walking arsenal
Member
A number of years back I was given a Browning BPS stalker as a gift. It cam with a 26" barrel meant for hunting applications and for that purpose it has been the best shotgun I have ever owned.
When browning came out with their home defense model I wanted to get one so that I would have two guns, one for home defense and one for hunting, that had the same controls.
Sadly the BPS was out of my price range then, as it is now, so I settled for a mossberg 500 instead. I never had any regrets with my choice except that when I used my BPS for hunting I felt myself wishing that my 500 had the same smooth action and crisp trigger of the BPS.
Recently I acquired an older BPS barrel. Its previous owner had sold their BPS and didn't it anymore. They had bought a spare barrel for the gun in order to affix it with rifle sights for use with slugs. The barrel had a fixed choke which made the barrel hard for them to sell.
When asked if I wanted it I quickly said "Yes" and snapped it up. I knew what I wanted to use it for.
To modify the barrel I first mounted it on my hunting gun. I then took a dowel and with the action closed, dropped it down the barrel.
I marked it off at the top of the barrel and then measured 18.5" up from the bottom of the dowel/barrel. This put the point where I wanted to make the cut right in the middle of the mount that holds the rib to the barrel. I moved forward a bit so the cut would be at 18.75". Then I measured it again, then again, then once more just to be sure.
Then I took a hacksaw, worked up some courage, sawed the barrel in two, and then cleaned up the muzzle and rib with a file.
I touched up the sights a bit, added a shot shell cuff, and there we go! An 18.5" barreled BPS.
Not quite tactical thanks to the nifty scroll work on the action but it will do in a pinch I think.
What do you think?
