The Old Dime Trick....

[Dave McCracken]

The first time I heard of this was in the 50s. Our local VFD was sponsoring a turkey shoot, Pop, Brother and I went. Pop brought his 870, now mine.

As we waited to shoot, an oldster near us bragged on his shotgun, probably a Model 12. "This thing is choked down like a rifle, can't even get a dime in the muzzle". or some such braggadacio. I noted he won. I've heard that from many lips over the years. It's a myth with more lives than a cat, and like most myths, a kernel of truth is inside it.

Given that dimes mike out at about .703-705" and a standard bore 12 gauge runs nominally .729", a choke with enough constriction to stop that dime will mike out at around .700", close enough to Full.

But, many modern 12 gauge bores aren't that ideal .729.

A brief perusal of the brochure from Carlson's chokes raises some issues.

Carlson's, bless them, list the nominal bore of each maker. Thus, a Cylinder bore choke tube for a Remington is .730. So are Winchesters, Mossies, Brownings, etc.

But, Benelli/Beretta's nominal Cylinder is .725".

Ruger's is .740"

Mossberg's 835 pump has a Cylinder bore of .774".

So, a Remington choke with an inside diameter of .730 is a Cylinder, but one from an 835 of the same ID is Extra Full. Barrels here for 870s go from .725 on the tight end to .733".

A dime can be used to estimate choke on standard old barrels, but it's useless on newer ones.

As Brister said," All it proves is you got a shotgun and a dime."...

 

[BigG]

Good info, Dave. I've seen the dime trick many times myself. BTW, is the Mossie really .774 or is that a typo? Sounds about like an eight bore to this swagger.

 

[45crittergitter]

Mossberg 835 12 ga. Ulti-Mags are overbored to .775" (10 gauge).

http://www.mossberg.com/pcatalog/info835.htm

 

[Dave McCracken]

No typo,BigG. As said, it's a 12 gauge with a 10 gauge bore.

 

[Backwoods]

All the dime trick is good for is to get a reasonable idea of what the maker of an older shotgun was trying to achieve. An older gun that a dime won't enter the muzzle of, was almost certainly intended to be a full choke.

As noted above, the newer choke/bore designs pretty much negate any supposed usefulness of "dime gauging" a choke.

Twenty years from now you'll still have people trying to put dimes in the end of thier 12 ga. barrels. I'd bet on it.

Don in Ohio

 

[Caliburn]

Dime trick

I thought the dime trick was loading a 12 guage shell with a stack of dimes. I forgot where I first heard that, but it was in that Billy the Kid movie: "Best dollar I ever spent!"

Is that for real, or just Hollywood BS and old shotgunner's tales?

 

[Dave McCracken]

Caliburn, myth and Caca Del Toro. In the days of the Old West, a dollar was about a days wage for a cowboy. And, while every now and then someone claims the weapon they walked point with in Nam was loaded with dimes, I chalk it up to the fact that war stories, like good wines, improve with time.

 

[Caliburn]

That's almost a shame. It was such a good story.

 

[sm]

Dave, good explanation as to the dimes spec's, differences in bores and the correlation.
--
Disclaimer: THR and myself DO NOT recommend the following and ---assume no responsiblity.
---

I was younger once upon a time. I was doing "testing and evaluation" of various loads and somesuch. I had various single shot shotguns, reloading equipment, reloading supplies, dimes, rock salt, marbles...

INTERESTING !
[ I *ahem* may have uttered other words of exclamation ]

"Kinda remarkable you made it this far along in years" someone remarked.
"Yeah...well, should've been there, not everything is learned from a textbook or classroom".

" Mister - can you bust a dollar?"

Some of you folks whom have seen the two bit pcs or rec'd one..."Mister can you change a quarter?"...sometimes I kinda / sorta have my own definitons about things.

 

[Caliburn]

MARBLES?

Give us some details! Wouldn't marbles disintegrate from the shock of the acceleration? Did the dimes work, or scatter all over the place?

Don't just tease us, SM!

 

[sm]

Nope, not gonna go there , except to say there is "pretty good reason why no factory loadings for this stuff".

THR and Responsible firearm ownership /use.

Disclaimers, Professional driver, closed track , do not remove tag under penalty of law, and don't try this at home...

I want folks to continue to age with all their body parts and senses...

"INTERESTING"