Browning 725 reviews

[DrBeau]

I've got a 30" B725 sporter, and it's a winner. I'm a lefty, and it's got a very big palm swell that personally I really like (although some other lefties I know are less keen on it). It feels a bit sharper than a B525, and swings pretty well for a gun that weighs 8lb. I've put thousands of cartridges through mine, and it shoots as regular as clockwork. The Inflex recoil pad takes a lot of the kick: I wear a Reactar pad and have no real felt recoil at all with 28g loads.

There are only two drawbacks that I can think of. The Grade 1 wood is a bit bland, and on my one it seems to scuffs a little bit easily (although maybe I just think that because it was my first gun, and so I spot every dent I've put onto it!); but the black edition definitely looks the business, and comes with the extended chokes (NB: the black version doesn't as yet come with an optional adjustable comb: if that's an issue for you, you may be as well to stick with the standard version). It's still prettier than a Beretta Silver Pigeon, but then it costs a chunk of change more. The schnabel forend is a matter of personal taste, as is the decoration.

On the subject of chokes, the internal DS chokes on the standard version feel a bit lighter to me than their apparent equivalents on other guns: for clays, I tend to set it with 1/2  and 3/4, where you might only usually think to go 1/4 and 1/2. Again, you might want to chalk this up as purely psychological on my part, but anecdotally I've seen a lot of them out on the stands (even the black models) fitted with aftermarket chokes (Teague and Muller being pretty common), regularly set up the same way.

Happy shooting. My 725 is a proper warhorse, and I absolutely love it: I'm sure you'll feel the same.

 

[Tom b]

Well after taking the plunge this week I have just had my first outing with my grade 5 725 32" sporter.

It is an absolutely lovely looking gun, never been massively taken by them before now, but in the flesh they are amazing for the money and look gorgeous.

So how's it gone? Well it shoots nothing like an mk38 or a 525. It weighs 8lb or just a fraction over, but feels effortless in the hands. The guns just seems to move and flow with minimal effort. The balance is about 10mm infront of the hinge pin. It really is a different experience to the mk's and 525's. The trigger is well worth a mention, I'm not a massive authority on triggers but it does feel to be amazing and an improvement over the inertia ones.

Overall, first impressions are outstanding!

Hi Johnny, how are things going with the 725? I'm seriously considering one.

 

[Jonny English]

Hi Johnny, how are things going with the 725? I'm seriously considering one.

Hi Tom, I was going to put a little review on as I have had it a few months now.

All I can say is awesome!

I have always been a little sceptical about the 725 as I have been a die hard Browning Miroku fan of the older design.  But I must say I have been more than impressed with the 725.  The comb of my gun is set at 35-50mm which is half way between sporter and trap gun which fits me superb.  Don't know why mine is like this and if all the other sporters are the same, but its just right.  The palm swell is also very good, it didn't get very good reviews from the journalists, but I have found it to fit very nice in the hand and have welcomed the palm swell.  The trigger is an improvement over the old one, the mechanical trigger is very crisp and releases very well.  The DS chokes are also very good, the gas seal seems to do the job well, they are nice and long and seem to throw good patterns.

The handling is where the gun really starts to excel, the 725 feels so much more alive in the hands.  It balances closer to the hinge pin and feels to move effortlessly.  The handling is vastly improved, I really liked the old 525 with the lighter barrels, but this feels worlds better.  The ribs are done slightly different to reduce weight in the barrels which is where the difference comes from.  The handling is better to a degree that I can now shoot clays earlier than before, I have improved 400% on loopers as the gun can move better to the varied line, I used to struggle to hit loopers at all, and overnight I have improved dramatically just on this one bird alone, purely because I can move the gun better.

I only ever fancied the grade 5 as I wasn't keen on the looks of the grade 1, or the black actioned S3 either really, but I have just been very impressed with the gun all round.  They are well worth a try!

 

[DrBeau]

I've had a 725 30" sporter since September 2014, and it's my absolute go-to for ESP. I'm a leftie, and have the left-handed version, with the palm swell: personally I like it, but I know some people who really aren't fans. All I'd say is that you should definitely try it before you buy, as it's noticeably unlike the 525 in the hand. I paid a few pounds extra for an adjustable comb; I didn't need a great deal of modification myself, but in the very unlikely event that I ever choose to part with it, I guess that feature won't hurt its resale value. My experience with it has been great. It's eminently pointable, and well balanced. Handling is top notch, trigger pulls are responsive, and the recoil is perfectly manageable thanks to the Inflex pad. Mine's had upwards of 8k cartridges through it (and on one occasion, over 500 in a single day) and it's never had any issues.
 
Were I buying it again now (which I absolutely would), I'd probably be more likely to pay the premium for the black edition: not just for the aesthetics (although the black version does look sharp, and has admittedly got better, G3 wood), but for the extended chokes included with it. The internal chokes are (in my opinion) the only slight downside on the 725: they don't feel to me to be very tight, and I've switched from 1/4 & 1/2 to 1/2 & 3/4 for ESP, although this could be purely psychological on my part: I know others who've switched out to Mullers, and report a better feeling of accuracy. It's not an especially interesting looking gun (and schnabel forends aren't anyone's favourite, as far as I can tell), but that's not really why I chose it.
 
All in all, I think it's a winner. I'm too fat for a Beretta (in my gun dealer's words!), and I although I love the looks of a Rizzini (mmm, acanthus scroll...), ultimately I want a gun to break clays, not to hang on the wall: so generally speaking it's a Miroku or a Browning for me. When I was looking for a clay gun, I went to the CLA, and asked each of the dealers on Gunmakers' Row in turn what they'd recommend, then wrote it down and went onto the next. At the end I had a list of 16 guns: 12 Brownings (11 of which were 725s) and 4 Mirokus.
 
I might give the Blaser F16 a look once it's out (assuming that they make one in a leftie version), but it would take a lot to make me trade my 725 in.