Okay guys and gals, help me out here. I own a Browning Gold in 3.5 inch. Shoots well enough. It's my turkey gun. I have a Ballistic Specialties choke which really improved the pattern. I'm considering sending it back to Ballistic to have the forcing cone lengthened and patterned. However, I never liked the position of the safety, being a double shotgun shooter. Am I crazy to think about trading it off on a BPS in camo? They have the safety on the top like my doubles. It would be a 3.5 incher too. Any thoughts?

Bob257

Don't know why anyone would want their safety anywhere but the tang. I think Ruger retrograded when they moved their M77 safety to the cocking piece.

As long as your just bowling over turkeys with a blunderbuss, the auto is of little value, so why not switch to the pump?

I own two BPS', one in 12 and one in 20. I also own 2 870's which I have had for close to 30 years including a late model in 3 1/2". I am a fan of browning guns and own quite a few however I still like the 870's over the bps probably because of the time I hve used the 870. The only downside to the bps is the lack of speed loading an empty gun, the safety location is a plus since most of my other shotguns are doubles.

To Bob 257: First shotgun I ever bought for myself was a BPS 20ga. with a 28-inch barrel. Since then I've had 5 or 6 various shotguns of the most popular makes. That BPS was the best shotgun I ever had besides maybe one other one! They are built good and function very well and they look good to boot!

I had a 2 Browning Golds, I did what your wanting to do and make that gun shoot as good as possible. I ordered my own 4" forcing cone reamer and reamed them both. The Stalker with 30" barrel had a history of giving cycling trouble,it got shot more, at ducks, doves and such, so it was returned to Browning service with a letter on how much I was enjoying thier products and that I owned 2 of these, the other a 24" turkey model, and that I killed 9 eastern birds the last spring with it, and my son has a BPS and 3.5" Gold. They told me that I would have to buy a new barrel before they would check out my shotgun! I told them just send that SOB back to me and forget about the repair. Sure enough right there in the owners manual it states all warrantee is voided with any modifications to the barrel. Talk about a BAD TASTE in my mouth. I have since learned that one of the most respected sporting goods dealer in Memphis will not sell the Browning Gold due to complaints of malfunction. GET RID OF THE GOLD!!! I still have the 12 3.5" BPS but did myself one no 2 better and got the BPS 10 ga in 26" for turkeys, with a Hastings .680" choke she put 200 #6 shot in a 10" circle @ 40 yds, no other 12 ga 3.5 has come close to this. I killed 2 birds with it this spring, 1 at 54 yds. I traded a Weatherby rifle for a Remington SP10 at a gunshow this past weekend, an extremely well made shotgun for an autoloader. DUMP the Gold. P.O.S.

[ 07-15-2003, 01:25: Message edited by: Tim in TN ]

Thanks for all the input. My dealer doesn't want to deal very much. They only wanted to offer $500 for the Gold. I decided to keep it and still buy the BPS. We'll see how it all works out. I'm also buying a choke for hevi shot and I'll try that out versus my usual Winchester high velocity #5's.

Bob257

You`ll love the Hevi Shot.

Bob, that's about right. I just bought a Gold Fusion for $600, and it had less than a box of shells through it. Bought another Micro for 650 today (kids gun) and it came with three extended Briley chokes. I also have two BPS's, but carrying a 6.5 lb Fusion or a 8 lb BPS after Chuckars is not much of a choice! FWIW, Dutch.