browninggold
CGN Regular
- Location
- Essex County, Ontario
As a longtime BPS fan I’ve owned nearly all variations at one point or another, great guns. But lately seems like lots of for sale ads misrepresent the actual model they have, whether intentionally, by misinformation or by just guessing cause, well I looks high grade :/
So here’s just a quick course on basic BPS grades without getting to technical and going year by year etc.
BPS started with a plain receiver, no embellishment, just a standard field grade pump gun. Not exactly sure when but late 80’s or early 90’s they added roll engraving to it, still a standard field grade gun but prettier. NOT hand engraved like I have seen some ads say.
Standard BPS from 1994 catalog
All BPS models including sub gauge had the now standard engraving. Also for a few years there was a Pigeon Grade 12g and Waterfowl 10g available which had the plain sided receiver but with matte finish and gold embellishment.
A few subtle differences are the 12g 3.5” will have geese on one side….if I remember correctly the 3” has pheasants..
And sub gauges will have quail on one side…
While the other side of receiver should both have ducks. I believe there are some models that had a turkey on one side, and a deer as well.
Again my years aren’t exact but I believe in late 90’s or early 2000’s they went back to a plain basic receiver. So there’s your standard grade guns, yes at one time that engraving was standard, not a rare limited edition or high grade.
Yes there was a GrIII produced. It was a ShotShow only limited run first made in 12g then a few years later in 16g. 12’s in this grade are extremely rare, as are the 16’s. Only 50 of the 16’s were made, even less in 12. I owned 2 of the 16’s at one point, beautiful guns. They have silver receivers and nice inked engraving patterns with oil finished wood. This was the latest 16 I had now in the hands of a different lucky man
If your BPS does NOT look like the one above you do NOT have a GrIII. Also oddly the 16 came with a recoil pad, the only time a 16 BPS had one from factory.
More recently in the mid 2010’s they did more ShotShow special editions called Medallions. These were great looking guns and again they went back to the old engraving of the past with upgraded gloss wood. These were not cataloged guns but for a while were readily available from browning dealers. At one time I owned the complete set of Medallions in 12,16,20,28 and 410 so if any of you fine gents want to sell them back to me let me know! By this time Browning had already gone back to plain receivers on their standard grade catalog BPS.
Here’s a 12g example I recently sold, beautiful guns….
Then of course more recently browning started cutting more costs and went with matte finishes instead of polished, also changing up the stock/forearm looks and putting a recoil pad on sub gauges.
So fellas just because your old BPS has engraving does NOT make it a Medallion, a GrIII or a ‘high grade’…it’s just a standard field grade. If you have a real Medallion it will say so on the box and will have a serial number from the mid 2010’s. Your 1995 engraved bps is a standard field grade, not a Medallion.
Hopefully this clears up lots of misinformation out there about these guns. Yes there are variations like ducks unlimited or NWTF edition guns with similar engraving and silver receivers but those are not browning catalog or ShotShow limited editions, they are produced specifically for those wildlife organizations.
I’m sure I missed a few details but again just a quick crash course. As a frequent browning buyer I’ve seen way too many of these listed as something they aren’t and of course sellers dont like being called out and get all upset so figured I’d put some basic info out there for interested buyers who maybe don’t know the differences.
So here’s just a quick course on basic BPS grades without getting to technical and going year by year etc.
BPS started with a plain receiver, no embellishment, just a standard field grade pump gun. Not exactly sure when but late 80’s or early 90’s they added roll engraving to it, still a standard field grade gun but prettier. NOT hand engraved like I have seen some ads say.
Standard BPS from 1994 catalog
All BPS models including sub gauge had the now standard engraving. Also for a few years there was a Pigeon Grade 12g and Waterfowl 10g available which had the plain sided receiver but with matte finish and gold embellishment.
A few subtle differences are the 12g 3.5” will have geese on one side….if I remember correctly the 3” has pheasants..
And sub gauges will have quail on one side…
While the other side of receiver should both have ducks. I believe there are some models that had a turkey on one side, and a deer as well.
Again my years aren’t exact but I believe in late 90’s or early 2000’s they went back to a plain basic receiver. So there’s your standard grade guns, yes at one time that engraving was standard, not a rare limited edition or high grade.
Yes there was a GrIII produced. It was a ShotShow only limited run first made in 12g then a few years later in 16g. 12’s in this grade are extremely rare, as are the 16’s. Only 50 of the 16’s were made, even less in 12. I owned 2 of the 16’s at one point, beautiful guns. They have silver receivers and nice inked engraving patterns with oil finished wood. This was the latest 16 I had now in the hands of a different lucky man
If your BPS does NOT look like the one above you do NOT have a GrIII. Also oddly the 16 came with a recoil pad, the only time a 16 BPS had one from factory.
More recently in the mid 2010’s they did more ShotShow special editions called Medallions. These were great looking guns and again they went back to the old engraving of the past with upgraded gloss wood. These were not cataloged guns but for a while were readily available from browning dealers. At one time I owned the complete set of Medallions in 12,16,20,28 and 410 so if any of you fine gents want to sell them back to me let me know! By this time Browning had already gone back to plain receivers on their standard grade catalog BPS.
Here’s a 12g example I recently sold, beautiful guns….
Then of course more recently browning started cutting more costs and went with matte finishes instead of polished, also changing up the stock/forearm looks and putting a recoil pad on sub gauges.
So fellas just because your old BPS has engraving does NOT make it a Medallion, a GrIII or a ‘high grade’…it’s just a standard field grade. If you have a real Medallion it will say so on the box and will have a serial number from the mid 2010’s. Your 1995 engraved bps is a standard field grade, not a Medallion.
Hopefully this clears up lots of misinformation out there about these guns. Yes there are variations like ducks unlimited or NWTF edition guns with similar engraving and silver receivers but those are not browning catalog or ShotShow limited editions, they are produced specifically for those wildlife organizations.
I’m sure I missed a few details but again just a quick crash course. As a frequent browning buyer I’ve seen way too many of these listed as something they aren’t and of course sellers dont like being called out and get all upset so figured I’d put some basic info out there for interested buyers who maybe don’t know the differences.
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But they are so nice - I now dont even want to shoot them lol the awesomeness is quite astounding
