A Belgian Blooding
 

Wanted to give a quick thank you to Kenny SXS Ohio for hooking me up with this sweetheart of a 20 bore from Belgium.. Beautiful and original as she is and born in 1959, I decided to slip her into a breakdown case and let her tag along for a dance with the King of the uplands near Stratton Maine. Smooth as Crown on the swing, this little one has now earned her place (along with a few others) "Till Death shall we ever part".... Thanks again Kenny...

Hard to beat a 50s era 20 gauge Superposed. I have owned several myself. Thanks for posting!

The first quality shotgun I ever bought myself. Scrimped and saved and ordered what I wanted - 26.5" IC & MOD Grade 1 20 gauge. Cost me $375 in November of 1967. Took delivery in April 1968 after the DC riots about MLK's assassination and scored my first ever double on ringnecked roosters with it on my 25th birthday in November of 1968. Have shot and loved Brownings ever since!

I have a covey of prewar and early postwar 12 gauge Superposed traps and skeets. However, I must admit that the twenties are my favorites. One, a 1950 gun, #605, and an early fifties A-1 FN straight grip, both new, the A-1 still in the box.

When I was 19, my dad and I went to Corrys Sporting goods in downtown Minneapolis to buy a SXS. They had nothing so I bought a Belgium Browning Lightning 20ga. Shot it for years on ducks and pheasants. My hunting buddy called it the "Meat Gun". When they made steel shot mandatory for waterfowl I sold it and bought a Winchester 21. Shot steel ing the right barrel and bismuth in the left.

There are lots of gun families that I know little about. Superposed are in that group. A friend of mine got a 12 gauge Superosed which had a "D3" designation. Seemed lighter than other Superposed. It was alleged that it was a gun built for the European market. Anyone ever seen a D3?

Have seen and handled the D series, a distinctly Belgian FN designation, in the varying ascending grades (e.g., D3, D4. D5). Usually mostly elaborate scrollwork but they would do whatever you wanted so far as engraving motif in the late 1960s/early '70s, which turned out to be the twilight era of the multiple talented factory engravers like Watrin, Delcour, Vandermissen, Delahout, the Marechal family, and the incomparable lady master engravers, Lily Cortis and Marie Louise Magis.

The extra ornamentation and features combined with more elaborate engraving in the higher grades (G designation) are spectacular. For years I owned and exhibited a stunning Pre-WWII 12 ga. Funken engraved D5G rounded shoulder receiver with full game scenes with dogs, birds, trees, etc. It was a field gun with 30 inch stepped rib barrels and straight grip stock. I bought it from Steve Barnett and after 10 or 12 years sold it back to him. When I opened the case to show him what I wanted to sell, he said, "Well, I'm delighted to see this back again, it's already sold!!!"

The graceful 3-piece forends and custom shaped stocks of the D5G and similar Custom Shop series put me into a swoon whenever I handle them. Their simplistic elegance is captivating, and you can still order one from the FN Custom Shop today; basic prices begin around c. $35K.