Not sure why !
 

I just picked up a rather nice Browning A-5 circa 1970 20 gauge 26" IC at about 98%+. Guy even had the owners manuel with it ! Wish he'd had the box . Not sure what if anything I'll use this for . Not much on picking up hulls at the skeet field . So we shall see .

If it's a 16 or 20, you've got one of the best bird guns ever produced. If it's a 12 bore--well--same comment! Enjoy.

I have been real tempted by a Model 12 Heavy Duck recently. I have an Auto 5 two barrel set with original box in 12 gauge.

:rotf: i've been passed tempted by a heavy duck twice lately - had to send both back for undisclosed issues

the right one will show up some day

I've owned a few 12's and Sweet 16's over the years . Back in my youth I thought an A-5 was the pooh for a dove field gun , now not so much .

We have an A-5 12 mag here I keep vascillating on . And I always come to the conclusion for what little waterfowlung I do my arsenal of Short 10's has that covered 😉

That's actually the second Browning I picked up in the last month. I had a rather nice little Chalkenger 6 3/4" (I believe it is ) fall in my lap a few weeks ago . Again looks to be 97%+ and was made in 1967 .

I have an A5 in 12 ga with buck barrel and bird barrel. Couldn't resist buying it. Everyone should have one in their safe

I was kinda in a dither a year or two back to get a A-5 12 mag with the factory swivels as on the Brushmaster or Buckmaster or whatever it was Browning called the slugger with sights swivels etc.

Stopped at a Garage sale a couple of years back and noticed quite a bit of Turkey Hunting stuff in the garage also a few mounted Turkeys so I ask ,you don't happen to have any Old Double Guns laying around you would want to sell do you ? He didn't , but in the conversation he mentioned a pair of A5 Brownings he and his brother got in 1967 for Christmas Gifts ! His was well used but his brothers which he now owned and showed me was Brand New unfired and still in the original Box with all the Paper work ! His was a bit nicer to my eye a little darker wood with more figure and the other lighter more like a Dark Maple look with Dark straight grain figure ! Neither was for sale !

Since I worship at the alter of the 16 gauge I've considered a Sweet Sixteen from time to time. But briefly.

I recently got a Sweet Sixteen, made in 1975 and in excellent condition. I sent it to Art in Missouri and he cleaned it while changing the main spring. I have only tried it out on the range but am looking forward to a little more action soon

I have 2 Belgian A5s. One has a modified barrel and is scoped with a variable Leupold. The other has the standard slug barrel with sights. Both are deadly as up until 10-12 years ago one had to use a shotgun for deer season. Before liability concerns became rife, our local fire department held turkey shoots prior to the start of hunting season. No scopes allowed and shooting off hand at a pie plate at 50 yards. The plate had a 1" black dot in the center. If you could hold it, the non scoped Browning could put a slug into that 1" every time. I won over 30 turkeys and hams with that gun.

I've been to or heard of a pile of turkey shoots in my lifetime . But that's the first time I ever heard of turkey shoots using slugs .

The fire department held both bird shot and slugs. Both at 50 yards. With shot, the winner had to have the most pellet holes. With slugs, closest to the 1" center black dot. For the bird shot shoot, I used my Beretta Gold Snipe. The gun was choked fill and fuller and it also won a lot of prizes. Too bad the legal beagles had to get involved as a lot of people had a lot of fun.

DANGER!
 

Well Bill what ya don't realize is you could put someone's eye out with one of those dam things.:nono:

Auto-5 Grade III
 

Just thought someone would like to see the old Grade III up close.

I really like the setters and pheasants... the whole scene really, on the right side. Is that factory engraving or after market engraving?





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Engraver
 

All factory by this guy.....

Picked up a Belgian made Sweet Sixteen with dark reddish wood and a 26” IC solid rib barrel. She seems to fit me well: seems all I have to do is shoulder it and get it pointed in the birds the general direction and pull the trigger. Guns hell on phez and I dream of spending a morning in a duck blind with it but it’s a bit cumbersome in the grouse woods. As stated above: just one of those guns everyone needs to have in their safe.

We've got a 68-71 flat knob 12 mag at the shop that's in pretty decent shape . I may try and pick it up after the first of the year then look around for a Belgium slug barrel to fit . Be kinda nice to go along with my circa 69 Superposed 12 Magnum ����

Funken was one of the top FN engravers and I believe he taught in their engraving school.

