Three and a half decades ago I fell in love with the Browning Continental. If you don't know it's a M/F 20 gauge Superposed that comes with an interchangeable set of usually .30-06 barrels that fit the same receiver. It was manufactured between about 1980 and 1986. I have never seen one with my own eyes - just in the Browning catalog. One of the things I did when the internet first came out was to search the world for an affordable Continental. Most, I found, were kept unfired and "new in box" as investments. A few were used but they were always worth more to their current owners than my pragmatic ego could tolerate. I spent years waiting for that first September where I would spend all 30 days with a gun that was a shotgun in the morning for teal, doves or rail and an evening rifle for deer. I really believe that having goals in life is a component of keeping mentally young, healthy and interesting so I kept the idea of a Browning Continental as a carrot on a long stick.
As I got closer to the carrot I began to see flaws with my gun crush. The shotgun barrels are not compatible with steel shot and the M/F tubes are way too tight for rail. Moreover, I already have a slim-waisted 20 gauge double that I adore and its IC/M chokes are much more useful for rail and forgiving for doves. The rifle part of the Continental guns had problems too. They only came from the factory, to my knowledge, with iron sights and did not come with sling attachments. I just don't hunt that way but I still looked.
Prices softened some recently and I started looking even harder. Then, on one of my favorite internet gun selling sites, near the bottom of a long string of hopeful "Continental" sellers was a Browning Express. It's basically a Continental without the shotgun barrels...okay, I can deal with that. It was tolerably priced...still interested. It was a .30-06...getting warmer. It had, not only scope rails but, a scope and sling studs...as Jeff Foxworthy would say, "you have my attention". The seller was a reputable, well-known business. I called a fellow SCDUCK'er who has had to listen to me talk about this stupid idea for too long. His advice was something like "please just get the gun." I obsessed for a week or two. The internet photos were pretty low resolution but the gun looked good. I talked to my Accountant. She was fine with the idea.
I called the selling company - in Nebraska - and talked to a guy who sounded pretty young and asked him to look the gun over for me and get something on the history. It turns out they bought the gun at auction - probably from an estate sale. He said it looked fine but could, in his words, use a brush run through the barrels. I wanted a used gun because I plan to take this thing hunting and kill a deer with it - maybe a lot of deer with it. I asked if they could take a credit card over the phone. "Sure", he said.
It was an even longer week but the gun showed up at the seller's store in Charlotte. My wife, I mean, my accountant even wanted to ride with me to pick it up. I have never had a bad experience buying a gun over the internet and that trend continues. I am near positive the gun had never been used, maybe never even fired. It still had the factory applied rust preventative, zerust, on the internal parts but it had dried solid. It scared me at first because it wouldn't budge to gun oil but Hoppes bore cleaner took it right off. I've had to work the cleaner under some of the moving parts but they freed up after a couple of nervous iterations of spraying cleaner and oil. There's still a little zerust working out from behind the ejectors but they are sliding and worked properly every time I tried them. There is almost nothing even on the Internet about the features and options available during the short window when Browning made the Express rifles so I was surprised to find that there was a long metal tang done up with engraving that matches the Grade 1 Superposed receiver as part of the rear sling attachment. It turns out that it flips up and holds four bullets. I depend on luck more than skill and I really lucked into this functional beauty.
I'm really wasn't being picky about a gun that I intend to carry while climbing a tree but the opposite thing started to bother me. This gun has made it for 39 years without getting a scratch or a knock. It has never been rained on or thrown over someone's back then they dragged a deer. I don't even think it's had a bullet run through the barrels. How can I possibly take this beauty out in the woods? Then it hit me.
The guy who owned it before, I'm sure, bought it because she was an uncommon beauty. I'm sure he treasured it, at least for a while, and showed it off or at least stared at it himself. What did that get him? He's gone now and someone has got his money and some else has his gun. I can continue that tradition or I can break it right here and now by getting this thing sighted in for August or maybe a mid-summer coyote hunt. But it's early in the year and I have time to just enjoy her outside beauty before making such a permanent decision.
This is the first double rifle that I have ever seen with my own eyes but I know enough to know that this sweet beauty might be hiding an ornery and cantankerous personality. A personality where she flatly refuses to put the under bullet anywhere near the over bullet. If it's a matter of elevation - I can probably use that to my advantage but if her differences are windage that's a whole different problem. If her dark secret is bad enough, I might have just bought an expensive single shot. Did the estate owner know that she refused to cooperate at the range and that's why she was always left home?
I console myself by thinking about the Belgian craftsmen that put her together. It even feels better knowing that, for some reason, they chose her to add the scope rails, scope, and nifty bullet holder. Maybe she earned these privileges by being cooperative at the regulation range. I don't yet know but I intend to find out.
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