be open to suggestions also for installing chokes... quality has always been good...