Bruce,

Sorry to bother you again so soon, but I need your advice. I am currently without a dedicated SC or 5-stand gun and was thinking of a Superposed Lightning Trap. (I have one in a Pointer Grade, in pristine condition, engraved by Alphonse Marachal and signed on both sides. Naturally, I am loath to touch the F/F chokes!) I once spoke with Tom Wilkinson and he recommended choking both barrels 0.015″ and using #9, #8, or #7.5 shot depending on the target distance. Would you recommend this re-choking (on a nice condition Grade I) or having Briley Thin Walls installed?

If this seems FOS, please recommend a gun. I have owned several Perazzis in the past as well as Krieghoffs and lessers. DT-10s shoot well for me. I once had a Perazzi Sporting Classic that shot better than any gun (in my little/no-talent hands) that I have ever owned. Sadly, I find that this gun is no longer cataloged.

Thanks very much!

Sincerely,
Richard
Charlie, Texas

Richard,

Great minds think alike. When I shoot an O/U for 12 ga sporting, it’s a “real” Browning too. Mine are 30″ Fabrique Nationale bunker guns- Special Trap No. 6’s. One is fixed choke at M/F and the other has Briley Thinwalls, which the previous owner had screw choked. If your gun is F/F, try it out that way for a while and see what you think. If you reload and use reclaimed shot, it might not be too much. If you use factory ammo, it will be too snug unless your sporting courses are all brutes.

I think that Wilkinson’s advice to go .015″/.015 if you want fixed chokes is excellent. Personally, I’d probably snug it up a touch to .020″/.020″ M/M because I use reclaimed shot often and light loads. If you start with M/M, you can always open it up to LM/LM if that is too tight.

I love the idea of choking both bbls the same. It takes all the fussing out of the shot. You just jam in the shells and yank the trigger. I note that the latest Perazzi and K80 Parcour models come M/IM fixed, so they think that fixed sporter chokes are fine, though they prefer chokes of different dimensions. I think that’s a sales gimmick. There is no practical difference between IM and M, but the difference will cause you to fuss and fudget with the barrel selector. Waste of time. Choke ’em both the same and fuggedaboudid. Gas gun guys get away with one choke and they win plenty of shoots.

If you don’t like the fixed chokes, then you can have Briley put in the Thinwalls, so you still have an option left. I don’t think that I’ve changed the M/M Thinwalls in my FN in years, but there is that option I guess.

Now, as to getting a real Browning, I picked the FN bunker guns because they have lighter barrels than most of the American market Broadways and trap Lightnings. Mine are both 30″ and that is plenty for me. Some of the US market Superposed trap guns can be pretty muzzle heavy. Depends on what you want. I had a Broadway which I liked very much the way it came. I had another Broadway which was too heavy up front, so I had Briley backbore the barrels to reduce weight while they rechoked it. Worked fine.

My FN trap stocks were just a smidgen too high for the way I shoot, so I spend a morning out at the pattern plate with lots of white paper, magic marker and a sanding block. Shoot a lot. Sand a little. Shoot a lot. Sand a little. Leave it just a touch too high and go home and coat the comb with Tru-Oil. Shoot it for a week. Then, if needed, come back and sand just a touch more off. Sanding easy. Waiting for the wood to grow back isn’t.

As you know, real Belgian Brownings are inexpensive to buy second hand (in Grade 1, not in higher grades). That’s because the Newbies don’t know anything about them and want to buy the newer (and less well made guns ) which they see advertised all over the place. Fine with me. That’s more Supers for us. You simply can’t buy a better gun than a Belgian Superposed. I sure envy you with that Pointer grade.

Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid