Browning Citori grade five 12 gauge

[Gun Watch]

Browning Citori grade five £1,550 12 gauge Shotgun Private Seller Used - Mint Condition Hockley, Essex Over and Under, Multi Choke, Multi Choke, 28" barrels

Description

Grade 5 Now named Prestige. Purchased with 3000 cartridges apps 400 left. Only fired 53 rounds this year since moving in 1998! Leather cartridge bag . Browning gun slip. Six chokes. Cylinder,full,3/4,1/2.1/4,skeet.

Also grade three 30 inch barrels if of interest also mint condition. Winchester skeet cartridges included.

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[Scully]

Lovely gun. Good luck.

[dougall]

is that different to a 325 gd 5?looks same to me.

[sishyplops]

I think they were called citori in the states and we had 325, 425 etc

Edited September 24, 2014 by sishyplops

[Sako7mm]

They were retailed as the Citori here in the mid to late 80s. I had a a grade 5 Citori just like this.

[sishyplops]

Just hijacked this

 

 

 

Browning is probably the mass producer of guns with the longest association with the OU.

 

It started with the B25, which although the dream of John Moses Browning was really the work of his son, Val. Patent applications for the first designs appeared in 1925, but unfortunately John Browning died in 1926 and the work was taken up by Val, with the first guns being offered for sale in 1931.

 

Many processes went into the production of a B25, perhaps a little too much, and although today, the design has been refined, the quality and time that it takes to build a B25, has elevated them into the custom gun class. However, from a value for money point of view, they are still one of the cheapest hand made guns on the market.

 

 

 

In the early seventies, miroku had made a gun for Browning, that was sold mainly in the USA, called the Citori.

 

In the mid 80s this was revived on the current Miroku action, which mechanically had drawn a great deal of influence from the B25.

 

These guns were quite heavy, both in action and stock, but was available in all grades and found a good deal of favour on the market. But although not a problem the weight was a minus point.

 

So with some help from Browning UK, the gun was redesigned from a cosmetic angle. Throughout the range, even today the mechanics have remained unchanged, and I think that there is little that could be done to improve it.

 

initially the gun was produced in only one grade and was introduced to run along side the Citori range. The single grade remained as the grade 1, and the citori range was replaced by further grades of 325. namely grades 2, 3, 5 and 6. although I have seen a few Mirokus in grade 4, neither 325 or 425 range had them.

 

The obvious differences between the 325 and the citori was the weight and the stock length.

 

Where the citori was about 8lb, a 325 was approx. 7 ½ lb. This was achieved with a much slimmer action and stock.

 

The stock dimensions were noticeable longer; 14 7/8 at centre, and finished with a polymer heel plate, against the citoris rubber pad at about 14 5/8. And it was also much slimmer at the hand affording better grip. The chequer pattern was different at the time to anything else seen at that time on a Browning; with crescents forming the borders rather than vees. This is still the same on the 425 . though not on higher grades which have a more conventional pattern. The forend wood followed the popular schnabel shape, and is still current today.

 

Barrels on the 325 followed the same method of constructio that had always been used on a Browning or Miroku; chopper lump,where the lumps that join the action are an integral part of the barrel tube.

 

The main feature of the 425, that in effect created it as another model, was the fact that it was the first gun Browning to be made on the mono-block principle where the two barrel tubes are fixed into a separate lump block.

 

The first 325s appeared on the market in 1988 and the gun ran until superseded by the 425 in 1995.

Edited September 24, 2014 by sishyplops