doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Miroku SXS ?

Looking at a BC Miroku sxs - 12 ga box lock - 2/34" - dbl trigger - extractor gun with 28" mod/full tubes.

The frame is marked BC Miroku but there is no model # anywhere I can find. It has scalloped frame sides and serial number M424xxx. Seems like a quality shotgun.


Any idea when this gun might have been manufactured and is it just an unmarked 500?

Many thanks

Like this one?



Some of the early Miroku box lock guns were not marked with a model number. This is as much as a scallop as I have ever seen on a Miroku, later guns had simpler straight stock to action fitting. Ejectors and single triggers don’t seem to turn up that often on the older guns, a good thing in my opinion.

Likely a decent bird gun, not flashy, but, very useful.

Best,
Ted

the parent of the browning bss...less the single trigger the ejectors and about half a pound...

a superior gun and a bargain...

buy this one now...

I had a Miroku Model M that looked very much like a British game keeper's gun. Very basic but in excellent condition. Factory chokes were IC/IM. Nothing fancy, but a really nice gun for pheasants. One of those I should have kept.

There are a fair number of variations of the Miroku doubles, but all I have seen are solid and well made. I have a Daly 500, and I had a set of otherwise unmarked Miroku barrels fitted to it, with no problems. That gun is lighter and trimmer than my Browning BSSs, and has slightly better wood. I also had a Miroku O/U field gun that was noticeably nicer than my old field grade Citori of similar vintage. So, if condition and price are good, probably worth buying.

Ted

That is the one except it has a blued frame. The finish is exc plus but turned a bit plum.

It is a fine game gun for sure.

The Miroku sxs seems like as good a value as can be had.

Thanks

I’ve got a Miroku 550 with scalloped action and ejectors. If memory serves it comes in at 6.5 lbs, IC and F chokes, with pretty nice wood. I haven’t been able to figure out when it was made, but it is a nice pheasant gun.

For once I can help, rather than just learning from you guys.

I have just bought a Miroku 12 bore side-by-side with 28" barrels bored modified and full choke. Whilst browsing through the list of boxlock ejectors in Holts Sealed Bid sale about six months ago I spotted two of these for sale. having never heard of this model I researched it and found a rave review in the 1975 American Guns Review annual, where it was listed as the Browning SBS.
The Holts estimates were about £300 / $400 plus their 30% fees and carriage, so I left a bid on one, sight unseen. I failed; it went for £382, or £500 all in, too much for me. So I had a look at the British Gun Trader website and found half a dozen for sale. One in the middle of Wales looked good in the photos, so I bought it for £275 plus £100 for transport to me here in the south. It is fine and tight, almost like new, although the bluing on the barrels is a bit thin. It shoots well. This may become my low-cost gun for steel shot if and when the law here changes.

My research seems to show that they were all made between 1974 and 1977, and were slightly cheaper than the Miroku over and unders of the time. My serial number is 452xxx, and all the others offered for sale here are also 45xxxx. I believe a batch of about 3,000 were imported here. Mine is proofed by the Birmingham Proof House for 1976. The barrels are beautifully made with chopperlumps. The stock is fixed to the action with a stock bolt, and mine is absolutely straight, with no cast at all, which is a bit of a problem for me. It features a 1970s white line spacer, which is quite quaint.
The barrels are clearly stamped "Made in Japan and Assembled in Korea", which I suppose kept the cost down a bit. I have a copy of the original 16 page booklet which shows that they made either single trigger or double triggers versions, and also three different forends, a splinter for England, a middling version and a big beavertail. these relate to model numbers 150, 160 and 170 respectively.

The handbook also list the system of choke markings with one * or + meaning Full Choke, up to *** or SS for Skeet. The safety catch is automatic, for a field gun.

If you have any other questions let me know.

HB

The late Browning BSS guns also carried the same stamp about being assembled in Korea. Some owners of the "REAL Japanese BSS" seemed to worry about whether those "assembled in Korea" sxs were of lesser quality. In any case, Browning got out of the sxs business in the late 80's to focus on their very successful Miroku-made OUs. When you could still find Miroku sxs on the market in the US, there were also some that carried the Western Field name (while also marked Miroku), which means that they were sold by Montgomery Ward before they got out of the gun business. Those are also solid guns for not a lot of money.

Back when Browning was preparing to introduce the Cynergy OU, they invited a group of outdoor writers out to South Dakota to shoot both targets and pheasants with their new guns. Because the prices on Spanish sxs were going up pretty rapidly back then, several of us suggested to the Browning guys that there might be a niche for the BSS in the US market again. They told us that all the Miroku employees who made sxs had retired. Given the difficulties Ruger encountered when they decided to make a sxs, that looks to have been a smart decision.

There WAS a niche for good, lower priced S X S guns in America, but the Turks recognized the need and have filled it very well, IMO. The Miroku built guns were very good for the money, but not perfect. I shot my BSS off face on the right barrel, partly because the single trigger is not selective and always fires the right barrel first, causing many more rounds to be shot through the right barrel than the left. They're great shooting guns. I won the 2010 S X S events at the U S Open with mine, in both AA class and Veterans concurrent. But, it should not have shot itself off face so quickly, given the care and cleaning it received from me, and the total number of rounds fired through it.