Guy had this 16 for sale along with another 26" Ogden barrel, Mod choke. Well my other Sweet 16 is a 67 VR IC choke, so I wanted the Mod barrel and offered to buy it for $100. Guy gave me a ridiculous price for the whole package so I jumped on it. I'll probably sell it, we'll see. Anyways, it's got what appears to be a factory 24" barrel. I can't tell that it's been cut, and it has a bead sight, although I can see very faint "non-glare" x's in the 1/4" of barrel in front of the bead. I don't have calipers to measure the choke, which is **- although the seller told me it was also Mod. Gun is probably 75-80% but does have a significant forearm Crack which I'm currently attempting to glue. Some patina but no rust and the bore is shiny as the day it left the factory so that's nice. Serial S80XX dates it to early 1954. Found an ancient red "humdinger" #2 pencil in the mag tube working as the plug. Almost as cool as the gun itself.
Follow up question... the other, older barrel is from a 1928, 16/65 gun so that's a 2 9/16" chamber. It seems to fit fine on my 1967 gun but will it work with 2 3/4" shells? Looks like the answer is "not without some modification." What says the hive mind here?
If you look at the ejector in your 2 3/4" barrel you'll see that it moves. The one in the 2 9/26" barrel doesn't.
I guess the only way to know for sure if it was a 24" barrel from the factory is to get a letter from Browning?
Those x's are what Browning calls a "Mat Rib", and they extend all the way to the front of the barrel. You don't need to buy a letter; the Browning Historian, Lenny Rees, will look up the information for free. By the way, if the new barrel is marked with 2 stars and a dash, it's an Improved Cylinder choke.
yes I know. I wasn't sure if the matte rib would extend all the way out in front of the bead, though. just thinking that if it had been cut down, the matte rib would still show a bit. need to look at my light 12. my other A5's are vent rib bbls. and yes, the choke is IC. I was just saying I can't confirm that it was not cut (in which case it'd be cyl) because I don't have calipers. thanks for the tip on Lenny Rees. I will contact him.
I own a Sweet 16 that I call "custom".. basically, when I bought it, I was told the stock had been shortened.. fine for me.. and I knew the barrel was bulged. Though the dealer told me he thought it could be shot, I didn't think so.. I went to quite a few gunsmiths who said either they couldn't or wouldn't work on the barrel ( it's a collectible after all I kept hearing ).. so I called Browning.. the service tech was great.. told me to send in the gun. I got it back with the barrel cut back to under 24" and modified choke - factory done so done right.. It's a great shotgun....
