John,
The first guns we saw here of that design were marketed as either Silver Snipe[NE] or Golden Snipe [AE]. Both of those models had minimal 'engraving' as in essentially none. Europe used dif model nomenclature and their predecessor of the Garcia era BL-4 was the S56E, essentially the same gun, but oft with a bit better wood and slightly dif forearm & buttstock grip shape & configuration. When I say better wood, not speaking of figure, rather the color and the finish were both generally much darker. Some early BL-4's were still marked internally as S56E's and they will generally have the S56E wood as well. S56E's & BL-4's are both much nicer finished guns than the original Golden Snipe and have engraved receivers at roughly the half fine level. Most had auto safeties. The guns tend to be light in weight as far as box locks go and while that can be fine in a 20 for carrying about, it can also thump you after a while if you are going to do a lot of shooting, e.g., sporting clay use or if you are bent toward the 1oz 20ga. loads or the 3" 1.125oz blasters. I'm sure they would be fine over a dog for a few pheasant, but I wouldn't wish to shoot any more than necessary, personally. The 12's simply kick, if you are shooting much of a payload or even a light one at high speed, so be forewarned. It is a simple function of gun weight, not faulting the gun or stock dimensions/configuration. The guns are dead reliable, lock up is simple/solid & seemingly remains tight forever and they are well assembled & fit from high quality materials. Their bores tend to be minimal sized with .721~.722 being about the norm for a 12ga. and many are chromed. Forcing cones are abrupt, i.e., <13mm or 1/2". Triggers are reliable & crisp out of the box and I have never had need to have one serviced nor do I know of anyone else that has. To my knowledge all BL's imported, with the exception of the short lived BL-2S, had single triggers. BL-4's were selective. Europe had double triggered versions available and some of those guns are around, but they are few and far between and likely the result of some individual bringing one back for their own use. Some of those have the front trigger articulated.
My first O/U was a 28" bbl'd M/F 12ga. Golden Snipe that I ultimately had made into a straight grip gun [had the pistol grip cut off and the chequering blended/recut for the straight config]. I shot that gun extensively through the late 60's, inclusive of a lot of 3&1/4de 1 & 1/4oz flyer loads. It was never any the worse for wear, but I frequently was. A friend owns it today & to him it is the finest shotgun in the world & the only one that he shoots. He takes a couple of limits of dove w/it each year and brags profusely about the gun's magic. It used to routinely cut my cheek;-) .. but it also killed birds.
