browning citori 12 ga invector

Not sure what the purpose of the extra trigger is/was. I do not have one. Neither do I see any reason why the Invector+ should be superior to the plain Invector tubes. Pricewise, I don't believe I would even consider selling my Superlight for any less than $1500. And the only reason I would sell it is because I will probably never use it again at my age. Not enough stamina to do anything strenuous like hunting.
 
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DWalt said:
Neither do I see any reason why the Invector+ should be superior to the plain Invector tubes.
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The invector choke system is a shorter choke with a standard barrel. The Invector Plus is a long choke with a back bored barrel. The Invector Plus system usually gives better patterns so is in more demand than the older invector guns.
 
diyj98 said:
The invector choke system is a shorter choke with a standard barrel. The Invector Plus is a long choke with a back bored barrel. The Invector Plus system usually gives better patterns so is in more demand than the older invector guns.
Click to expand...
There are certainly opinions to the contrary as to whether back boring actually lives up to the claims made about it. I cannot say one way or the other as I have not performed any controlled comparative patterning tests. About all I can say is that back when I was shooting a lot of Skeet over 25 years ago, the Citori with IC Invector tubes did a pretty good job of breaking birds.
 
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In 1977 I was torn between buying a Citori and an engagement ring. The ring won out. For the first few decades "wow, I could have bought a Browning" slipped out on occasion.
 
Be aware that a 40 year old Citori is likely to have 24 or 26 inch barrels and this will have a real negative effect on value. At that time the typical Skeet gun came with 26 inch barrels because people thought that a super responsive short barreled gun was mandatory for shooting Skeet. Then Beretta introduced and proceeded to dominate Olympic Skeet with shooter using 28 and 30 inch barrels. Over time barrel length preferences got longer and shoppers today primarily are looking for 28 inch and longer barrels and won't even consider anything shorter. As for why, it's all about Stability and the longer the barrel the more stable they are. I have a 20 gauge that originally had 28 inch barrels and my average with those barrels was a lousy 16. Eventually I got fed up with that and ordered a 30 inch barrel set for it and it increased my average by 6 points.

You will also want to determine the date of manufacture for your gun because late 60's to early 70's is when the Salt Guns were being made. If yuo do a bit of digging on the Browning web site you can find a serial number/Date code chart to get very close on the manufacturing date. Note, these were salt cured stocks in an effort to avoid dry aging the wood for 5 or 6 years. Salt curing did cut the curing time but those salty stocks caused the receivers and barrels to rust badly. One quick way to get an idea if you have a Salt Gun is the pull the stock and look for rusting in areas when the stock contacts the receiver. A more certain test is to have the stock and forearm tested for salt content. If you have a salt gun you'll need to replace the stock and forearm wood before selling it or sell it without any wood. Note there is no "cure" for a salt stock, smiths who are presented with salt gun for re-stocking will either burn or crush the salt wood no matter how pretty it is.
 
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I have a 20ga 26" Invector. I love the bbl selection on the tang safety. Light and fast for upland such as AZ Quail. I think they retailed for around 1600$ 20 yrs ago.
 
scooter123 said:
Be aware that a 40 year old Citori is likely to have 24 or 26 inch barrels and this will have a real negative effect on value. At that time the typical Skeet gun came with 26 inch barrels because people thought that a super responsive short barreled gun was mandatory for shooting Skeet. Then Beretta introduced and proceeded to dominate Olympic Skeet with shooter using 28 and 30 inch barrels. Over time barrel length preferences got longer and shoppers today primarily are looking for 28 inch and longer barrels and won't even consider anything shorter. As for why, it's all about Stability and the longer the barrel the more stable they are. I have a 20 gauge that originally had 28 inch barrels and my average with those barrels was a lousy 16. Eventually I got fed up with that and ordered a 30 inch barrel set for it and it increased my average by 6 points.

You will also want to determine the date of manufacture for your gun because late 60's to early 70's is when the Salt Guns were being made. If yuo do a bit of digging on the Browning web site you can find a serial number/Date code chart to get very close on the manufacturing date. Note, these were salt cured stocks in an effort to avoid dry aging the wood for 5 or 6 years. Salt curing did cut the curing time but those salty stocks caused the receivers and barrels to rust badly. One quick way to get an idea if you have a Salt Gun is the pull the stock and look for rusting in areas when the stock contacts the receiver. A more certain test is to have the stock and forearm tested for salt content. If you have a salt gun you'll need to replace the stock and forearm wood before selling it or sell it without any wood. Note there is no "cure" for a salt stock, smiths who are presented with salt gun for re-stocking will either burn or crush the salt wood no matter how pretty it is.
Click to expand...
The Salt Wood issue was with Belgium made Superposeds not the Citoris. I do not know if Browning is still replacing salt wood stocked Superposeds but that was the norm for those guns. Send them back to Browning and let them do it on their nickle.
 
I miss my early Citori 12ga w/26" barrel and Skeet1 and
Skeet 2 fixed chokes.
A great skeet and upland bird hunting shotgun.
I regret 25 years later selling it.
 
DWalt said:
There are certainly opinions to the contrary as to whether back boring actually lives up to the claims made about it. I cannot say one way or the other as I have not performed any controlled comparative patterning tests. About all I can say is that back when I was shooting a lot of Skeet over 25 years ago, the Citori with IC Invector tubes did a pretty good job of breaking birds.
Click to expand...

