Sharing the Browning Auto 5 disease, magnum edition

AnotherCanuck

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'looky asked for some pics, and who am I to deny him!

I love these old ladies, and what do you do when you love something? You spend way too much money and you give the old lass a birthday.

"Good deal" on consignment from one of the banner adds above. Bet you know why if you've ever bought a consignment gun haha. The quantity of filth contained by this gun was shocking. As almost all mag auto5's it was also missing the friction rings and steel beveled pieces for high recoil 3" loads. My visa fixed that, and while I was at it somehow a full set of A5 screwdrivers and a complete rebuild kit leaped into my cart. I was shocked at how set the old springs had become, both the recoil and action spring were a full inch shorter than the replacements. The mag tube one was pretty good but got replaced anyways.

Recoil is once again the correct clickety-snicker-clack and a gentle push on the shoulder. The few test rounds I put through before this were brutal, I can understand why these guns get a bad rap when they're missing pieces and the springs are clean wore out.

She's clearly been hunted a lot and shot a little, you can just about make out the previous owners hand size by the missing bluing on the undercarriage.

8r37J2a.jpg


O5VmXxv.jpg


As it was my first time disassembling one I wasn't brave enough to remove the pin that lets you fully remove the bolt, so a bit of filth remains here. I'll get more bold this winter and do it properly.

o5WRFNV.jpg


tq2NYa3.jpg


whJFPzA.jpg


Sticker is still in the forarm cover, like the rest of the gun it's seen better days
Pictured here is the setup for light loads (1 1/8oz 3dr trap loads cycle nicely)
To get her shooting 3" mags or 2 3/4 buck/slug you move the 2 steel pieces and the bronze friction ring from behind the recoil spring to behind the front ones. I'll set it up for mag loads and take another pic if anyone's curious.

70JUfev.jpg


So worth it to get all the proper friction pieces. Missing stuff like that drives me crazy.

rZqijc7.jpg


Definitely down to about 60% bluing 30% in the white and 10% """patina"""

Zu7YNBm.jpg



What's next? Finding a slug barrel for this, and finding a cut down barrel that I won't feel guilty about having threaded for thinwall chokes.

Also, I need an A5 light 12 as well as an A5 20ga. If you know of any.... :)
 
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Yes, these are great old 3 inch guns.Have one that I used in the past ,when the Browning Auto 5 was the duck gun that most were in awe of.Most having to settle for a lesser gun.:)

Now a days ,it just sits on the rack, a Winchester Super -X Model 3 being my choice for a now a days duck gun.
 
I started buying them in1968, 3 inch for trap shooting
Then about 20 years ago Browning shotguns and their bolt action rifles went out of fashion
I bought three 3 inch A5 in almost mint condition along with 3006, 7mm, 375hh 458 winch Browning
rifles in about the same condition
Browning and Browning/Sako made some nice rifles Sako did also, got some of them at the same time
 
'looky asked for some pics, and who am I to deny him!

I love these old ladies, and what do you do when you love something? You spend way too much money and you give the old lass a birthday.

"Good deal" on consignment from one of the banner adds above. Bet you know why if you've ever bought a consignment gun haha. The quantity of filth contained by this gun was shocking. As almost all mag auto5's it was also missing the friction rings and steel beveled pieces for high recoil 3" loads. My visa fixed that, and while I was at it somehow a full set of A5 screwdrivers and a complete rebuild kit leaped into my cart. I was shocked at how set the old springs had become, both the recoil and action spring were a full inch shorter than the replacements. The mag tube one was pretty good but got replaced anyways.

Recoil is once again the correct clickety-snicker-clack and a gentle push on the shoulder. The few test rounds I put through before this were brutal, I can understand why these guns get a bad rap when they're missing pieces and the springs are clean wore out.

She's clearly been hunted a lot and shot a little, you can just about make out the previous owners hand size by the missing bluing on the undercarriage.

8r37J2a.jpg


O5VmXxv.jpg


As it was my first time disassembling one I wasn't brave enough to remove the pin that lets you fully remove the bolt, so a bit of filth remains here. I'll get more bold this winter and do it properly.

o5WRFNV.jpg


tq2NYa3.jpg


whJFPzA.jpg


Sticker is still in the forarm cover, like the rest of the gun it's seen better days
Pictured here is the setup for light loads (1 1/8oz 3dr trap loads cycle nicely)
To get her shooting 3" mags or 2 3/4 buck/slug you move the 2 steel pieces and the bronze friction ring from behind the recoil spring to behind the front ones. I'll set it up for mag loads and take another pic if anyone's curious.

70JUfev.jpg


So worth it to get all the proper friction pieces. Missing stuff like that drives me crazy.

rZqijc7.jpg


Definitely down to about 60% bluing 30% in the white and 10% """patina"""

Zu7YNBm.jpg



What's next? Finding a slug barrel for this, and finding a cut down barrel that I won't feel guilty about having threaded for thinwall chokes.

Also, I need an A5 light 12 as well as an A5 20ga. If you know of any.... :)

Yesth'n yes.
Yesth'n no.

………………………..:stirthepot2:...……………….

Ettzs jest ahhh pin fur cripes sake.
WTFCGW?
 
Question. Where did you buy the complete rebuild kit etc ?

Western Gun Parts - old school shop, you gotta actually call and talk to them and see what they got. Website is basically contact info only.

http://westerngunparts.com/index.html

They shipped quick and knew exactly what they were talking about, and best of all actually had this stuff in stock. I was absolutely floored they stocked it.
 
Western Gun Parts - old school shop, you gotta actually call and talk to them and see what they got. Website is basically contact info only.

http://westerngunparts.com/index.html

They shipped quick and knew exactly what they were talking about, and best of all actually had this stuff in stock. I was absolutely floored they stocked it.
Thanks dealt with them before, didn’t realize they would have the kit
 
No, to be clear I used the one at Art's as a template and just asked for all that stuff. They are sharp and have done this before clearly, and knew what's what.
 
$600.00 for a new set of magnum a5 wood. Sarco used to set mint to new wood sets
Nice to know there is a person who has the new parts to keep the A5's going
 
My Auto 5 3" is a Belgian with a plain barrel and round knob. I bought it at an auction with the intent of putting it on the rack in my shop. Then decided it was too nice to just roll over, and kept it. Same thing happened with a basically unfired Winchester 9422M from the same sale.
I was surprised when I tried the Browning with Winchester 3" single O buckshot loads, just out of curiosity. Honest 50 yard gun, 6-8 pellets in a dinner plate sized group.

I think WGP acquired out-of-production Browning spares.
 
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