Val Browning's Double Auto

[Bobby Cash]

Anyone?

I shot a very nicely balanced "Twelvette" this past weekend and it felt like a 6 pound Superposed.
The Net says these guns really don't do well with reloaded ammo.
I loaded Federal Paper hulls, 1 oz, 18gr Clays, 5800 psi, 1180 fps. The auto shot them flawlessly. Pillow soft too.

https://i.imgur.com/uGVDNbX.jpg

I've been told that some "Doubles" events will allow this gun because it only holds two shells.

[John Davis]

I'm betting it would make a great Doubles Trap gun.

[Mark Garrett]

I HAD ONE AND FOOLISHLY LET MY FREIND TALK ME OUT OF IT.

[James L. Martin]

I had a twentyweight 26" I/C vent rib, nice gun I just couldn't get used to the safety.

[Gary Laudermilch]

I shot one at International Skeet many years ago and liked it a bunch. Just curious what wad you are using in the Fed. paper load?

[Bobby Cash]

I shot one at International Skeet many years ago and liked it a bunch. Just curious what wad you are using in the Fed. paper load?
ClayBuster Windjammers.
Fed Paper Hulls are straight sided, a tapered wad will produce "Poofers". Great crimps too!


https://i.imgur.com/SQL5G4S.jpg. https://i.imgur.com/4BSvuRz.jpg


And don't even get me started on the fragrance :nono:

[Pete Lester]

I picked up a Double Auto in 2018, like yours it is an aluminum frame "Twelvette" finished in Dragon Black, the most common color. I believe mine is a Trap model as it came with a 30" full barrel and the stock dimensions are 1 3/8" x 1 5/8" x 14 1/4". It was made in 1963. A previous owner had the barrel threaded for Colonial Thin Wall choke tubes and it came with a Skeet tube. I picked up a modified tube that shoots 68% at 40 yards for crow shooting.

My gun is not as dependable cycling as a Remington 1100. In cold weather, below freezing, it acts gummy and at times the bolt drags slowly as the gun tries to go back into battery. I have solved this problem a couple of times by spraying some WD-40 into the action spring(s) tube in the stock, then it cycles very smoothly. In warm weather it cycles reliably and with 7/8 ounce reloads. With one ounce crow loads, 1150 fps #6, it is surprisingly soft, as you say soft as a pillow especially for such a light gun. The mechanism in the rear of the stock looks a bit complicated; inner action spring, outer action spring, inertia block, inertia block core, inertia block spring. I am sure my reliability would improve with a full tear down, cleaning and lube.

Mine weighs 7 pounds even, very well balanced and points nicely for me, I like the thin forend and the lack of weight out front that the 1100 has. The aluminum frame guns, "Twelvette's" and "TwentyWeights" came in several colors, if you see a red or blue one at a good price grab it as those two colors are scarce and collectible. Many of them had no rib but they also came with a vent rib and channel rib barrels, vent rib is the least common.

Overall I really like it and surprisingly it is my best hit to miss ratio gun on crows in spite of the super straight stock.

Advertised as "Tomorrow's Gun Today" it was a poor seller and only 70,000+ were produced, production ended in '72. I bought the gun at the Kittery Trading Post and when I was looking at it two clerks were helping me, neither one of them knew how to close the action or remove the barrel. Thankfully I had watched a Youtube video and remembered how to do it.

[charlie cleveland]

I ve seen a few of these guns over the years but not many..i believe stevens made a gun similar to this gun it had the tenite stock on it it was very lite...some people claimed it kicked to much....charlie

[Pete Lester]

I ve seen a few of these guns over the years but not many..i believe stevens made a gun similar to this gun it had the tenite stock on it it was very lite...some people claimed it kicked to much....charlie

Charlie I believe you are thinking of the Armalite AR-17, a similar design. This is a good write up on it. Says it was a hard kicker, a 5 1/2 pound 12ga would be.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=347730

[Stephen Hodges]

It is actually not an "aluminum" receiver, but a receiver made of " horridum".

