Winterime blues

Hi guys

I have a Browning Ultra gun with fixed ¾ and 1/1 chokes, no barrel selector – purebred trap gun. It has an adjustable stock (I am left handed - this feature helps) and a very broad trap forearm. I have fitted it with Isis green pad (great stuff). Here I am mostly using it for Compak and Parcour shooting with an odd trap round (FITASC game trench) here.

Bugger - in October I have visited a friend of mine that owns a gun shop and there was a brand new Miroku Mk 70 grade 1 sporter sitting there. Gun was suppose to be made for Austrian market hence it sports some fancy wood and 6 Inv+ flush chokes (Cyl, ¼, ½, ¾, 1/1 and 1/1 for steel shot) that come along.

 I have shouldered it and damn thing just slipped where my Browning does – same sight picture, same balance…home run. 

Buying Miroku would be one thing, but I am truly “one-gun” type and I wouldn’t stand a thought of having 2 guns in my closet.  So I am facing a dilemma of buying Miroku and selling my Browning, or forgetting Miroku and altering Browning (opening chokes to ½ and ½, slimming down the forend…).

I own Browning for 3 years and gun has really grown up on me, however the feeling I got when shouldering that Miroku isn’t going away and just a thought of having a gun with exchangeable chokes is nice.

Price wise altering Browning would be less costly than selling it and buying Miroku.

So what should I do? Any thought is appreciated. 
 

Buy the Miroku and shoot it until you know it is "right"...then sell the Browning.

There is no right answer! If you shoot your present gun really well, then probably leave it alone. But I know what "new-gun that I think suits me more" syndrome is, as I have just spent the last three months going through it. I have made the process longer than it might have been by making numerous changes to the gun (thus making it a new gun, over and over again).

Any new gun will probably send your scores lower for a while. The feel in the shop is never a great measure of how it will feel on clays. Even if the fit is similar, the subtleties of balance (and moments of inertia) will make it react to your muscle input differently and only a few thousand shells through it will really tell you if it was a better solution in the end.

My experience recently has reminded me that the most important feature of any gun is simply your familiarity with it.

There should be quite a different feel to the two guns you mention, can't really understand why the MK70 gives you the same sight picture !! It all depends on how well you shoot the Browning although the chokes can only really be a hinderance so one way out is to have it multi choked; can't really see the sense in having the fore end slimmed because if you're that keen on altering things then just changing guns is the better route. 

You could try and find someone with a similar gun who'd let you have a round or two and see how it goes but all told I'd go for one or the other.

Thank you guys.

Hamster I am sorry - I should be more precise - MK 70 does appear to be flatter shooting (mid bead covers front bead slightly (1/5), while at Browning front sight sits right on the top of the middle bead when adjustable stock is way down (I might crawl the stock slightly tho?). Other than that they are identical - I guess there must be slimmer and straighter stock on MK70 (I must compensate B adjustable stock to the left to give me proper sight alignment).

I know I don't shoot that good to make a better score with new gun and  Will you got that syndrome thing right - if we were in the middle of the season it wouldn't cross my mind anyway.