doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Browning Superposed

claro - that's my impression too. i'd posted once asking if anyone had ever encountered an auto-5 with salt wood. i know between my father and i we've owned several of those from the right era that were fine but they were all the blond french walnut. i've had a couple of BAR's that were in affected years and were likewise "clean".

browning was not the only gunmaker affected by this. they just seemed to get all the bad press because they actually did something about it.

Is the barrel material suitable for using steel shot with IC or Mod chokes?

NO, NO, NO don't shoot steel from a super.
bill

What other gunmakers were affected by salt infused wood?

"Morton Salt had developed a salt solution drying process successfully used in the furniture industry with good results."

I thought I read that Browning had a California university professor come up with the process and then purchaed the salt from Morton. I was not aware that Morton Salt originated the curing process.

are these claro?
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first i'd heard of other mfgrs having salt wood problems, i was told by a dealer - well, it was Richard Kennedy, formerly of the Gun Room in Smyrna, Ga (whom i still consider an unimpeachable source for almost anything; pity he shares the namesake with that bunch up in MA). he named off a pretty good list that included most of the major US mfgrs. i do know i saw an otherwise NIB winchester commemorative lever gun of some flavor once that had the tangs rusted almost half thru. there was no sign of any other damage to indicate that anything outward had happened to the gun or its box. i was puzzled at the time to explain it but salt curing would have caused it easily. i had a very early ruger #1 that had the butt plate screws so rusted the heads broke off and the drawbolt was rusted away to half its original diameter and almost twisted off in removal. this #1 didn't show any signs of rust damage on the action or barrel but all that metal had been teflon plated at some point in the past. also, somewhere and i don't recall where, i'd read that the US Army had the problem from a supplier of M14 stocks but i've no idea where i ran across that tidbit. in short, i've got no "proof" as such, but like i said, he was a pretty reliable source of info.

what he'd told me was the other mfgrs flatly refused to acknowledge the problem at all and Browning got all the bad PR because they did something about it. still, if so, it must not have been as rampant in other brands or we'd see more evidence of it today.

roger