doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Browning BSS/Sporter Question

Thanks, Chuck. Like Replacement, I'm thinking the NSST is pretty rare on Sporters. The connection is that the Sporter was a later model, by which time Miroku had changed to a SST. Thus, on most of them, you got the SST--as you did on the later PG guns as well. But in contrast, the NSST is quite common on PG guns.

From what I understand, the all Japanese BSS's, whether field grade or sporter, all came with SST's. As production became more and more expensive, they started using Japanese manufactured parts but assembling them in Korea. During this transition, many of the guns were assembled in Korea with SST's. Gold SST's. After a while longer and the cost of production became even more expensive, they cheapened some parts, put on plainer wood and did away with the SST.

So it is my understanding that all completely Japanese made BSS's should have a gold SST. Anything that says "Assembled in Korea, Parts Manufactured in Japan" could have an SST, or may not.

It is also my understanding that because of this chain of events, the silver triggered, Korean assembled guns were the later guns and the all Japanese guns were the earlier ones.

I do not own a BSS (although not for lack of trying) but that's just what I have heard from some people that I consider to be experts on the subject.

Not that both books could not be in error, but both the Blue Book and the Gun Trader's Guide list the silver NSST as being available on early production guns only and not on later ones, and never on Sporters (which were introduced 5 years after the standard BSS). Scwhing's book on the Superposed shows 2 photos of "the new Browning side by side"--not sure whether it's the same gun or not. Nor whether it was from the Browning catalog when the gun was first introduced. However, the gun has a NSST, and in one photo you can make out "Made in Japan" on the barrel, so it's not one of the later Korean-assembled guns.

I've certainly seen standard BSS with both SST and NSST, former gold and latter silver. But I can't recall ever having seen a Sporter with anything other than a SST--although I could be misremembering. The gun Chuck posted, however, is obviously an exception to that (assuming, per Replacement's post, that it started life as a Sporter).

Upon inspection, the gun Chuck posted is a Korean Assembled, NSST, Silver trigger gun that started life as a field grade and was later modified to a sporter stock. My proof...



***The picture is bigger and better quality on the ad itself. You can see in the last picture on his ad that the tang on this gun is short and was originally made for a pistol grip. I've marked it with a yellow line in this picture. In a sporter, it would have had a long tang that would have continued down to where the checkering stops. Like here...



Someone put a straight stock on a Korean assembled field gun and they're billing it as a Sporter.

Probably some North Korean.

hahahaha. I like your style L. Brown...

And I like your catch on that one, phideaux. Good work!

Do I win some kind of prize?

I just looked at one of my "real" Sporter 20's, and the long tang ends about 2-1/4" short of where the checkering ends. Original tang and original wood. I eyeballed the 2-1/4", no tape handy.

Korean-assembled? Perhaps the Japanese thought they could only handle short tangs. So the mystery continues . . .

I've been around long enough to well remember the introduction of the BSS. I even remember a co-worker & I talking about it. He also was a two bbl fan though he generally preferred his stacked. Neither of us had a real interest in it "Because" it was available "Only" with a NSST. It was several years before the SST was offered. Larry is spot on in this.
Note, I have had a few "Very Spirited" discussions with Larry on things of a ballistics nature, "But" he knows his guns & the features they have. I would listen to him on this one.