doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com BC Miroku Model 500 - Questions

OK Dave, here they are. Still trying to get used to the camera. Maybe a camera bug can tell what settings I need to adjust.

First five pics.

http://s618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/ronald9391/?action=view&current=PICT0316.jpg

Put 50 rounds through the Miroku tonight.

Observations: It's choked too tight for low gun skeet - either powdered the birds or missed them completely, unlike my usual experience, where I chip and dink my way through a round. Did real well on the game we call "Chinese Trap" though, shooting premounted. (We shoot the birds from the trap house using stations 1 through 7 on the skeet field. You keep shooting at each station until you break two birds. Last guy still shooting wins.) I got all the way through station 7 and back down the field to station 4. Birds from station 4 are between 40 and 45 yards from the shooter when broken. Most were solid hits, even using just the modified barrel.

Recoil was quite tolerable with 1 ounce Estate shells at 1180 fps.

Looks like a great late season pheasant gun.

Coming in late and OT, please enlighten me about Miroku and Mitsui, both Japanese, both made Model 500s o/us---my SKB 20 is my go-to gun for everything---and I wonder why Mitsui doesn't place more highly in the firmament.

King, you're confusing a couple things. The Miroku 500, most often seen under the Charles Daly name, is a sxs, not an OU. Their OU models had names, not numbers.

Mitsui didn't actually "make" anything. After Ithaca ceased importing the SKB doubles (both sxs and OU) in the mid-70's, they were brought into the States (and possibly Canada) for a very brief time under the Mitsui name. Mitsui, I think, was just a marketing entity, not a gunmaker. Differences between a Mitsui 500 and an Ithaca SKB 500 were minor, about the only one you'd notice being that the Mitsui-imported guns didn't have the Ithaca "Raybar" front sight.

I recently bought a Miroku 500 so I was glad to find this thread. It is on its way now. I thought it would be a good rough weather or travelling gun. It is a 12 ga. with 28" bbls, any idea of what the chokes would be? It has been in a closet since it was new with just a few rounds through it. I was also wondering about the Japanese case hardening. Would this be bone charcol hardening? I paid a bit under $400 shipped, so it seemed like too good a good deal to pass up. Thanks.

If you got that gun for less than $400, you should expect the police to be knocking on your door shortly after it arrives. You stole it.

All the 12ga/28" Miroku doubles I have personally seen have had approximately M/F chokes. Some of the early 70's guns are very tightly choked. Can't comment on the Miroku case colors because mine are all blued frames. Parker Repros out of the Olin Kodensha factory have very fragile case colors, but there was no real relationship between OK and Miroku. I mention that only because it is "Japanese case coloring."

To my humble knowledge, all Miroku Model 500 doubles have chopper lump barrel, as do all Browning BSS guns. Chopper

I agree, you stole it. Love them double triggers. You guys aren't making it any easier for me to stay away from buying another gun.

Very good price. I've had a couple case colored Miroku sxs. I think they used a different process than was employed on the Repros. Or at least the CC on the Mirokus seems more durable.

Thanks for the info, guys. I emailed the seller and he thought the chokes were I/C and Full. I guess I'll find out in a few days. He also said it had 3" chambers, is that normal? Some of the sellers photos weren't too good, but this one shows a bit of the cc. It doesn't look like cyanide colours to me, but I'm no expert. There is also a full shot.