doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Browning BSS/Sporter Question

Hi all, does anyone know if the bbls of a Browning BSS/Sporter are chrome lined? This is the SST version BTW.

Thanks so much!!

Greg

these guns were made in the seventies and eighties; before steel shot; hence no need to chrome line.

Chrome lined bbls definitely preceded steel shot. I have a set of Italian made bbls proofed either '69 or '70, would have to go look for certain, which are chrome lined. I can't answer as regards the BSS, but chrome lining was popular during their era. It was not introduced for the purpose of making the gun "Steel Compatible".

Greg, No Chrome in BSS bores. I have opened the chokes on many with standard tooling. But you can never say never. I have run across plated barrels where you would not expect them. I chewed up a set of reamer blades opening up the only set of chrome lined Merkel barrels I have ever encountered.

If any doubt remains, clean the barrels well, removing all oils, and touch a drop of cold blue to the inside. Chrome won't take the blue.

SST Sporter. I seem to recall that all the Sporters had selective triggers, but some of the standard (PG) BSS did not. Am I remembering correctly??

If I remeber corectly, the newer ones were SST guns (with gold triggers). The older ones were NSST (silver triggers). I don't think the model (Sporter or Field) had anything to do with that... I may be wrong though. I am not sure of the year they switched to single-selective triggers.

Adam

No doubt in my mind, there's no chrome in BSS bores on any of the guns I've seen or owned. I've cut the forcing cones on a few BSS guns as well as a number of field grade Citori's. None had chrome.

This 20g Sporter has no selector. So apparently selective vs. non-selective triggers were not tied to Sporter vs. pistolgrip.
http://www.gunsinternational.com/Browning-BSS-Sporter-SXS-20-Ga-.cfm?gun_id=100118431

I have seen few (maybe none) of the Sporters with the silver NST. That gun seems to have pretty good wood fit, but the Sporter wood could have been retrofitted to what was originally a PG gun. I'm doing that to one of mine because I have a nice PG gun and an extra set of 20 gauge Sporter wood and a long tang trigger guard. I'm guessing the gun in the pics is original.

Thanks, Chuck. Like Replacement, I'm thinking the NSST is pretty rare on Sporters. The connection is that the Sporter was a later model, by which time Miroku had changed to a SST. Thus, on most of them, you got the SST--as you did on the later PG guns as well. But in contrast, the NSST is quite common on PG guns.

From what I understand, the all Japanese BSS's, whether field grade or sporter, all came with SST's. As production became more and more expensive, they started using Japanese manufactured parts but assembling them in Korea. During this transition, many of the guns were assembled in Korea with SST's. Gold SST's. After a while longer and the cost of production became even more expensive, they cheapened some parts, put on plainer wood and did away with the SST.

So it is my understanding that all completely Japanese made BSS's should have a gold SST. Anything that says "Assembled in Korea, Parts Manufactured in Japan" could have an SST, or may not.

It is also my understanding that because of this chain of events, the silver triggered, Korean assembled guns were the later guns and the all Japanese guns were the earlier ones.

I do not own a BSS (although not for lack of trying) but that's just what I have heard from some people that I consider to be experts on the subject.

Not that both books could not be in error, but both the Blue Book and the Gun Trader's Guide list the silver NSST as being available on early production guns only and not on later ones, and never on Sporters (which were introduced 5 years after the standard BSS). Scwhing's book on the Superposed shows 2 photos of "the new Browning side by side"--not sure whether it's the same gun or not. Nor whether it was from the Browning catalog when the gun was first introduced. However, the gun has a NSST, and in one photo you can make out "Made in Japan" on the barrel, so it's not one of the later Korean-assembled guns.

I've certainly seen standard BSS with both SST and NSST, former gold and latter silver. But I can't recall ever having seen a Sporter with anything other than a SST--although I could be misremembering. The gun Chuck posted, however, is obviously an exception to that (assuming, per Replacement's post, that it started life as a Sporter).

Upon inspection, the gun Chuck posted is a Korean Assembled, NSST, Silver trigger gun that started life as a field grade and was later modified to a sporter stock. My proof...



***The picture is bigger and better quality on the ad itself. You can see in the last picture on his ad that the tang on this gun is short and was originally made for a pistol grip. I've marked it with a yellow line in this picture. In a sporter, it would have had a long tang that would have continued down to where the checkering stops. Like here...



Someone put a straight stock on a Korean assembled field gun and they're billing it as a Sporter.

Probably some North Korean.

hahahaha. I like your style L. Brown...

And I like your catch on that one, phideaux. Good work!

Do I win some kind of prize?

I just looked at one of my "real" Sporter 20's, and the long tang ends about 2-1/4" short of where the checkering ends. Original tang and original wood. I eyeballed the 2-1/4", no tape handy.

Korean-assembled? Perhaps the Japanese thought they could only handle short tangs. So the mystery continues . . .

I've been around long enough to well remember the introduction of the BSS. I even remember a co-worker & I talking about it. He also was a two bbl fan though he generally preferred his stacked. Neither of us had a real interest in it "Because" it was available "Only" with a NSST. It was several years before the SST was offered. Larry is spot on in this.
Note, I have had a few "Very Spirited" discussions with Larry on things of a ballistics nature, "But" he knows his guns & the features they have. I would listen to him on this one.

Nice catch. Yeah, this gun on GI has been messed with.

Isn't the fluted comb another tell-tale sign? Don't think I've seen one on a BSS Sporter.

Jay

The NSST may have been the first to come out. I wasn't around when the BSS was rolled out. I was going off of what I'd been told.

Replacement- I suppose I should have said that the long tang on the sporter goes down the stock further, ALMOST to the point that the checkering stops. It does stop a tad short of the checkering, but nothing near what the gun in GI ad does.

I was a Browning dealer from the 1973 to the mid '80's. The early BSS models had pistol grips, NSST and silver colored triggers. Gold colored triggers followed and represented SST. I have never seen a factory Sporter with a silver colored trigger.

I currently own three BSS all with SST and gold triggers - two Sporters, one Japanese and the other assembled in Korea, and one pistol grip with 30" barrels.