Browning BPS

About the Browning BPS

The Browning BPS (Browning Pump Shotgun) is a pump-action shotgun introduced in 1977 and manufactured by Miroku in Japan for the Browning Arms Company. Its design traces directly back to John M. Browning's bottom-ejection pump shotgun patents, which also gave rise to the Remington Model 17 and the Ithaca Model 37. The BPS is distinguished by its bottom-loading and bottom-ejection system, which ejects spent shells downward through the underside of the receiver rather than to the side, making it a truly ambidextrous shotgun equally suited for right- and left-handed shooters. It features a top-tang thumb safety, dual forged steel action bars for smooth and reliable cycling, and a receiver machined from a solid block of forged steel. The BPS was offered in every standard shotgun gauge -- 10, 12, 16, 20, 28, and .410 bore -- making it one of the most versatile pump shotgun platforms ever produced. The 12 and 20 gauge models feature Browning's Invector-Plus interchangeable choke system with back-bored barrels for optimized shot patterns, while the 10, 28, and .410 bore models use Standard Invector chokes. Notably, the BPS was the only 10-gauge pump-action shotgun ever manufactured. After 47 years of continuous production, the BPS was discontinued in 2024.

The BPS was the first pump-action shotgun ever marketed under the Browning name, despite John M. Browning having invented the pump-action shotgun concept over 80 years earlier. His original bottom-ejection designs went to competitors -- the Winchester Model 1893 and Remington Model 17 -- before Browning Arms Company finally built their own pump gun using his Model 10 blueprints. The BPS was also the only 10-gauge pump-action shotgun ever produced.

Browning BPS specifications

The BPS includes a magazine cutoff feature consisting of a rotating ring at the rear of the magazine tube, allowing the shooter to switch between 'R' (repeating) and 'S' (single) modes. In single mode, the bolt can be cycled to eject a chambered round without feeding the next shell from the magazine, allowing the shooter to swap ammunition types on demand. The 3.5-inch chambered 12-gauge models were built on the larger 10-gauge receiver frame, which contributed to their heavier weight but improved recoil management with heavy magnum loads. The French Gendarmerie Nationale adopted a tactical variant designated BPS-SGF (Special Gendarmerie Francaise) in 1994 for law enforcement operations. The BPS was manufactured exclusively by B.C. Miroku in Kochi, Japan throughout its entire production run.