birdbustin

What is everyone's opinion about the browning 3 ½'' gold hunter. Thinking about buying one for my father. I know nothing about them.

Are they worth the money?

How are they as a waterfowl gun?

Do they have a lot of problems?

bigcountry

I got one as a slug gun. I love it. Love it so much, I have been using it in rifle counties too for the past 2 years. I have been trying to figure out your question too. Alot of people on here are SBE nuts. I don't know anyone that has these either. Guess I hang around a poor bunch of duck hunters. I know a few people that shoot 3" golds just fine since they came out. Never a jam in 20degree weather on the MD bay in salty water. But one guy on here doesn't like the 3.5". He said he had one of the earlier ones. He said it jammed on him while waterfowling but worked fine for upland game. If I was going to 3.5", I would go ahead to 10ga. For geese anyway.

m.t.hands

i sold mine, have had a belgium auto 5 3"mag 30" barrel for many years and the gun is indestructable but i needed to put it up, figured the gold would be a good item, was not happy sold it and got a benelli, i love the benelli and the guy i sold the gold to loves it, go figure. for the most part i think there are a good gun and so do alot of others and like bigcountry mentioned mine was one of the early ones.

best of luck

michigandrake

I like my Gold and use 3.5 and 3" mag waterfoul loads on a regular basis. Gun feeds and shoots very well and I have yet to have jamb. Using 3.5" shells mostly for geese as they are a bit expensive and I can't really say they make that much difference over the 3" shells.

Worc

I can't think of a better gun for waterfowl than the Gold 3 1/2". The very first Gold 3 1/2" models had some problems mostly due to the receiver. It's been long resolved. If you're buying used get the manufacture date. If you're buying new everything's fine plus you can get the the Dura-Touch coating. I've had my 3 1/2" Gold for over four years/several thousand rounds with out one jam. It cycles everything i have stuffed in the chamber thus far. It's primary use is for waterfowl here in Michigan. It gets some hard use in some very cold temps. In my group of buddies there are three Golds total. Not one has had a single malfuction. The oldest one about eight years old now. There are also 15 or so other models of semi auto's owned by this group. None have matched the Gold's in reliability over a extended period of time. If you look hard enough, any model will turn up a dud now an then. The Gold's just seem to have less of them. The Gold 3 1/2" model has more features than any other in it's class. They are worth every penny.

aimatdeer

i love my gold hunter. shoots and ejects all loads from my light reloads for trap to heavy turkey loads. also does well on birds and at the turkey shoots with a browning turkey choke. has NEVER bit a shell or jammed.

m.t.hands

glad to hear this, always been a browning fan, yes mine was one of the early gold's, made several trips to the gunsmith, but like i said the guy i sold it to loves it, and i would never part with my auto 5, and by the way my wife surprized me with the benelli, she got all the info from a good friend and went and got it, so far no problems. one other thing that i like about both my a5 and the benelli is mech operation, the gas operated guns i have owned, two other brands have given me trouble. also owned a rem 742, i just didn't know any better. so now everthing i've got is a bolt, pump, mech autos, or single shots, seem like a lot less trouble that way.

WisHunt

Browning Gold is a great gun! I know three guys that just can't do without them. Each guy has put two - three seasons on them and no complaints.

The other is the Benelli that get's rave reviews. Have not heard good/bad about the Beretta 3.5 yet (extreema?)

I only go duck/goose hunting 3-4 times per year so I picked up a EAA semiauto for $300 !! shoots 2 3/4 -- 3 1/2s works great with factory ammo, not with reloads. Quality is iffy but for $300 what did I expect.

Shot a 26lb gobbler this spring with it at 45 yards. Never had a single problem except for the reloads (which is more than likely my fault)