[Mike McKinney]

When I was 9-10, I went to a neighbors house with Daddy. Daddy and the neighbor had grown up together, and both were in the war. I really don’t remember whether Daddy ask to see the gun, or he asked if I could see the gun, which was very mint, a gift from his parents, but at any rate, I thought then it was the prettiest gun I had ever seen, I still think they are beautiful.

[Pete Lester]

It is actually not an "aluminum" receiver, but a receiver made of " horridum".

I suspect that was a made up trade name to make the gun sound more exotic. Even Google cant find it lol.

[Stephen Hodges]

I know how you hate to be wrong Peter, but all i can report is what Browning called the material used in this receiver. LOL

[Pete Lester]

I know how you hate to be wrong Peter, but all i can report is what Browning called the material used in this receiver. LOL

That is exactly what I said, that it sounds like a made up trade name as part of a marketing effort rather than an actual metallurgic composition. It has nothing to do with my need to be correct, I can't find a metal by that name actually exists and what it's composition might be, I did some searching after you mentioned it. Have you found anything else about a metal by that name? Perhaps there are different types of aluminum composites. Please enlighten me if you can find something more.

[Stephen Hodges]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiduminium

[Pete Lester]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiduminium

So it is a real aluminum alloy, it was just spelled wrong which explains why I could not find anything about it. Using it to build the receiver of the Double Auto was how they cut the weight down on the Twelvette, I have wondered what they did to decrease the weight further for a Twentyweight, where did they find the extra weight savings, my barrel walls are pretty thin in a Twelvette, can't imagine they could make them thinner, it would be interesting to know how it was done.

[John Dallas]

I have a Remington M31 lightweight 20 gauge The receiver is some sort of alloy. Anyone have a guess on its name/composition? I don't.

[Stephen Hodges]

So it is a real aluminum alloy, it was just spelled wrong which explains why I could not find anything about it. Using it to build the receiver of the Double Auto was how they cut the weight down on the Twelvette, I have wondered what they did to decrease the weight further for a Twentyweight, where did they find the extra weight savings, my barrel walls are pretty thin in a Twelvette, can't imagine they could make them thinner, it would be interesting to know how it was done.

Pete, I have a really nice Browning Book which gave me the correct spelling. They are cool guns. I have owned a few in the past but parted with them. May have to look for another.

[Pete Lester]

They are very unique and very cool guns, I have found mine to be very nice to carry for a 12ga and one of the most natural guns to point of any I have owned, however they can be fussy. I looked at and picked up a steel receiver version at KTP and for me there was no comparison to the aluminum alloy guns. It felt heavy/bulky, not lively in hand at all. It did have the channel rib though and I thought that was kind of neat. Overall it seems more than any other feature the color of the receiver drives the price followed by a VR barrel.

[Stephen Hodges]

Color does drive the prices. Though my book says that the solid rib barrels are quite rare as they were all special order items

[Bobby Cash]

I found and grabbed a 1966 Twentyweight in Dragon Black.
The Modified choke had been opened to .007 constriction. Tight Skeet. Perfect.
All else seems factory original and in a very high state of preservation.


https://i.imgur.com/FytYGYy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KgfDghP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qdpcj9j.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xIfrDip.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9FK5a0v.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G4y8SP7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lKVdTRA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tvXzcv2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/y53e1Ah.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/X1oLZNX.jpg

[Dave Noreen]

I have a Remington M31 lightweight 20 gauge The receiver is some sort of alloy. Anyone have a guess on its name/composition? I don't.

Remington called the material the Model 31L receivers were made of Aeromet.

Remington Arms Co., Inc. put out a folder dated 1941 that introduces the new 1941 style Improved Model 31 and the new Model 31L with the Aeromet receiver.

89674

By the June 10, 1941 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog they say the Model 31Ls are indefinitely delayed due to raw material shortages.

89675

No mention of the Model 31L in the 1942 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog.

Likewise not mentioned in the 1946 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog. The Model 31L makes its return in the 1947 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog in all three gauges.

I have seen a few with their receivers marked Model 31L, but most are just marked Model 31 the same as the steel receivers.

