So... any of our members here have an interest in firearms?

So, I thought I would share this here since I have nowhere else to share it (not a member of any firearms forums).
I have been a Trap & Skeet shooter since I was 12. I am pretty brand loyal to Browning since my first shotgun was an A5 (still have it) and have been using a BT99 for trap for 30 years. I shoot O/U exclusively (single mostly for trap) and have a decent collection (there are a few Winchester’s in there- c’mon, I’m not that brand loyal).
About 3 years ago I walked into a local shop that is a Browning dealer but has a nice selection of used sporting guns. I had last purchased from them about 20 years ago and has a pleasant experience so didn’t think twice about buying from them again.
On the rack they had a lovely early Citori fixed choke Skeet. It had fantastic blueing and very attractive patina. The price was right and the fit-up felt perfect, so I bought it on the spot. This was to be my back-up skeet gun as I use a 1936 Superposed and often will have friends join me who don’t have a dedicated skeet gun- and I’m not lending someone my Superposed.
I took it home and cleaned it up, totally exited about shooting it the next day. I got it out on the range, the action felt great, it pointed perfectly and the balance was what one would expect from a Citori. But after about 10 shots, the breach wouldn’t close. I fussed about while the others on the range waited for me and I finally had to bow out of the round to see what was going on. It popped a weld on the trim line between the barrels and was hanging up against the breach- ugh!
The next day I brought it back to the shop and the guy who sold it to me looked genuinely concerned and wanted to help. He wrote up the service ticket and said that it most likely would have to go back to Browning for the repair- I’m fine with that, Browning does great work.
6 months of calling and leaving messages for their gunsmith and nada. Another few months and I kept getting the run-around. Finally after almost a year I called and said I wanted a repaired gun or a full refund. The manager called me back within the hour and said he had just got word from Browning that it was on its way back and would be there by the weekend...hmmm.
I went in that weekend to pick it up. When they brought it out it was covered in grease and black soot. I immediate took off
the fore-end to see a huge glob of solder and scorched and sanded bare metal around the weld with what looked like cold-blue slathered over it. I was totally pissed off. I started to wipe the grease which was like cosmoline and it just wouldn’t come off, so at this point I figured I would just take it home and clean it up- I was just done.
After an hour of cleaning I discover that the finish had been totally overheated and scorched, the weld was so poorly done that there was no way it was done at the factory- they did this in their back room in a hot rush to get it back out the door and not have to refund me. They had tried to cover up the scorched finish with cold blue and some sort of parkerizing, but only for about 4 inches down the barrel- it was as hot mess.
Totally disgusted, I put it in my cabinet and just left it there.
Last year I was cleaning another Citori of mine and broke the ejector. I called another shop that has worked on my Bt-99 years ago and struck up a conversation with the gunsmith- a totally sweet man who clearly loves his craft. I mentioned the Citori Skeet and the disaster from the other shop- he knew exactly who I was talking about. I brought him both guns and just asked him to do whatever he could with the skeet- I didn’t have high hopes. He said they only do blueing about once a year when they have a large enough quantity to justify doing a whole run, so it would be a while. Sure enough, I got the call last week- it was done.
Sorry for the long winded post here, I am just over the moon with the results and wanted to share it with anyone who may be interested. Of course I lost that lovely patina and their blueing is a little more towards black (which more modern Brownings have) rather than the stunning factory bright blue of this vintage, but I truly can’t complain- the weld is completely hidden and the gun is once again beautiful.
Sometimes people can work miracles, it just takes someone who knows their craft and who actually gives a shit about doing the piece justice.

@Wetworks , That is completely insane, I figured you were going to say you were from Germany or someplace like that. I guess I shouldn't take just walking into a shop, doing my background, laying my money down, and walking out with a gun for granted.

@JwRosenthal That looks great. I'm happy you found a good gunsmith that could give back something beautiful.

I called the gunsmith today to thank him. He laughed and said when I called, his first thought was- oh shit, what’s wrong. He rarely gets people calling to thank him.

And he said he wanted to do the blueing the same bright blue color but Browning used a specific recipe back in the 70’s that only gave that color to certain steels and their recipe works at a higher temp for a broader spectrum of steels (without them going purple)- but he hand finished it to mimic the factory luster- I think he did very well.

I always prefer to bring a gun to a knife fight and not the other way around.

Just posting this here on the Forum because I can.


Enjoying researching a couple of vintage Winchester Model 69A .22 rifles this afternoon. Ummm ... I have them out in the living room while Mrs. noelekal is away at the office!

Was over looking into Rolex forum and again noticed that firearms and knives are proscribed there by "God." I'd forgotten that was one reason I never joined. OmegaForums is much more well adjusted anyway and for that I am grateful.


The book is hot off the press and just now out. "The Winchester Model 69 Evolution in Design" is great if one wants to delve into minutiae about one particular model of Winchester .22 rifle. I love details. In one's hobby pursuits books are as important as the acquisitions themselves.

After an initial poking around in the book it appears that I have a 1946 vintage Model 69A target and a 1954-55 Model 69A sporter equipped with a mid-50s Unertl Condor 6X scope, a great vintage combo.

The Models 69 and 69A represent the mid-line Winchester bolt-action .22 rifles, falling as they do between the Models 67 and 68 and the fine and fabulous Model 52. By today's standards the Model 69 in its variants are equal to the CZ .22 bolt-action line and are even as good as low end Anschutlz bolt-action .22 rifles.

Was another era when dads might spring for a Winchester .22 for their sons. Glad I am to have lived it.

My father gave me one for my 9th birthday...used only under proper supervision of course.

I was 10 when I found my first rifle at the back of a shed on my uncle's sheep property in northern New South Wales. The Winchester Model 1906 rifle was rust from one end to the other and the feed from the tube magazine was not working, but when my uncle said I could have it I was in kid heaven. What more could you want - a long tube magazine, and the ability to take it down with the turn of the large knurled screw on one side.

I cleaned it up, and a friend of my father who was a technical machinist (and a gun nut) was kind enough to make up the broken part. True, the bore was so worn that I had to creep up on rabbits until I could almost spit on them, but I loved it anyway. It led to a long life of rifle and pistol shooting.

I borrowed this image from the web.

Tommy, left Minneapolis little over a year ago and NY when I was 20. Now in Austin area (not the city limits).
You’d be welcome here any time and I think you’d like it down here. Us retired LEO Types are appreciated here.

I'm currently working on my dad's, and my, first .22, a Mossberg 346KB that my granddad bought from Sears for my dad's tenth birthday. It was in great shape until my middle son borrowed it, broke the front sight, and cracked the stock by over tightening the take down screw. I've replaced the front sight with a globe and just got in a new stock from Numrich.

When I was 8 my father took me out to shoot the 410 ga. shotgun. That's what his father did with him, so that's what he did with me (he was nearly 50 when I was born, so he came from a "different time" we'll say).

I was of course scared shitless, but he told me that after I shot the first round, I would want to finish the box of shells. He was right.