Browning B-80?

[TreeDoc]

Anybody own one or shoot one? My friendly shopkeep just had one come in on a trade. It's a 20 gauge and in about 98% condition. What a sweet handling shotgun! I can't say that I have ever picked up an autoloading shooting stick off the shelf and had it go right where it needs to be quite like this one. I'm real impressed with it and like all my guns of course...I really need it!

Just curious if anybody had some input about inherent troubles or success stories while I talk myself into it.

[skeet]

TD, It is basically a Beretta 302 for all intents and purposes. Different shape to the receiver but the bbls interchange. If the price is right go ahead and buy it. Gag..gag..Browning..... gag!!

[M.T. Pockets]

I hate to throw cold water on the B-80, but I had one when they first came out in about 1982 and thought it would be my shotgun for life.

At best it was unreliable, at it's worst it didn't work at all. It was a 3" magnum that was supposed to be able to handle heavy 2 3/4 loads too. The 2 3/4" loads wouldn't cycle reliably, and the 3" loads wouldn't clear the action reliably. Sometimes when it would cycle a new round the trigger wouldn't work. Cleaning it wouldn't help.

Now this is only one gun and maybe it was a lemon, but I swore off autoloaders and ended up trading it in on an 870.

I don't know how long Browning sold this model, but I think today's autoloaders are much, much better.

[TreeDoc]

Ahhhh...M.T., you're a "stroker", huh? Still feel that way about Autoloaders?

In particular, this gun has a 2 3/4" chamber with a fixed IC choke. Brand new barrels are available up the wazoo! including screw choke models.

I do have a bit of background on the B-80. Like skeet said, it's like a Beretta 303. Actually I find the 301, 302, 303, series barrels are interchangeable. The B-80 is essentially a Beretta with proof stamps by Beretta all over it. The components are actually manufactured by Beretta, Italy and assembled in FN's plant in Portugal.

One might say this is the kind of Browning that Fabs "might" own!

The action is a proven mechanism and is identical to the 303 and even the more recent Beretta 390. My 390 has never missed a beat. Typical with Browning, this thing has some pretty and shiny wood and nice bluing to match.

Seeing that M.T. is a "stroke gunner" type, I'll take his report with a grain of salt Just kidding MT, I think you had one of the first as the info I have says it was first manufactured in "late '81" with production running through '88.

Now....to find an empty spot in the safe....this may be a problem!

[M.T. Pockets]

TreeDoc, I shucked shells for over 20 years with an 870 & BPS. Just this fall I checked out several autoloaders and bought a Super X2 for my waterfowl gun. I know it's the Browning Gold action, but I like it just fine. I also shoot my Ithica Mag-10, so I don't hold anything against autoloaders, but it did take me a couple decades to go back. I now prefer the autoloader to a pump, but will always have a few pumps in the gunsafe.

[TreeDoc]

M.T., I bought a Benelli Nova last year from my Shopkeep because it was "used" but brand new and unfired by its previous owner and was so cheap! I never in my life had even shot a pump gun. My first shotgun was a Remington 1100, 20 gauge Standard Frame, Skeet Barrel which was actually the first gun I had ever bought. I aquired it at the first moment I was legally allowed, the day I turned 18! I still have it today! Now, back to this pump gun........what the hell was I thinking! I actually did use it last year and killed my first ever Turkey. I can't beleive what a clunky, noisy, heavy SOB that thing turned out to be and I found this all out right while I was getting BUSTED by a whole flock of Turkeys while I'm standing completely motionless with the gun shouldered for no less than 15 minutes while these 3 toed turds stood and watched me at 50 yards! I put that clanky pump gun in the closet of my trailer as a "just in case" or what I call my "brother in law" back up gun for waterfowl. I haven't shot it since I blasted that Turkey. I don't know what I was thinking!

Anyway, there's my pumpgun experience for ya!

[fabsroman]

A friend of mine has a B-80 and it is a POS. He has the same problems with it that MT had; however, it will cycle the 3" magnum loads rather decently. For him to hunt doves with it one year, I had to load 1.5 oz. of #7.5's into a 2 3/4" hull for him. That thing sounded like a canon.

Quite honestly, if you find the Beretta stamp on a lot of the Browning gun's parts, you should ask yourself why. Why would Beretta manufacture parts for a competitor. Personally, I think it was Beretta's reject parts that Browning happened to find in a dumpster/dump and decide to build guns with. LOL

[TreeDoc]

Originally posted by fabsroman
Quite honestly, if you find the Beretta stamp on a lot of the Browning gun's parts, you should ask yourself why. Why would Beretta manufacture parts for a competitor. Personally, I think it was Beretta's reject parts that Browning happened to find in a dumpster/dump and decide to build guns with. LOL

Actually, I had an interesting phone conversation with one of the principals at Beretta in Accokeek, Maryland today. He asked me not to repeat this but I thought with our quiet little forum here it would be alright. Regarding the rejected parts from Beretta, he said that those don't get thrown away. They use them exclusively in the 391 Teknys series (both 20 and 12 gauge) as well as the 682E Gold series O/U guns. He had a big laugh when he went on further to talk about the ridiculous profits they make from the sale of those 2 guns.

