| Fudd |
Hello. By which I mean, hello again. A few years ago, I joined this forum and posted here about having acquired, on a whim, an early-production 12-gauge Browning B-SS (28", single non-selective, Modified/Full, pistol-grip, made in Japan) and subsequently trying it out for American Trap and, even, ahem, just for giggles, Olympic Skeet. Your comments, suggestions, and insights were welcome, wonderful, and useful. They helped me have loads of fun shooting the thing, and I haven't forgotten them. But then life and other priorities and COVID got in the way, sequentially, and I guess I haven't fired a shot out of anything proofmarked in about five years.
But now, the veil has lifted, somewhat. I got a small bonus from work in June, and decided to rashly spend it on something that would give me an excuse to get out in the autumn forests and/or society again. I determined that the antithesis to my big, heavy 12-bore would be the answer. I started looking at smallerbore shotguns. And then I spotted a well-respected Canadian dealer's consignment sale for a 28-gauge CZ Ringneck. I scratched my head. It's pretty. It's small. It's not too expensive. It might be just the thing as a grouse defence shotgun. But what the Hell is it?
So, as some of us who know no actual people are wont to do, I consulted the Internet. Therein, I found confusion and contradiction. "It's made in Turkey! Turkish shotguns are fecal!" "Never had a problem with mine." "The firing pins break!" "The forends drop off if you fire both barrels in close sequence!" "A Turkish double ate my baby while she was swimming off Cape Cod!" "I've shot a thousand rounds of trap with mine, and though I've failed to ever break fifteen, the firing pins have never failed." "The Turks have never forgotten Gallipoli! It's a trap!!" "Need I remind you that the Czechs developed the BREN, and then outsourced production to England. Trust their practical judgement."
That last statement, by a paid spokesman, made me trust them. I examined the advert with renewed intent.
Consignment - CZ 28 Ga/2.75"/26" - Ringneck - 201A Mini -Turkish walnut - Prince of Wales stock - Unfired - in Beretta fitted luggage case - $950
That's 950 Canadian dollars. I scratched my head. And sent two questions to the dealer. 1. How many chokes does it come with? 2. Is that a lockable fitted Beretta hard case?
The answers came back as, 1. Three chokes, Improved, Modified, and Full, and 2. Yes.
I knew, because reading, that these shotguns shipped with five interchangeable chokes, and figured that the dealer, because volume, had neglected to count the two that might have been screwed into the barrels by the factory. I was also in dire need of another decent double-gun case, because recent-purchase Winchester Model 1892 Takedown reasons, which we shall not otherwise discuss here. And as for "unfired", well, probably not, but these things can happen. And they're reputable. So I figured, ahh, at that price, roll the sodding dice. And I bought it.
And it has arrived. And this is what I wrote a distant, cross-country shotgun friend about my unboxing:
That "unfired" CZurkish 28-gauge has arrived. No trace of casehead marks on the breechface, so maybe they weren't lying. Arrived with all five chokes instead of the three they mentioned in the ad (they failed to count the two screwed into the bores, which I'd gambled on), choke wrench, two plain snap caps, two weird snap caps with fuzzy white chamber swabs on them (hadn't known those existed- what are they?), velvet socks for barrel and buttstock, an unopened tube of Brian Enos pistol lubricant (which is handy, because I can't find my bottle of Militec), the original cardboard box & owner's manual, *and* an unused lockable Beretta double gun hard case, leather-covered, that sold for $459 US in 2015 (the previous owner's order printout was in it. The little red plastic anti-rotation pins are still in its combination locks. EVERYTHING IS NEW OLD STOCK.
It has selectable single trigger, extractors only. (So far, my only regret is that it lacks ejectors.) Much daintier and daintier-handling than the B-SS. Trigger pulls are a bit stiffer. It's a very well-drawn little shotgun, by my eye. And I can see myself walking the trails at the lake with it; it's not too heavy. Oh, and the barrels *are* 26 inches, breeches to muzzles.
$950 CDN. Huh. I think I got royally screwed.
Local trap & skeet club is hosting a Browning open house on Saturday. It's gonna be sunny. Guess where I'm going. I'll be bringing both.
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