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Help identifying a shotgun


Varminth
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I'm probably asking the impossible here...

My friend has a Browning shotgun that he purchased from new in the early 80's. It has been very well kept, in fact barely shot over the years and remains in superb condition given its age. Said friend is willing to sell the gun, I'm willing to buy. We got to speaking about price and that's where we hit a problem:-

He has forgotten what model it is. And it doesn't give a model number anywhere in the gun!? This makes it difficult to put a resale price on it.

We have tried entering the serial number on several sites to try and find out some info on it. All to no avail.

So can anyone help?

This 12G shotgun is an early 80s  Browning over/under. 28in fixed choke barrels with vented rib, 2&3/4 in chambers. The receiver has no scrolling. Single trigger. It has safety thumbpiece and barrel select combined which is positioned under the opening lever. The forend is not removable, instead it has a lever that lets it slide forward about half inch to allow for barrel removal. The serial number on the receiver ends in S4 but on the barrels it ends in S74. It feels quite a light gun!

Can anyone help, or have I just described every over/under shotgun from that era?

 

Cheers in advance! 

V

Edited by Varminth
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12 minutes ago, Varminth said:

I'm probably asking the impossible here...

My friend has a Browning shotgun that he purchased from new in the early 80's. It has been very well kept, in fact barely shot over the years and remains in superb condition given its age. Said friend is willing to sell the gun, I'm willing to buy. We got to speaking about price and that's where we hit a problem:-

He has forgotten what model it is. And it doesn't give a model number anywhere in the gun!? This makes it difficult to put a resale price on it.

We have tried entering the serial number on several sites to try and find out some info on it. All to no avail.

So can anyone help?

This 12G shotgun is an early 80s  Browning over/under. 28in fixed choke barrels with vented rib, chambered in 2&3/4. The receiver has no scrolling. Single trigger. It has safety thumbpiece and barrel select combined which is positioned under the opening lever. The forend is not removable, instead it has a lever that lets it slide forward about half inch to allow for barrel removal. The serial number on the receiver ends in S4 but on the barrels it ends in S74. It feels quite a light gun!

Can anyone help, or have I just described every over/under shotgun from that era?

 

Cheers in advance! 

V

After a quick google search

Browning superposed maybe, it has a sliding forend

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7 minutes ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, what are the serial numbers ? if i am correct it was manufactured in 1974

 

20200109_225349.jpg

It looked identical to this, a B25 A1.

 

Serial 34928 S4

It was the 'superposed' lead mentioned by newbie that lead me to this.

 

Am I correct in thinking it is worth around £1000?

@oldypigeonpopper

Don't really know date of manufacture.. the owner can't remember the exact year he bought it. Just that it was 1980 - 1982 ish 🙂

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53 minutes ago, Varminth said:

@Newbie to thisCheers for that.. will look it up now. Don't suppose you could put a s/h resale price to it? 🙂

No idea mate, I've never come across one before, just googled Browning with a sliding forend and Superposed or B25 as it is also known came up.

Did you watch the video I posted, seems in the USA they fetch a good amount.

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4 minutes ago, Varminth said:

@oldypigeonpopper

 

Thank you for that, will have a look.

 

It looks like it's going to be a little out my price range 😞

hello, i only found some info online having never heard of this model, i would say made more for the USA market,  as for the value there was one on here for sale June 2017 for £650

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Well thank you all for your help. I'm surprised how quickly we found it, given my ambiguous description 🙂

I would love to own it but it looks to be worth more than I wanted to pay. Am saving for a new B525 game 1 and was looking for a cheap second hand gun in the meantime. 

I'm sure the owner will be more than pleased with the current valuation!

Cheers to newbie for the vid link. Yes, watched it. Wish I owned some of those!

 

Edited by Varminth
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hello, as i mention it only has the plain action which is not even in the video or that one for sale has more engraving, i seem to remember a friends A 1 was plain, i cannot see it being worth what prices you see on USA web sites and most are the higher grade, a nice well made early Browning albeit the superposed model with a different style of unlocking and would think quite rare in UK, 

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8 hours ago, Varminth said:

Well thank you all for your help. I'm surprised how quickly we found it, given my ambiguous description 🙂

I would love to own it but it looks to be worth more than I wanted to pay. Am saving for a new B525 game 1 and was looking for a cheap second hand gun in the meantime. 

I'm sure the owner will be more than pleased with the current valuation!

Cheers to newbie for the vid link. Yes, watched it. Wish I owned some of those!

 

hello, if you only want a cheap S/H O/U there are plenty to choose from, gun watch/gun trader/ and a few RFDs on here, just put a wanted ad on here

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1974 browning A1 would be worth anywhere between £500 and £1500 depending configuration and condition. 28" barrels are more desirable than the 27 1/2, but not as desirable as 30". Normal semi-pistol grip stocks and slender forends are more desirable than straight-hand stocks on 'game' versions or wide beaver-tail forends found on skeet models. Width of rib are personal taste, they did a wide and midi rib on skeet/trap guns and I think a narrow solid rib on game guns (or rib-less which they did for a while). Chokes can effect desirability, some people are put off with 'skeet' & 'skeet' which quite a few have. I Shoot as well with one of my 27 1/2" skeet and skeet A1's on game and pigeons compared to my 30" sporter. Price wise would also depend on how quickly the person wants to sell it. Browning B25's are a little specialist as people new to the sport don't really know the history behind them. If I put one up for sale this minute it could be sold tomorrow or I could still have it in two years time. Might be worth you trying to shoot both the A1 (if that's what it is) and a Jap 525 and see how you get on. You may find you much prefer the cheaper hand built Belgium browning A1 (which would cost around £12k today) over the Japanese 525, or not!!

Edited by BrowningB7
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