browning 440 irons

[super20dan]

out of curiousity-i bought a set and gamed them-to my suprize they are quite good! solid fleel -get the ball up quick-very straight and easy out of the rough. chipping is really easy with them as they allready resemble a chipper. distance was the same as other iron sets. i shot 35 at an executive 9 hole so they did the job well indeed. i might just keep them in play for a while

[Shallowface]

[quote name='super20dan' timestamp='1319845194' post='3733447']
out of curiousity-i bought a set and gamed them-to my suprize they are quite good! solid fleel -get the ball up quick-very straight and easy out of the rough. chipping is really easy with them as they allready resemble a chipper. distance was the same as other iron sets. i shot 35 at an executive 9 hole so they did the job well indeed. i might just keep them in play for a while
[/quote]

I'm sure it will come as no surprise given my nickname that I am a big fan of these irons and own a couple of sets.

Even though the 440s don't have a ton of offset, Browning also made a model called the Browning 500 that had no offset at all.

The original 440s were available from 1976-1984, and then a component version was available for at least 15 years after that. On the component version, the 440 on the back of the blade was in large gold numbers.

A lot of people claimed they didn't like these from rough, as it was easy to go under a ball that was a bit perched. I never had a problem with this.

The truth is, the reason hybrids are so popular and play well for a lot of people is that the faces are a lot shallower than the irons they replace. Also, IMO heavily offset long irons are more difficult to get airborne than irons without offset, not easier as some claim. Hybrids, even though many appear to have some offset, really for the most part just have a reduced degree of face progression compared to a similarly lofted fairway wood. IMO, the advent of deep faced, heavily offset long irons hastened their extinction. As many here have posted in the past, a blade style 2 iron like a Wilson Staff is much easier to hit than most so called game improvement models, and this has certainly been my experience as well.

Enjoy those 440s. They are a great club!

[Bella Woods]

"The truth is, the reason hybrids are so popular and play well for a lot of people is that the faces are a lot shallower than the irons they replace.  Also, IMO heavily offset long irons are more difficult to get airborne than irons without offset, not easier as some claim.  Hybrids, even though many appear to have some offset, really for the most part just have a reduced degree of face progression compared to a similarly lofted fairway wood. IMO, the advent of deep faced, heavily offset long irons hastened their extinction. As many here have posted in the past, a blade style 2 iron like a Wilson Staff is much easier to hit than most so called game improvement models, and this has certainly been my experience as well"

Shallowface - I totally agree with you - Center of Gravity is the difference IMHO.

[bermuda]

Browning 440s were one of the clubs I wanted when I worked in a pro shop as a teen in the early '80s. They just had such a different look they had to help your game, and the engineering behind the design sounded sensible.

[Shallowface]

[quote name='bermuda' timestamp='1320351713' post='3755785']
Browning 440s were one of the clubs I wanted when I worked in a pro shop as a teen in the early '80s. They just had such a different look they had to help your game, and the engineering behind the design sounded sensible.
[/quote]

I remember when they came out in the mid 1970s. The design was a result of high speed photography that proved that the ball does NOT roll up the clubface of an iron when struck. Therefore, a deep face wasn't needed.

In spite of studies such as those and literally hundreds of CBS Swingvision features in which there was not one single time that a ball rolled up the face of any iron, pitch or chip shot, it is amazing how the myth of the ball rolling up the face of the club lives on.

There's no question in my mind that, with the exception of the driver, shallow faces make for better golf clubs. They don't have to be quite as shallow as the Brownings, but it's certainly on the right track.

[teespoon]

We were cleaning up an old storage bin in back of our Clubs Maintenance shop, and I found a set of 440's, in good shape. Just need a cleaning. Will have to grip a few and try them out. I like the shallow fces as well.

teespoon

[MKSmith]

I played these when I was 15 and remember hitting the 5 iron 180 yards...that was hugh for a scrawney kid at that time. I don't know what happened to any of my old clubs, product of a divorce and moving between parents. Someone post a picture, it's been awhile since I have seen one...30 years to be exact