999, it really depends on what you have planned with the shotgun. I own several browning shotguns and I'll give you my review of each.
1954 Belgium Browning A-5 Light ribbed 12 gauge. This is an awesome semi-auto shotgun for pheasants qual and chakkars. The only drawbacks are you can't shoot steel shot out of it and the stock is a touch to short. No mechanical problems
1988 Browning BPS 12 gauge presentation model. This is the browning pump shotgun with presentation wood. Very beautiful and swings very fast. The draw backs are it's too pretty to ding up in the duck blinds and for some reason it's the only bps that slaps my jaw while shooting it. No mechanical problems encountered.
1994 Browning Satin BPS 30" 12 gauge. This pump shotgun with 30 " barrel can reach out and touch somebody, very accurate but somewhat heavy. No mechanical problems what so ever.
2000 Browning Stalker BPS 3.5" 12 gauge. This is has the mossy oak shadow grass camo pattern laminated directly onto the gun, this way it won't rust or scratch. This is my goose and duck gun. This one is lighter than older 3.5" models due to the older models being built on the browning 10 gauge reciver. The newer models are on their own 12 gauge reciever so they are lighter and smaller. Recoil isn't much more than a normal 3" load but does shoot quite a bit differently than my other two BPS's. I do have a hard time seeing the copper sight bead due to the camo pattern but a hi-viz sight should fix that.
If I was you I'd look at the 12 gauge 3.5 stalker model if you plan on waterfowling. You can shoot cheap 2 3/4 shells through it or the expensinve 3.5" $2 a pop shells. With a 10 gauge you are limited to what is available and it's fairly expensive. A few of the guys I goose hunt with bought the new browning gold hunter semi-autos and have had nothing but problems. The gold hunters work great when it's warm out with various loads but as soon as it gets cold the guns refuse to cycle and the $800 guns become expensive single shots that you must remove the barrel to clear the jam. One of the gold hunters in question has been back to the browning warranty center twice with no luck in fixing it. Needless to say there are a lot of slightly used gold hunters in the shops around here and the guys are buying up the pump guns or going with a 3.5" 12 gauge double barrel. You can't beat browning quality, my next purchase is a browning superposed featherweight XS, awesome gun, I just need the $2400 to buy it!!
Let me know if you have any questions.
idaho-ar15