Anyone use Teflon Tape on Choke Tube Threads?

[6.5s4ever]

I was talking to a friend of mine that shoots at our Trap Range on Wed evenings he was telling me his choke tubes were always coming loose on his Beretta 391. He said he fixed the problem by wrapping teflon tape for pipe threads on his choke tube threads. Has anyone done this and do you have any trouble getting them out after the barrel has heated up then cooled down? Opinions wanted !:)

[fabsroman]

Haven't really had trouble with the tubes coming loose on my Berettas, but I seriously doubt I would try the teflon tape if they were. I am anxious to hear about some actual experiences on this.

[Duffy]

That doesn't sound like a good idea.

[skeet]

Uhhhh....what Duffy said!!!

[buckhunter]

Me thinks it a very bad idea.

[tjwatty]

Alright, I'll be the dumb one here.
My old Benelli M1 90 had a habit of loosening choke tubes when shot a lot. I then picked up the habit of checking them on a regular basis with my finger. Not a bad idea except when I was in the duck blind and caught myself doing this with a loaded gun!!!
I figured teflon tape or a finger? I went for the tape, used it for about a year then got an extended tube. I never had a problem but I did realize that regular removal and a good cleaning was probably in my favor and I kept a very close eye on it.
In my opinion my problem was caused by the previous owner, I think he used the thread chaser a little too often.

[fabsroman]

What is a "thread chaser."

I have never really had a problem with choke tubes coming loose, but that is probably because I switch mine quite a bit so they don't really have time to get loose.

[Dom]

Hmmm, well, I don't think the teflon tape is a good idea, but then I don't want to loose a finger either. My tubes used to come loose a lot, so I was doing the tjwatty finger job for quite a while. But then after one of my cleanings, which I probably don't do often enough, all of a sudden they're not coming loose anymore. I use the Birchwood Casey choke tube grease, so I'd recommend he take the tubes out, degrease real good, including threads in barrels, put the lube on the choke threads, tighten, then try it and see if they stay put or not. Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[tjwatty]

A thread chaser is used to "chase" debris from threads. I have one for Browning and Bennelli and have never used either but did use one on a Remington back in the day.
I know Loctite also makes a thread lock that is designed to allow you to remove the "bolt" I thought I might give that a try but never did. It was suppose to be soluable with a number of cleaners and sounded like just what a loose choke tube would need but never tried it.
Another automotive thing I want to try is the carb cleaner we used to use. You would put the old dirty carb down in the stuff for a couple of hours and when you pulled it out it was as clean as new. I thought that stuff would be worth a try getting plastic build up out of tubes. If I remember right it was real expensive and probably against the law now.

[fabsroman]

I used Hoppes No. 9 to clean my choke tubes. I put the in a bottle filled with the stuff and let them sit overnight. It took off all the writing on the platics part of my new Beretta extended chokes, but it has always gotten my chokes pretty clean.

Is the chaser on the end of the choke tube wrench for the Benelli? If so, I know exactly what you are talking about and I have never used the thing in the 8+ years I have owned my SBE. Is the chaser supposed to be used on the barrel or the choke tubes?

[BILLY D.]

after a heavy shooting session or at the end of the season i clean mine with brake clean, make sure to re-oil, cause brake clean removes all lubrication and then coat the external threads with permatex anti-seize and tighten 'em down. when your elbow joint pops thats tight enough. ;)

for you folks that have aluminum heads on your vehicle engines, the anti-sieze works great for spark plugs also. when you screw a steel plug into an aluminum head chemical reactions take place and can make for a difficult removal.

learned that trick from pops yoshimura.

[fabsroman]

Yep, I use the anti-seize on all my spark plugs regardless of whether or not they are going into an aluminum head or not. In 1989 I got a 1980 Ford Fairmont from my father with 100,000 miles on it and he did almost no maintenance to that car. I broke two ratchets and an extension bar trying to remove the spark plugs, along with using a couple of cans of liquid wrench, and I know for sure that that car did not have an aluminum head. I made quite a few trips to Sears to replace those wrenches under warranty and they were starting to wonder what I was doing. Of course, I was using a piece of black pipe as a cheater bar, and things just ended up breaking. Got that car to run for another 9 years and an additional 135,000 miles.