Just an FYI....

[fabsroman]

That was quite hilarious TD. I actually got a good laugh out of it at 1:00 in the morning.

I guess I need a crooked shooting gun in order to hit the targets.
No wonder I can't shoot the Brownings, they all shoot straight. Then again, I don't think I ever had a problem hitting the targets with the Citori or BPS. Just a problem with the quality of the BPS and the customer service from Browning. What I like about Beretta is that its headquarters is less than an hour away from my house. Well, maybe a little further now that I moved.

All kidding aside, my buddy's gun is truly a POS, but I don't really know when it was made. Maybe it was one of the first ones built.

[tjwatty]

Hey TD, the thing I like about Browning is, I don't know where their headquarters are or customer service because my Browning has never broken, so I don't need them close. Hee, Hee!!!!!!

[M.T. Pockets]

Buy a B-80 and you'll find out

I've owned a BPS since 1987 and it has been a work horse without fail.

I've owned an A-Bolt and, great rifle.

The B-80 reminds me of a girlfriend I had at about the same time. Couldn't live without it til I got it, then I couldn't wait to get rid of it. High maintenance.

[TreeDoc]

I happen to know a bit about this particular B-80 through my dealer friend. It came in on a trade along with another gun from one of his "regulars" like me! Feeding issues are not at all a problem with this one. The issue was that it's a fixed IC choke and this guy wants a full choke gun. The dealer sent it to Colonial for him to have screw ins installed and Colonial said that it is right at the limit of their comfort level as far as wall thickness is concerned so they chose not to do it. The guy brought in another gun to add to the trade and bought an X2.

I'm fine with an IC choke for what I'd be using it for but I'm also considering having it tubed, I know someone that WILL do it and do it well using thin walls tubes. I have also found NIB barrels available with screw ins which give me another option.

[fabsroman]

TD,

If you were trading in a gun, would you tell them that it is a POS and that it doesn't cycle shells?

Also, if there are plenty of aftermarket barrels available for this thing and they come with screw in chokes, why was the fixed choke such a problem? Why couldn't your gun guy recommend an after market barrel with a screw in choke to this guy versus trading in two guns on a X2? Something just doesn't smell right in Denmark. Then again, I have been wrong about a couple of things in my life (e.g., MT's X2 and TJ's Browning o/u). Oh yeah, then there are your Citoris, but something tells me that you don't shoot them as much as I shot mine on trap and skeet. Not all Brownings are bad. Like MT, I have a BPS and used that gun for quite a while because I loved Brownings back then. I grew up with them and didn't know there was anything else out there, other than Winchester, until I hit 18, and even then I picked a Browning o/u over a Beretta for my first gun purchase. I loved the BPS and had been using it since I was about 12 years old. Continued to use it for hunting for quite a while longer because the Browning Auto 5 with the humpback and the clunky feeling turned me off from autoloaders. Then I started shooting clays with the Citori and figured out that I was terrible on doubles while hunting with the pump. Hence, the move to autoloaders.

[TreeDoc]

Also, if there are plenty of aftermarket barrels available for this thing and they come with screw in chokes, why was the fixed choke such a problem? Why couldn't your gun guy recommend an after market barrel with a screw in choke to this guy versus trading in two guns on a X2? Something just doesn't smell right in Denmark.

No need to be so suspicious Fabs! The barrels are $250 bucks a whack. The fixed choke was a problem because the guy wanted a FULL choke barrel. Last I checked there was a relatively significant difference in the pattern between Full and Improved!

I think your reading more into this than what is there, it's really not all that stinky. The guy that traded it was like so many other people, he was ready to move up to something different when the screw in choke arrangement didn't pan out for an expected reasonable cost. He took a liking to the X2 on the shelf and decided that's what he wanted. As for my dealer friend....he watches out for me, don't worry. He's in the business of selling guns but because he is also my friend, he knows better than to set me up with rotten deal, in fact, he usually sets the good ones aside because he knows what I like. Since his shop is what I refer to as "My Office" I generally get the "private viewings" of all the good trades when no one else is around!

[fabsroman]

I think I remember you posting before about your gun dealer being a friend of yours. I guess you and I are in different situations because I have never bought a used gun. I have thought about it a couple of times lately, but decided against it both times. My dad brougt me up to buy new cars and new guns because he always thought that buying something used was buying somebody else's problems. That attitude probably came as the result of his first used car purchase, a 56 Chevy that broke down on the ride home and never treated him right. The first car that treated him right was a 63 Gran Prix and he loved that car. Anyway, I am off point.

If you like the gun, you might as well buy it. If I were in your shoes, I would probably pass on it, but we are different people. You asked for opinions and I gave you mine. Doesn't seem like many people on here have said "Yeah, great gun, you are getting a great deal." Then again, maybe MT and I witnessed the earlier version of the gun that was terrible.