Browning Gold Question

[valkyrie.rider]

I have a used Browning Gold Fusion that was used one year for sporting clays prior to my ownership. Don't know how many rounds have been through it. The wood, barrel and receiver are in excellent condition. I am not very familiar with the gas operating system. The piston appears worn. Almost appears to be burned. The gun shoots flawlessly.

Can anyone tell me how to tell if the gas operating system is near the end of its life and maybe needs to be replaced? Also, how expensive that would be? Thanks.

 

[HSMITH]

Howdy. Replace that piston at 250K rounds or else the gun won't work right.

Seriously, these things last virtually forever. The 'burned' look is completely normal, and impossible to clean off. I just hose mine out with some Gun Scrubber or plastic safe contact cleaner. Get the big particles out, wipe it off and call it good.

A HARD season of sporting would be 40K rounds, and that would take time and money only the wealthy or a professional could devote. Your gun is good to go for many many years of hard shooting.

When your gas system is on it's last legs one of two things will start to happen: 1 it will start short cycling and jamming or 2 it will start to cycle harder making felt recoil much harder and battering the nylon buffer/stop block in the back of the reciever. Both of these can also be caused by the piston being dirty, and often unless the gun has just had the wheels shot off it for years on end a good cleaning will fix the problems.

 

[sm]

H- nailed it...

...granted I just brushed the big chunks out and light film of ATF...maybe...If I thought about it. Clean and shiny Piston means you ain't shooting enough...umm Clean and shiny gun means you ain't shooting enough...

Steve -

whom helped to continue to shoot one without cleaning...it stopped after 6 months, dribbled some ATF and continued on shooting. We didn't clean for ~ 14 months, and that was because we left it out in the rain...owner cleaned it, all I wanted to do was add soap and let the rain rinse it...his gun...

As long as we dribbled ATF on it - it ran...

 

[valkyrie.rider]

Thanks very much. Sounds like I have nothing to worry about.