Now, I don't know how anti-seize will help prevent a choke tube from coming loose. On my SBE, I used a modified choke in it for several years for anything from waterfowling, to doves, to upland. That choke didn't come out of the gun for about 4 or 5 years. Wish I had used anti-seize on it to begin with because it was pretty tough to get it out.

[rem 700]

I've had problems with them being too tight :D guess some super lube for ML breech plugs helps with that. Too loose? Get another choke tube is my recommendation...

[TreeDoc]

Anti-seize? Oh man...that stuff is right up there with Shrink Tube, Bacon, and Lobster....one of the good things in life! If I could find a jar of anti-seize big enough, I'd bathe in that crap! Nothing has saved me more money and time when it was used, or cost me more money and time when it wasn't. Working on the heavy equipment I own, I go through it like crazy.

I use it on my choke tubes too. I have a problem with choke tubes loosening in my Benelli and Beretta's that I use for waterfowling. It's primarily because of the vibration and oscillation caused on the 1.5 mile ride to my blind on the ATV and the gravel covered levy I travel on. The anti-seize doesn't make them stay in any better but it assures they will break loose and come out after I torque the bajeezuz out of them to prevent their loss in the first place.

Anti-Seize is great on toast, too!

[BILLY D.]

Originally posted by TreeDoc
Anti-seize? Oh man...that stuff is right up there with Shrink Tube, Bacon, and Lobster....one of the good things in life! If I could find a jar of anti-seize big enough, I'd bathe in that crap! Nothing has saved me more money and time when it was used, or cost me more money and time when it wasn't. Working on the heavy equipment I own, I go through it like crazy.

I use it on my choke tubes too. I have a problem with choke tubes loosening in my Benelli and Beretta's that I use for waterfowling. It's primarily because of the vibration and oscillation caused on the 1.5 mile ride to my blind on the ATV and the gravel covered levy I travel on. The anti-seize doesn't make them stay in any better but it assures they will break loose and come out after I torque the bajeezuz out of them to prevent their loss in the first place.

Anti-Seize is great on toast, too!

hey doc

i thought you'd be all over the quote about pops yoshimura.

my take on the choke tube threading is this. if you look at the tubes the threads are usually shallow and very close together. to me it looks like 2500 threads per inch of tube. darn things are really close together. i think the anti seize lets them stretch and seat a little tighter without stressing or stripping.

we used to get shotguns in the shop and the customer says "i can't get my choke tubes out to change". well the first time you look at the gun and see the tubes are perfectly blue, first clue
the gun is about 5-10 years old. second clue.

the tube condition means the owner has never had the tubes out for cleaning or changed his patterning. so you can just bet the rest of the gun is in marvelous condition also. so my mentor and i would go back in the shop and first thing it got was a shot of kroil and the next morning we would start to work on it. one of us would make sure the tube wrench didn't jump out of the tube and the other would be on the breaker bar. usually as our testicles dropped into our socks the tube would break free.

no problem seeing what the trouble was, powder fouling and rust. so we'd chase the threads, hook up a bore brush to an electric drill and run it in and out the muzzle till everything was clean. then we'd use a wire wheel, fine bristle, to clean the tube.
when everything was cleaned to our satisfaction we re-oiled it all and put anti seize in the threads and put it back together.

typically these guns would come in the shop with grime in the actions, they were pumps and had wheat and oat kernals and chaff in them. some of the autos were worse. they hadn't been cleaned since hector was a pup.

some folks should not be allowed to own firearms.

[fabsroman]

Billy, I got one heck of a kick out of that post and was laughing pretty good about the socks.

The cleaning problem is why I love my Benelli SBE. It is just so easy to clean. A lot easier than my gas operated Beretta 391's, but I just shoot those 391's so well.