Offered for discussion.
I've been on a bit of an acquisitive tear in the past couple of months, and as a result, have three new doubles to my name- a disparate pair of over-unders built for serious skeet, and a weird, delicate Italian side-by-side farm implement built for, umm, looking pretty and possibly scaring ruffed grouse and spruce grouse out of their feathery little wits. During this period of "take my money", I naturally examined several dozen sales ads on numerous sales and trading fora, and bricks-and-mortar shop websites. The number of times I read an advert and had to contact the seller to ask basic questions such as "How long are the barrels?" "How's it choked?" "Is that a selective or non-selective single trigger?" "Do you think it'd stop a Yukon Gold potato in a charge?" still amuses me. So I've been wondering what
this hive mind would consider the bare minimum of data required in a double-barrelled shotgun sales ad. For the general and possibly-interested market, I mean.
I'll start. Were I to list my old Browning B-SS (which is for the moment damned unlikely) on a site that doesn't permit photo upload and I had no photo hosting service available, this is how I'd do it:
FOR SALE: BROWNING B-SS 12-Gauge Shotgun, 28" barrels
Browning B-SS shotgun, side-by-side, 12-gauge, 2-3/4" chambers, 28" barrels
- Condition: Wrecked. Off-face. Clatters like an old Zippo.
- Serial number places it beyond the salt-wood era.
- Rollmarks state "MADE IN JAPAN ASSEMBLED IN CROATIA"
- Single non-selective trigger
- Choked Modified and Full. Modified (right-hand) barrel usually fires first.
Of course, if it had screw-in chokes...
- Comes with the following Triley-Breague Unscrewable® flush chokes: Cylinder, Cylinder, Skeet, Skeet, Disapproved Cylinder, Modified Cylinder, Modified, Modified Penguin, Penguin, Penguin, Full Penguin, Light Musk-Ox, Full Musk-Ox, Full, Extra-Full, Too Full, Reverse Venturi, Buick
(Sorry. Back to regular programming.)
- 17.5" length of pull
- Original hard black plastic Browning buttplate with a picture of John M. Browning straightening his tie; stock appears unaltered
- Forend and buttstock free of cracks, chips, and other defects that may invite derision or incite disgust
- Comes with original maker's case. Original case-maker not included.
- Exact round-count is unknown to me, but figure 500000 to 700000 shells
- Pictures available to your rotary phone.
So. Did I miss anything important?