I haven't done any scientific testing either, but at our family range the back bored guns have generally seemed to pattern better than standard barrel guns over the years. So much so that they've now had to ban any non factory barrel work in the card shooting match due to complaints from participants. I doubt it makes much difference on busting clays, but on paper it usually shows. The back bored and over bored guns seem to generally perform the best in the NWTF shoots as well.

I have an older Invector gun that does the job hunting, but if the option was given on new guns, I'd go for the Invector Plus everytime.
 
scooter123 said:
Be aware that a 40 year old Citori is likely to have 24 or 26 inch barrels and this will have a real negative effect on value. At that time the typical Skeet gun came with 26 inch barrels because people thought that a super responsive short barreled gun was mandatory for shooting Skeet. Then Beretta introduced and proceeded to dominate Olympic Skeet with shooter using 28 and 30 inch barrels. Over time barrel length preferences got longer and shoppers today primarily are looking for 28 inch and longer barrels and won't even consider anything shorter. As for why, it's all about Stability and the longer the barrel the more stable they are. I have a 20 gauge that originally had 28 inch barrels and my average with those barrels was a lousy 16. Eventually I got fed up with that and ordered a 30 inch barrel set for it and it increased my average by 6 points.

You will also want to determine the date of manufacture for your gun because late 60's to early 70's is when the Salt Guns were being made. If yuo do a bit of digging on the Browning web site you can find a serial number/Date code chart to get very close on the manufacturing date. Note, these were salt cured stocks in an effort to avoid dry aging the wood for 5 or 6 years. Salt curing did cut the curing time but those salty stocks caused the receivers and barrels to rust badly. One quick way to get an idea if you have a Salt Gun is the pull the stock and look for rusting in areas when the stock contacts the receiver. A more certain test is to have the stock and forearm tested for salt content. If you have a salt gun you'll need to replace the stock and forearm wood before selling it or sell it without any wood. Note there is no "cure" for a salt stock, smiths who are presented with salt gun for re-stocking will either burn or crush the salt wood no matter how pretty it is.
Click to expand...
Which sort of confirms what I earlier said about short barrels. Not based on personal experience, but I have read many stories that a shotgun having short barrels is treated today as though it has a combination of leprosy and Covid by serious shooters. Which I think is idiotic. But no one cares much about what I think.
 
Cant help but love a Citori as it was my father's choice as his only hunting gun. I have fond memories as a youngster thumping across the bay on a frosty morn with his Citori awash in a combination of salt spray and bilge water. We knew nothing of the effects of steel shot on fine double guns and that Citori has digested cases of the stuff with no apparent ill affects. It rests today in my cabinet, still tight and ready for a day afield; it is my go to turkey gun. I suppose it may not be a target shooters dream, but you could definitely get by with it on the trap range in a pinch. I know Dad did!
 
Just wanted to clear up some misinformation:

The Citori did not come with an extra trigger, maybe someone is thinking about Perazzis.

The Citoris are made by Miroku in Japan, the Superposed was made by FN in Belgium. They are completely different guns.

The Citori came with Invector chokes from about 1988 to 1995. Before 1988 they had fixed chokes and after 1995 they have Invector Plus chokes.

The Citori Model numbers started in 1993 with the Model 325. Before that there was the Standard or Hunting Model, Lightning, Upland Special, Superlight, Sporter, Skeet,Trap, and several other models. Some of them came in different Grades I, II, III, IV, V, VI. If I remember correctly, the Model numbers took some years to catch on.

In the Invector era, Beretta and Browning were the two "go to" O/Us if you were looking to buy a working man's gun that would shoot well and hold it's value. There were other good guns but these were the standards. Brownings tended to be heavier and the Berettas were lighter.

If you wanted a Citori but money was tight, you would look for a used Miruko made Charles Daly from the 70's. It was similar to the Citori (one difference was they used flat springs instead of coil) and tended to have nicer hand engraving.
 
I have heard about the "extra trigger" the Citori allegedly had. Mine never had one, and I never understood why a shotgun would need an extra trigger. I guess it didn't.

The only other O/U I ever owned was an Antonio Zoli with fixed chokes, which I used for a while for Trap. It didn't fit me too well and was very stiff to open and close. I didn't keep it too long. I mostly used a Winchester 1200 for Trap, I still have it.
 
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I have;

425 30" 12
425 28" 20
Upland 26" 20
Upland 26" 28 grade VI
Feather XS 30" 28
Feather XS 30" 410
725 32" 410
As well as 1966 Superpose Lightning 30" 12 (F&F)
1967 Superpose Lightning 28" 20 (M&F)

Of all the 12-gauge Browning O/U shotguns I owned (8 to 10), The 1966 Superpose 30" Lightning is the "Liveliest"! Even though it is fixed F/F, I use it for Sporting Clays with shells that spread, and It has taken shots that nobody else hit that day!

About 8 years ago I was at Richland County Fish and Game, they were having one of their few Sporting Clays shoots. The first station was 3 true pair, from behind you and 4 or 5 yards right. I shot 2 rounds that day and was the only shooter to break all 12 birds! (An older friend got 11 using a old 26" skeet Citori 12 gauge) I was using a 30" Feather XS 410 and AA 410 sporting 8's. Lots of people say that 30" is too long for close birds and aluminum actions are too "Whippy", But I now days do better with a 410 than a 12!

9 O/U's
4 SxS's
5 Pumps &
2 Autos

Not planning on selling any of them yet!

Ivan
 
Years ago when Sporting Clays was starting to get popular, the highest score on one day went to a grizzled Sheriff deputy shooting a cylinder bore 18" barrel 870. Guess he didn't read the memo on longer barrels and using only over unders. :D
 
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