How good were Browning Auto 5`s

The guns of the market hunters were not all that glamorous. Often large gauges suitable for enough shot to kill or wound a good portion of roosting flocks on water.

No they are not, but it does give the a5/ Model 11 an interesting history. The pictures that I've seen are all rusted to hell and have missing forend, chucks missing from stocks.
 
No they are not, but it does give the a5/ Model 11 an interesting history. The pictures that I've seen are all rusted to hell and have missing forend, chucks missing from stocks.

The forends were probably missing because the owners were tired of replacing cracked ones. What are chucks?
 
I think the Winchester model 50 had it beat hands down in the late 1950's
If winchester could have got the cost of production down at the time to be competitive with the ka-chunking auto 5 I think the outcome would have been a little different as to who came out on top with numbers sold.

For what it is worth I have owned two auto fives but I still own 7 model 50's, one made in 1966 with 350 factory loads through it.
 
I would too. Or just about any other semi-auto past and present. The Auto 5 is overrated just like most of Browning's shotguns designs.

Owned every one of them in the day and still have many of them.
The superx1 was so far ahead of it's time when they came out and so expensive to build winchester lost a fortune on them.
The old A5 was a good gun but by todays standard we are comparing a express to a wingmaster when we say a A5 was a good as a superx1.Try firing it a little off your shoulder and see how it works. NOT. Taking a A5 receiver apart is another real task.
Good gun but no superx1
 
These two are still wearing their original furniture- not a crack to be seen.

A 2 3/4 A5 thats more than 3X the age of my daughter.

clay1.jpg


...and a 3" mag from the 60's that's still going strong.

double.jpg


They fit me, I like them, send me yours if you don't. :)

RC
 
I'm one of the later. Can't stand the Auto 5 and reserve a special place for the Sweet Sixteen as the least dersirable combination of gun and guage.

Like most Browing designs it is needlessly complex. The Auto 5 has a tendency to crack forends and replacing a stock isn't as simple as most other shotguns. And they handle like a stump.

In it's day it might have been a step forward but it's day is long, long past.

what about buttstocks? i seem to see a few that are broken too.
 
I sorta see the nostalgic attraction to the auto 5. If my grandpa shot one, I would probably have a different opinion of them, but of the 5 or 6 guys I have hunted with that shoot auto 5s, every one had a problem with them constantly jamming. If there are reliable ones out there, I have never seen one. The fact that every shooter would talk about how reliable they were as they constantly fiddled with fail to feed or fail to eject problems, made me wonder if these people were touched in the head. The auto 5 was cutting edge in 1905...claiming they are the best auto ever made is absurd. They are old, and sometimes old is cool, but you cant compare it to a Beretta Extrema for example. Thats like comparing a brown bess to a Sako.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3macs1
To me you either liked them or hated them.

I'm one of the later. Can't stand the Auto 5 and reserve a special place for the Sweet Sixteen as the least dersirable combination of gun and guage.

Like most Browing designs it is needlessly complex. The Auto 5 has a tendency to crack forends and replacing a stock isn't as simple as most other shotguns. And they handle like a stump.

In it's day it might have been a step forward but it's day is long, long past.



BLASPHEMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It took me a long time to come around, but i love mine.
THere is no shotgun with a better story.
Bennet gets his knickers in a knot. Marcellus Hartley has an untimely death. JMB gets on a boat, goes to Paris then on to Herstal, they knight him, build him his gun, He buys the first manufacturing run, brings them home and sells them faster than planned, causes a change in US firearm importation laws, and keeps the gun in production for almost 100 years.

If I remember the story right.
 
I sorta see the nostalgic attraction to the auto 5. If my grandpa shot one, I would probably have a different opinion of them, but of the 5 or 6 guys I have hunted with that shoot auto 5s, every one had a problem with them constantly jamming. If there are reliable ones out there, I have never seen one. The fact that every shooter would talk about how reliable they were as they constantly fiddled with fail to feed or fail to eject problems, made me wonder if these people were touched in the head. The auto 5 was cutting edge in 1905...claiming they are the best auto ever made is absurd. They are old, and sometimes old is cool, but you cant compare it to a Beretta Extrema for example. Thats like comparing a brown bess to a Sako.

My Grandpa shot a SxS not an Auto 5. Maybe that is why I liked him so much. :)
 
None of the Auto-5's I've owned every jammed, not once. That's in hunting ducks and geese, upland and shooting trap. I only shot a couple thousand rounds out of them though, so that could be the problem.
 
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