It's easy to see why Bill.





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The best of the A5s in my opinion. My 1966 Sweet Sixteen with 28" modified vent-rib is a dove killing machine. The best of all worlds. On the dove field other hunters are amazed it is a 16 and the range it has.

the a 5 browning is one fine gun i have a light 20 ga in my possecion at the moment with 2 barrels 26 imp. cly. and 28 modified...it is in about 90 to 95 percent condition..it was a quail getter in its day...charlie

Well the A-5 12 Mag at the shop followed me home today . It has a 28" modified barrel , I think I just might be willing to chance steel in it . Wanna find a Belgium 12 mag slug barrel for it .

Good job, Craig!

Felix Funken was THE top FN engraver and in fact founded the FN engraving school, which turned out a dozen or so master engravers, several of whom were women. Gaston Vandermissen, Louis Vrancken, Andre Watrin, Gustav Mueller, Ambrose Gillet, Oliviere Paque, Mademoiselle Lea Van Lar, the Marechal family (3 men, 1 woman), Jean Diet, and my personal favorite, Marie Louise Magis, were some of the incredible talents he fostered and nurtured.

If the A-5 Mag 28" MOD barrel is in fact original to the gun, you have a rare bird! (Especially so if its a vent rib barrel). This combination is very seldom encountered. I would think carefully about risking steel shot in it.

A-5
 

Still have and shoot my dads Sweet Sixteen my mom and I bought for him when duck hunting some mud blew the barrel of his Remington model 11 humpback. Bought for him in 1961 paid $265 at Oshmans sporting goods in Houston. Boy did I have fun with him hunting growing up he is totally responsible for my love of guns and the hunt. God Bless Him, your son David

I doubt seriously if this barrel was on the gun when it left the factory . When it was consigned to us almost two years ago it came with a 30" full and 32" full barrel . The other two barrels were sold separately . I would like to have had the 32" barrel as well . Oh the barrel is a vent rib . I have looked quite a bit thru old Shooters Bibles and this 28" mod barrel is the most open vent rib barrel I could find for an A-5 magnum . Did they ever make an A-5 12 mag vent rib barrel that was IC ?

I did take the old gun out yesterday afternoon and patterned some Estate 2 3/4" 00 Buck at 25 and 40 . 25 looked pretty decent but 40 was so so . Tried some Winchester 3" one ounce slugs at 25 and 50 yards , the 25 yard group was great and amazingly the 50 yard group was almost as good . I'm not in the habit of shooting 3" shells and much less slugs , but amazingly the recoil from these was no where near what I anticipated . I have a Browning Superposed 12 Mag I shot some 3" copper plated bird loads and that one opens up a whole new world 🙄

In many years of buying, selling and trading A-5s, I have never heard of nor seen a 3" Mag barrel bored IC; of course that doesn't mean they never made one. For years off and on I worked for a major Browning dealer based out of Washington DC (am I dating myself much!!?) with satellite stores in the MD and VA suburbs. In all that time I saw exactly ONE nib Belgium A-5 3" Mag that came from the factory with a 28" VR barrel; the man I sold it to still has it. He did a lot of pit hunting for Canada geese and was an ardent duck hunter as well. My brother (a good friend of his) and I have tried to buy it back from him a number of times, and his answer is always the same: "Talk to my kids when I die!".

As you know, Belgium Brownings are never really exactly 28", 30", 32". I have a mint A5 3" 1966 Magnum with a 29 1/2" barrel in full. We would call that a 30."

The Japanese A5s have exact measurement barrels. I just checked the spare Jap barrel for my Belgium Light 12 and it is exactly 26" as advertised.

With the A5, there is 3/4 of an inch of the barrel inside the receiver of the 12.

My Light 20 that I call a 28" gun is really 27 1/2."

I kinda thought this Mag 12 would be nice for geese and of course DEER . But the goose thing will always be on the back burner if I have a 10 gauge side by side that's not knocked off a goose in my hands 🙄

Barrel length
 

Of course those barrels are all exact metric lengths. So 27-1/2" at 2.54 cm/inch = 70 cm and so on. The chambers are the same. A 65 mm chamber at 25.4 mm/inch = 2-1/2" and a 70 mm chamber = 2-3/4".

You remember all those metric conversions from college physics, right?:rotf: