Help me figure out the browning citori!!!

[guywithfastcar]

Hey folks,
I'm a newer shotgun shooter and had the opportunity to bust some clays with the browning citori over the summer and fell in love. I'm looking to spoil myself with a used citori to shoot sporting clays... And an occasional bird hunt with. I've been searching and I think what I am
Looking for is a 12 gauge with 28" or longer barrels. My questions are these: pre-invector barrels had fixed chokes... I read that you should not shoot steel out of these barrels, is that true? I can't really figure out the difference between the models ... 525, 625 etc, can someone give me the quick run-down on the differences? Thanks for the help,

Brian

 

[TomADC]

Why would you want to shoot steel out of a O/U? I'm probably one of the few but I dont shoot waterfowl with a O/U. I have shot a lot of quail, dove and pheasant with a O/U.

 

[guywithfastcar]

The small amount of hunting I do is goose hunting with my buddy... Is it way off track to
Hunt geese with an o/u?

 

[Tom Held]

sure, go ahead

A lot of my friends use O/Us and SxSs for waterfowl here in Maryland. You can only take 2 Canada geese anyway. I shot geese last week with a 1926 Parker choked IC and IM and used steel shot. But it's a little cumbersome reloading from a ground pit. For high volume snow geese shooting that we do later in January you definitively want an autoloader.

 

[HexHead]

The advantage of using an O/U for duck is that you can use two different chokes and can select which barrel fires first. Browning offers their Cynergy in camo for this reason.

 

[rbernie]

pre-invector barrels had fixed chokes... I read that you should not shoot steel out of these barrels, is that true?

As far as I know, all of the Citori's were made in Japan with barrels rated for steel shot. Browning's web site, on the other hand, makes it sound like the answer is no simply by not addressing the Japanese-made doubles at all:

http://www.browning.com/customerservice/qna/detail.asp?ID=128

I can't really figure out the difference between the models ... 525, 625 etc, can someone give me the quick run-down on the differences?

I've also struggled with this. The 'Citori' is the replacement for the Superposed, and has been in production since 1976 or so. Sometime along the way, Browning decided that they needed to offer 'updated' versions alongside the 'traditional' version. These variants were called the 425, 525, 625, 725, and so forth. Some of these versions, TO ME, seemed to be nothing but differences/variations in the gun's feature set. Others, like the 725, actually offered some mechanical updates that you may or may not care about. I have never found a definitive listing of the actual mechanical differences between the versions.

In the current lineup, they only offer the standard Citori and 725. These two guns fit differently, so you'll want to handle the different models to see which stocks actually work for you before you pick a gun.

 

[oneounceload]

There was the Gti, which I have, then came the 325, 425, 525, 625, and 725. Mostly designating differences in manufacturing or materials, the basic premise is still the same. There is a difference between the target versions and the field versions. Two of those differences are weight - the target versions are heavier, and the barrel porting

 

[rbernie]

then came the 325, 425, 525, 625, and 725. Mostly designating differences in manufacturing or materials, the basic premise is still the same.

Does anyone know a listing of the changes that Browning implemented for each of these variants?

 

[243winxb]

The first Citories were sold as Charles Daly / B.C. Miroku Superior Grade in the 70's. Had a trap gun and field O/U. Avoid full choke with steel is my guess.

 

[oneounceload]

Citoris have always been made in Japan and are well made. Miroku made the same gun under their name but were prohibited from selling them here which is why you see more of them in Europe as opposed to Brownings - and they are usually sold for 1/3 less. Excellent guns.

Daly used whatever gunmaker he could work a deal with as he is, like Browning, marketing company