89676

[John Dallas]

Thanks Dave. What a resource you are. Mine is a 20 gauge, and is so light that a round of skeet becomes uncomfortable. It also suffers from what I understand became a problem, at least on the 20 gauge. The bottom front of the receiver develops a crack going back to the loading port. Makes a dandy wet weather gun, however

[Dave Noreen]

I have two Model 31LA "Standard" Grades. A 12-gauge with a 30-inch FULL solid rib barrel, probably one of the heaviest Model 31 barrels, which makes for a quite muzzle heavy gun. The other is a 20-gauge that was virtually new, but was fitted with a Cutts with only the Modified tube. I wasn't doing all that well with it at Skeet, so I patterned it. At 25 yards, Skeet distance, every pellet from Federal Skeet Loads were in a 19" circle. Paid as much on ebay for a set of 20-gauge Cutts tubes in the box with the wrench as I'd paid for the gun!! The Spreader tube improved my Skeet scores with it.

[charlie cleveland]

sounds like a good turkey gun to me...I have a model 12 Winchester with a cuts choke on it...I would like to have the other 3 chokes they made with it...I have never liked the looks of them or the poly chokes even though a poly choke was probably the best choke ever made.....charlie

[Dave Noreen]

The Model 42 I mentioned above had two barrel & magazine assemblies when I got it, one 26-inch SKEET and the other 26-inch with a Cutts with the spreader tube. Much of my early skeet shooting was at the Vado del Rio Skeet Club on Camp Pendleton where they had a good supply of those WW-II vintage Winchester Model 12 Skeet Guns with Cutts Compensators. When I started, a card for ten rounds was $10, and that included their AA reloads. Could use your own guns or theirs. Pretty soon a ten-round card went up to $13.50. I'd much rather shoot a Cutts than be on a squad with someone else shooting one! I don't mind looking out the barrel at one at all.

[John Dallas]

They're really loud.

[Bobby Cash]

With all this talk of Remington and Winchester,
I snagged another Double Auto. 1960 Twelvette, 28" Modified.
Remains in very high condition.

https://i.imgur.com/ixfbj7H.png

https://i.imgur.com/XQMOHma.png

https://i.imgur.com/PjKacha.png

[Larry Stauch]

Since you guys brought up the subject of Double Autos, I went to the Browning Collectors Association meeting in August of 2017 at the corporate headquarters in Morgan, Utah. There was a fellow there that had the most complete set of Double Autos, I think, in existence. He owns over 60 of them and brought about 30 of the more celebrated versions, including the only two 20 gauges prototypes that were made. I'll include some pictures of those as well.
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[Larry Stauch]

The two guns on the front of this 3 gun rack are the 20 gauge prototypes. As you can see they were made 3" capable. Additionally, Val Browning was experimenting with a new choke system; something like a Cutts which you can see on the end of the barrels. These two guns resided in Val Browning's office until his death, at which time they were offered to an interested party and sold.
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[Larry Stauch]

And here's the guy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHW_MQr549c&feature=emb_rel_end

[Bobby Cash]

That 2019 trip ended in So Cal with a visit to Angelo Bee in my hometown of Chatsworth.
Art was doing a custom 28 ga Superposed for me and Angelo was engraving it.
After an afternoon at the Pacific Ocean I had the pleasure of breaking bread with Art and Brad.

I took them to the #1 Delicatessen in the country, Brents.
Blackened pastrami sandwiches on double baked rye.

https://i.imgur.com/9JkCO0F.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NbFM312.jpg

[Pete Lester]

I found and grabbed a 1966 Twentyweight in Dragon Black.
The Modified choke had been opened to .007 constriction. Tight Skeet. Perfect.
All else seems factory original and in a very high state of preservation



What does it weigh?

[Bobby Cash]

The sandwich style is call a “Deli Stack” and weighs a half pound.

[Bobby Cash]

My bad.

The Twentyweight is exactly 12 and 1/2 Brents Blackened Pastrami Sandwiches.

https://i.imgur.com/Juk0bHK.jpg