I ordered a replacement barrel for my 11-48 20 gauge off of gunbroker.com, the replacement barrel is 28" long and is fitted with a vintage laymen choke, or poly choke, Are these worth keeping or what should I know about them?

Lyman choke or Cutts compensator are tubes screwed on the end of the Cutts device. The Cutts is a muzzle brake used in the 50's thru the 70's.

A Poly Choke (still made) is a adjustable choke device that will give the shooter a range of choke from full to cylinder bore depending how the choke is set.

At one time someone made a adjustable choke that screwed on to the end of the Cutts muzzle brake and worked like a Poly Choke.

Now what do you have a Lyman Cutts or a Poly Choke?

This is a Poly Choke. One piece, adjusted by twisting to desired setting.

The Lyman Cutts requires seperate end pieces which are the actual chokes.

Both of these are neat devices that offered diversity before screw-in chokes and help in muzzle whip, supposedly. I prefer the Poly. Some folks hate these and frown on them being stuck on barrels so they often deflate the value of a gun or barrel they are on.

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To be complete honest, the vast majority of people detest the looks and feel of them, and that's why they negatively affect gun values.
They do work. I have found the Cutts Compensator to be about as much of a noisemaker as the newer ported barrels, but the ventilated model of the Poly-Choke does not seem to be as bad an actor in that regard, I don't know why. There is also a standard model without the radiator grillwork on the end.

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If you comapre the two the Cutts is more of a muzzle brake than the Poly Choke. The Cutts by construction has a expansion chamber for the gases to be released into, then the choke proper is on the end. On the Poly Choke the grillwork cannot really work that well as there is no expansion chamber.
Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's if you didn't have one you just had a plain jane run of the mill shotgun. How things change, now you carry a pocketfull of choke tubes.

Not sure on which it is yet, I am waiting for the barrel to arrive, Are these chokes removable or would I have to leave it on the gun?
I think it is the Layman choke, I'd post a picture but I'm a new user so I don't have the ability to do that yet.
Here is a link to the page.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=160531698

Usually all the choke devices were silver soldered to the barrel. By removing the Lyman choke you will have a open bored gun (no choke at all). Depending on the barrel length you want, leave it there or have it removed and install choke tubes. It just depends on how you want your gun to look. With the Lyman choke it will give it a retro look.

This is the choke in question:

Attached Thumbnails

 

Thanks for posting that Ralph, I might leave it on for now if its soldered on, don't want to ruin a barrel.

I looked in some of the older Gun Digest's and they had listings for the Lyman choke, It was adjustable and a recoil brake (compensator) model was amde to. Use it you will get used to it as the Lyman choke seems to be a trimmer model than the Poly Choke or The Cutts model. I have a older Browning A5 automatic that has one (Cutts), it just takes some time to get used to it.

While the cutts may not look as nice as a straight barrel, it sure does tame down the recoil on a Browning A-5 for 16 Yard Trap.

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Should you want to change to choke tubes, Barrelsmith, Mike Orlen does excellent work at very reasonable rates:

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/view...p?f=12&t=36237