Lots of grim looking shotguns as well in my collection.The worst of then deserve to rust and die,but so many good ones that need some love and devotion to bring them ,at least, part way back.Browning's are in that deserving crowd, and were built to last lifetimes.The people that work in their factories care about quality.
A process was developed by Morton Salt (go figure) for rapidly drying wood by piling salt on top of it to draw out the moisture. The process was widely used by the furniture industry. The demand for shotguns was high and the process of drying wood for gunstock blanks took a lot of time. Someone at Browning Arms got the idea that they could use the same process to dry wood for gunstocks more rapidly. Of course as soon as they started putting this wood on guns rust started appearing. Some of them literally came out of the box covered in rust. By the time Browning they realized that they had a problem there were already thousands of guns out there with salt wood on them. So someone would pull out their prized and (nearly new) Superposed out of the case to find it covered in rust. Sometime in the early 1970s Browning decided to cut their losses and and took all of the salt cured wood and put it in a huge pile and burned it up. For decades and possibly even today if the original owner sent a gun with salt wood back to Browning they would replace the wood and fix the rust damage or if it was not repairable replace the gun. By now most of the original owners who bought these guns in the late 60s and early 70s are long dead and the guns have changed hands multiple times and a lot of people in the market for a fine old Superposed today have never heard of Browning's salt wood disaster. So they go to a gun show and see a nice old Superposed with a little rust around where the stock meets the receiver and the forend touches the barrel and think "well it is a 50+ year old gun", but if you pull the stock off that baby the internal parts will often look like something brought up from the wreck of the Titanic.
I had them restore my Browning. Great service, great price, and skilled craftsmanship. Best in their field.
A true craftsman.
So sad to see such a fine firearm done in by how the wood was cured/dried. And those Superposed were bought to be family heirlooms really.
yes it is browning own every one a new one or money to fix them
@@steveblack860 Browning did fix the ones that were owned by the original owners as long as they had the warranty card and registered them.
Lots of grim looking shotguns as well in my collection.The worst of then deserve to rust and die,but so many good ones that need some love and devotion to bring them ,at least, part way back.Browning's are in that deserving crowd, and were built to last lifetimes.The people that work in their factories care about quality.
Need to really look over my recent 20 gauge 1966 gun.
What the heck is a salt gun?
Rob C thanks for the info, I just learned something!
A process was developed by Morton Salt (go figure) for rapidly drying wood by piling salt on top of it to draw out the moisture. The process was widely used by the furniture industry. The demand for shotguns was high and the process of drying wood for gunstock blanks took a lot of time. Someone at Browning Arms got the idea that they could use the same process to dry wood for gunstocks more rapidly. Of course as soon as they started putting this wood on guns rust started appearing. Some of them literally came out of the box covered in rust. By the time Browning they realized that they had a problem there were already thousands of guns out there with salt wood on them. So someone would pull out their prized and (nearly new) Superposed out of the case to find it covered in rust. Sometime in the early 1970s Browning decided to cut their losses and and took all of the salt cured wood and put it in a huge pile and burned it up. For decades and possibly even today if the original owner sent a gun with salt wood back to Browning they would replace the wood and fix the rust damage or if it was not repairable replace the gun. By now most of the original owners who bought these guns in the late 60s and early 70s are long dead and the guns have changed hands multiple times and a lot of people in the market for a fine old Superposed today have never heard of Browning's salt wood disaster. So they go to a gun show and see a nice old Superposed with a little rust around where the stock meets the receiver and the forend touches the barrel and think "well it is a 50+ year old gun", but if you pull the stock off that baby the internal parts will often look like something brought up from the wreck of the Titanic.