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

I saw a Browning Superposed in a private collection the other day and am curious about it. The gun is in very good 85%+ condition; however, I am not sure whether the pad is a replacement. The pad is a hard black cushion rubber pad with no spacer and looks to be a very good fit and certainly appears to be about the same age as the gun, did this model ever come from the factory with anything but a hard buttplate? The stocks round knob pistol grip and are oil finished and it is a 12 ga. I'm not sure about the rest of the details but I am going back tomorrow to take a look. The asking price is $899, does this sound in the ball park for these guns?

3" magnum 12 gauges from the 1970s came with a brown "whiteline" pad with "Browning" written on the face.

Sounds like a good price IF:
1. The gun is in the condition you describe.
2. It's not a salt wood gun.
3. The stock hasn't been cut. I don't think the black recoil pad is standard.

Even a better deal IF:
4. The gun has a long trigger tang to go with the round knob.
5. Barrels are 28" long.

Main thing is to check for salt wood. Guns made from 1967 to about 1973 were prone to having it. Serial numbers beginning with S7 (S8, etc.) through S73 are a clue to the date of manufacture.

Its could be a good deal if LOP (should be 14 3/8) is not short and if chokes match stamps.
RK and oil finish,if orginal would indicate pre salt era.
If we know the serial number,LOP and barrel length as well as choke that would help.

I went back and looked at the gun a bit closer today and this is what I found out. The pad looks to be a replacement Old English black rubber pad and with the pad the length of pull is 14 3/8". Serial number is 105XX and it does have the long triggerguard tang. The barrels are about 26 1/2" and the choke stamps are showing **S for both barrels (skeet?). I took some pictures but I haven't had time to put them onto the computer yet. I would say after a closer look that the finish is still about 85%+ and possibly better. I did not have a chance to measure the chokes in the barrels. I also don't know whether the 26.5" would have been an original length or if the gun has been shortened at some point. There are no obvious signs that the gun has been shortened (at least not by someone without experience). The seller offered it to me for $799, good deal?

105XX is a prewar gun,1936.Rules out saltwood and the oil finish would be correct.
Chokes where originally skeet.
As far has price its hard to tell, a 85% gun has no collectible value just a shooter.Pad added also hurts.If you can use the gun and like it maybe counter offer thats your call.

A short-barreled skeet gun isn't a very desireable configuation these days. Sounds to me as though the seller understands that he has a tough-to-move gun on his hands. You may be able to buy it cheaply, but it won't appreciate in the future. You better like the gun as a skeet gun, or else move on, IMHO

Does the gun have a rib? A prewar ribless Lightning would be well worth that money if the barrel condition is excellent. Any prewar Super in clean original condition should be worth that price. Some prewar Lightnings have ribs. The way to tell whether it is a Lightning is the weight. The prewar version of the Lightning is much lighter than the postwar version. If your gun is a ribless Lightning, it should weigh around 6 1/2 pounds. With a rib, it will still be well under 7. A Standard Weight will be 7 1/4 to 7 1/2 pounds in the same configurations. It probably has the second generation single trigger with the selector made as part of the safety. Some of these 10,000 series guns were not shipped until 1940 or later. Post some pictures so we can see what your 85% looks like.

26&1/2" barrels are 65cm and are the normal length for short Super barrels.
If you have a use for the gun in that configuration, Skeet chokes, 26&1/2", in a Super does make for a fine dove or upland gun (I had a 12 gauge Pigeon Grade Superlite in that configuration) and do not plan on spending any money on it, then it is in the price range. Original configuration would most likely have been butt plate.
If you think its a good deal and you will/can make money on the purchase, you are wrong. It's a gun one purchaes to use if one had a need, otherwise pass.-Dick

Thanks for all the responses, here are a few (not terribly good) photos that I took of it yesterday. As for the rest, we do have a lot of doves in North Dakota so I'm sure I could use it that way. I'll think about it a bit first. Here's the pictures.