Browning Auto 5 failure

lupothebutcher

lupothebutcher

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
54   0   0
Browning Auto 5 failure
Hi all,
I recently bought a Belgian Browning Auto 5 12 gauge 2-3/4”, I was told 1955 but haven’t yet looked it up; when I took it out to play, it loaded fine, cycled the first round fine and fired fine; it did not eject the spent hull and in fact, seemed almost to “lock” the bolt to the barrel so that I could not draw the bolt back and manually eject the round. I don’t know if the bolt is actually catching and “locking” together or if it is just the result of the hull expanding in the chamber and trying to pull on the quite small charging handle.
Removal of the hull was accomplished by removing the fore stock, pushing the barrel into the receiver until the bolt locked back in the open position, and giving the barrel a good tug to bring it free; the hull dropped right out either being pulled by the extractor or from gravity.
This process was repeated several times, the shotgun never ejected the spent hulls. I have not fully disassembled or cleaned as of yet, however, all visible components look perfect with no signs of damage and the gun appears to be reasonably clean.
Any thoughts?
 
I wouldn't say it's a failure. Mine does the same thing. To eject the spent shell, I just lock the rounds in the magazine (if any) with the magazine cutoff, set the stock on the ground and grab the barrel and give it a good crank. As NA said, check the setup on the friction rings. Yours sounds like it's set up for heavy magnum loads. That's the only drawback of your grandpa's Auto 5 (Browning ads) lol.
 
Last edited:
This is a VERY common issue with old Auto 5 models. Your chamber is dirty with 60 odd years of shell wax, carbon and other things. Your malfunction was purely because your cartridge head stuck in the chamber. This prevented all the other normal operations of a cycling auto 5 not to happen. Remove the barrel, place it in a padded vice. Chuck up a 12" (or so) length of cleaning rod with a 12 gauge brass brush wrapped in 000 steel wool. Soak with nitro solvent and run the brush/steel wool in the chamber area for a good 15 minutes. Wipe it clean. Repeat with a clean piece of steel wool and some Flitz or other metal polishing compound. You don't want to remove material just polish it up. This will solve your problem. As a back up remember to pull the butt stock and make sure the action spring in the butt is clean and free of debris. This will fix your gun.

regards, Darryl
 
Like most people have indicated, it is your friction ring set up. Look on line to see how to set them up properly. On a side note, when you have your rings set up, clean your magazine tube and do NOT lubracate it. Any type of oil will cause the friction rings to bind! Good luck
 
This stoppage has nothing to do with the friction rings. They cannot bind. They may slow the action when real real dirty but they cannot cause the type of malfunction the OP described geezsh!

Darryl
 


Thanks for the info; I'll try the cleaning of the chamber (and everything else) and try to figure out the friction rings; are the friction rings the ones I've indicated? I assume I'll be able to find on the internet how to tell if they are set correctly...
 
Simple to remember how the rings work.
The stiff steel ring is the one that's moved.
The flat side of this ring always faces the spring.
Lite load, it goes on the mag tube first........flat side towards the spring.
Heavy load, spring on mag tube first, then the stiff ring followed by the split rings also
known as the friction rings.
The split must line up on the inner and outer friction rings.
The mag tube needs to be clean and polished.
Then lubed.
I have a tendency to grab the bigg'un spring and give it a tug every so often.
A clean and oiled A-5 is a happy A-5.
 
Yup...Cleaned the chamber and she runs like a top. It actually looked quite clean to begin with, but I guess it had a layer of transparent waxy type crap. I'm not really a shotgun guy, but I think this one might be a keeper. Fun and fast, long as a fence post but cool none the less. I had an Auto 5 some years ago for just a short time and sold it to a buddy....I always kind of regretted that. I think this one might just make up for that.
Thanks for the help; I knew I could count on you guys.
 
An older gentleman, a family friend, was having constant FTE issues with his Remington Model 11 (Auto 5 copy) and asked for my help. Noticed that his chamber and barrel was clean but the bolt and raceways were filthy, he just kept wiping all the dirt (that he could see...) and spraying WD40, for years. Took the barrel off, pulled the bolt back and held it over his laundry room white sink. Proceeded to use nearly a full can of Gun Scrubber on the open chamber and bolt, would take turns spraying the bolt closed then open. The amount of pure gunk that came out of that gun was unbelievable! The sink immediately turned dark brown... I could distinguish pine needles, dirt and dried cedar sprigs amongst the mess. When the output turned clean, I left everything to air dry and oiled the bolt sparingly with a teflon-based oil and G96, he hasn't had a problem since.

I know that the absolute best way to clean the gun would be to totally disassemble the action. But based on my limited knowledge and the complexity of the design, I did not want to end up with "spare parts", hence the partial cleaning was the best option.
 
There are a lot of parts. I have done two complete dis-assemblies and thorough cleaning for friends. Funny how pine needles always seem to show up in these things!!
 
Speaks for the quality of design with what these old Brownings will cycle full of spruce needles dirt etc. I pulled one apart that had 5 or 6 smashed lead pellets in the internals. still worked.

Darryl
 
Yes, using carb cleaner or brake cleaner sprayed inside the action is the easiest way to clean it well. Make sure you don't get any on the stock finish. Blast it out with compressed air and relube lightly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom