Guns & Ammo declares the Citori 725 Trap Max “…competitive right out of the box.”
Guns & Ammo declares the Citori 725 Trap Max “…competitive right out of the box.”
Browning shotguns have a long history of excellence in the clay target sports, earning countless competition titles and awards around the world. John M. Browning was an avid target shooter himself and, along with his brother Matthew, G.L. Becker and A.P. Bigelow, formed The Four B’s — a formidable target shooting team.
Back in the days when The Four B’s were wreaking havoc on the competition scene, a shotgun was a shotgun. A Winchester Model 1887 lever-action would be used to shoot rabbits one weekend, waterfowl the next and win a tournament at the local gun club the week after that. Of course, times and technology change, and shotguns have evolved into specialized tools with features to optimize a shooters performance. A perfect example is the Browning Citori 725 Trap Max, a purpose-built shotgun made for discriminating shooters that want to maximize their potential and be in fine style while doing it. Robert W. Hunnicutt of Guns & Ammo magazine evaluated the Citori 725 Trap Max and put it to the test.
“Browning's new Citori 725 Trap Max is a purpose-built competition gun with all the adjustments needed to be competitive right out of the box. With well-figured walnut and polished steel, it looks great, too.”
After beginning the article with some history of the legendary Browning Citori, Hunnicutt starts right in on the features of the Trap Max. “The trigger assembly is Browning’s FireLite design, and it’s mechanical, in place of the original Citori (and Superposed) inertia trigger.” He continues, “Inertia triggers work perfectly well barring an ammo-related misfire, but a dud round in competition can cost a target. So, competition guns, and even a lot of hunting shotguns, tend to have mechanical triggers today, which reset automatically.”
“…today’s trap shooter wants very precise control of his sight picture.”
The Citori 725 Trap max includes a number of features that allow the shooter to customize it to fit their needs. Hunnicutt explains, “Keeping in mind that the eye is the rear sight of a shotgun, the gun has a comb that’s adjustable both for height and lateral position. This lets you regulate how much rib you see and lets you make sure you’re looking straight down the rib.” He continues, “The Gracoil buttplate assembly has Pachmayr’s thick and solid back rubber pad mounted on a recoil-reducing assembly that allows the butt to collapse about 3/8 inches against spring tension to soften the kick.”
“A straight buttstock and an adjustable comb where all the adjustment is up requires a tall rib to match, and the Trap Max has it.”
On the rib, Hunnicutt remarks, “Made of aluminum with a cross- hatched top surface, it looks like a railroad bridge.” He also found making adjustments to be easy. “Turning the knurled thumbwheel moves the rib up or down in very subtle increments.”
“What is grandly termed Total Barrel Dynamics comprises three different design and manufacturing processes.”
Hunnicutt discusses the porting and barrel technology on the Trap Max at length, beginning with the forcing cones. “Vector Pro is a very gradual forcing cone configuration that makes for a smooth transition between the chamber and the barrel. Relatively abrupt forcing cones were needed for paper wads that didn’t expand to contact the bore on firing. Plastic wads have been close to universal since the 1970s, so there’s no reason for a sharp forcing cone. When I was a youngster, it was quite common for gunsmiths to use big old reamers to ream out the original forcing cone. That business, I suspect, is pretty well gone.”
He continues by detailing the advantages of the correct bore diameter. “Back- boring meant increasing bore diameter, with the goal being reduced recoil and better patterns. The process is well-accepted today by everyone except Italian manufacturers. My gauge showed the Trap Max’s bore diameter measured .738 inches.”
Not even the innovative interchangeable choke tube system is overlooked with the author commenting, “The Invector- DS choke tubes used in the Trap Max are almost 4 inches long and feature a conical-parallel interior configuration that incorporates a cylindrical section at the muzzle end that helps stabilize the wad as it passes out of the gun. The “DS” in the name is for “double seal,” in this case by a brass band at the rear of the tube that helps keep carbon fouling from reaching the tube threads.”
You can read Robert W. Hunnicutt’s article in its entirety here.
Learn more about the Citori 725 Trap Max here.
Original article copyright Guns and Ammo 2021. Photos taken by Michael Anschuetz are copyright Guns and Ammo, Browning and/or used with attribution or permission or are in the public domain. Copyright Browning 2021.