Nice circle tour, and observations. Let me comment on the following, if I may.
"The finish on new Brownings (most of them except for a glossy BT-99 I saw) are rather mor4e like non-finishes. Dull and flat and needing some further work."
I found this to be the case with all but the Citori field guns, which had serviceable finishes, but plain wood. On the other hand, most examples of the 525 Sporting I’ve seen, have excellent wood, with nice figure, but the most gawd-awful finish imaginable. On mine, for example, the grain was so open that it was actually pulling/catching my beard, and after three evenings on the trap field, got fixed the following way. The wood was removed and thoroughly cleaned with grain alcohol (Ethanol) and given a very light sanding with 400grit paper, followed by BirchWood Casey's TruOil in very light coats rubbing it in until sticky/dry. Then light sanding, then more TruOil. Problem solved, and the stock looks good enough to have gotten complements.
BTW, while you’re at it, remove the furniture from the forend and brush the TruOil into the unprotected wood, likewise the stock, not forgetting the butt plate and “hole”. It seems they didn’t have time to bother putting that crap on the parts you can’t see.
