Just bought a 20 ga A5 Browning

[Kevin McCormack]

I always wanted an A-5 but was too dumb to buy one at my employee's 25% discount when I worked in a major sporting goods store in the late 1960s - early 1970s. I saw one at a local gun show a few years ago that was the quintessential duck (blind) gun - a 12 ga. 28" MOD VR RKLT version with the original funky FN hard buttplate complete with gun cabinet worm holes, washed out wood and receiver and barrel gone to pewter color. It had a broken rib just forward of the rib stanchion so the guy had it on the table for $180.

I bought it on the spot and took it home and tried to figure out how to completely disassemble it (booklet says remove forend & barrel and you are done). Couldn't figure it out so I called Browning UT and when I finally got to talk to a live human, the guy said, "Are you handy with tools?". I said yeah, reasonably so. He told me what I needed was the reprint of their 1923 Shop Manual which gave complete dissasembly instructions. I got it and took the gun completely apart (all 70-some pieces of it!).

I was so mesmerized with the design and function of the completely inertial spring driven action (no gas pistons or cylinders!) that I started to buy them in different variations (Sweet 16s, 3" Mags, etc.) to shoot and hunt with. How JMB got the recoil train to function with split-second timing and leverage to produce the rate of fire and reloading really put the sap on my head! I wound up having a collection of 15 of them at one time, including graded guns.

The strangest thing is that in all those years of searching and buying I never bought a 20 ga. for whatever reason. Years after I sold off all of them but my original broken rib gun, I saw a really nice 1965 A-5 20 ga. 28" MOD VR RKLT come up at auction. I bought it and added an extra FN skeet VR barrel (pricey but who cares!?). It is a great shooting little gun and fills my niche of the 'missing' smallbore A-5s.

Pics are of the broken rib 12 that started it all.......

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Kevin McCormack

I was so mesmerized with the design and function of the completely inertial spring driven action (no gas pistons or cylinders!) that I started to buy them in different variations (Sweet 16s, 3" Mags, etc.) to shoot and hunt with. How JMB got the recoil train to function with split-second timing and leverage to produce the rate of fire and reloading really put the sap on my head!

The original Auto-5 and it's clones are proof that John Browning was a genius.

[Phil Yearout]

As close as I ever got to an A5 (or ever will); my dad's gun, Savage 775a in 16ga...

[Stepmac]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

My favorite squareback is a Model 11 Remington 20 gauge with a round top conversion and extended trigger assembly, probably made by Griffin and Howe or Abercrombie and Fitch. The stock was made to cover up the squareback, but I don't know why the trigger mechanism was moved back. I have seen one other like it, also a 20 gauge. No markings to identify the maker. Does anyone know what I have?

I had a similar gun, a Model 11 20 gauge. I shot it at skeet for two decades and loved that gun. Then I got sick and sold it, but wonder of wonders, I recovered and now my beautiful little 20 is gone. I like Model 11s better than Afives, (my computers five key has died), but I like them too.

[MarketHunter]

I've got a Model 11 20 gauge that's a two barrel set. A 32 inch solid rib full and a 28 inch solid rib imp cylinder. It's a dandy little gun.

[Larry the Gun Guy]

Originally Posted by Destry L. Hoffard

I've got a Model 11 20 gauge that's a two barrel set. A 32 inch solid rib full and a 28 inch solid rib imp cylinder. It's a dandy little gun.

Destry, are your barrel(s) marked "Long Range"? A 32" 20 gauge is indeed a rare one. I had to look it up because I wasn't aware they made one. INTERESTING.

[MarketHunter]

No it's not marked Long Range. I've actually never seen a Long Range marked gun that I thought was real, though I know they supposedly made them.

[Researcher]

The "Long Range" boring was only offered in 12-gauge --

Long Range Boring, June 10, 1941 catalog.jpg

[Kevin McCormack]

I sold a bona fide "Long Range" marked 12 ga. M11 32" SR to a fellow IWLA duck hunter a couple of years ago after he told me he had to have it. I gave him an original "Long Range" sheet as Dave showed earlier along with it. With a Lab named "'Tank" (short for Choptank) I couldn't resist.

[J. A. EARLY]

All 20s (except magnums of course) are Light Twentys, even though the Light may be missing on the engraving of the gun. There is no such thing as a Standard 20. The barrels have the three holes drilled in the ring.