#Browning serial numbers auto 5 crack#
This one also needed some TLC on the stock, a crack showed on the grip and along the forearm. When I took it apart for cleaning I learned this iteration wasn’t a family gun, but at one time was owned by a man on my grandfather’s construction crew a neatly folded note tucked into the hollow butt stock held his name and phone number. “Light” is a bit of a misnomer in the current sense, weighing in around 7 pounds 12 ounces, but compared it carries well and comes up just as easy with a smooth swing. The 1955 model was primarily used as a deer gun with the receiver drilled and tapped for a side-mount scope.
Next up is the Light 12, made lighter with the shortening of barrels, no rib, and a hollowed butt-stock. The wood will get its character in time, quickly becoming my go-to for the trap range, late season pheasants, and an occasional duck hunt. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, the old graying metal with brand new wood and pristine checkering. With the metal in great shape but the wood out of commission completely, it required a total re-stock. A bolt was added to the end of the piece to hold it together and keep it running. I could see clean through the split down the side of the forearm to the shell tube. When I pulled it out of the case the rubber butt pad had succumbed to dry rot, crumbling in on itself. The metal’s patina unveils the long barrel’s utility since its creation in 1958.
#Browning serial numbers auto 5 full#
A 32 inch fixed full choke 12-gauge Magnum upping the capability from 2 ¾ to 3 inch shells. Then there is my great-grandfather’s behemoth. Before migratory bird populations plummeted and the switch to steel shot made shooting the fixed modified choke obsolete. That was back when south central Massachusetts still had wild pheasants. It might not even be usable afterwards, but better to sit in my office as a reminder of where I came from, and to clean those still in rotation, than to disintegrate. The metal needs a trip to Turnbull Restoration. A friend reworked the stock, brought some life back to it. The wood so dried out it was damn near pale when I took it over. It stayed there for the better part of 10 years until my parents cleaned the space out, and it made its way to their safe. It came out to shoot a turkey then got put up in the corner of the barn. My grandfather’s A5, a 1957 build from FN Herstal in Belgium.
I only remember one of them getting used on the farm growing up. Browning reintroduced the A5, produced in Portugal, in 2014 however, the only thing this version has in common with the original is its exterior style. Browning additionally licensed the A5 design to Remington, which produced the Model 11, and Savage for the model 745. Browning then turned to Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (now known as FN), where he had an established relationship as they manufactured many of his pistol designs.įN produced the A5 in Belgium until 1975, with a brief break during World War II when production shifted to Remington from 1940-46, and lastly to Miroku in Japan starting in 1975 until the traditional A5 ceased production in 1999. History of the Browning Auto 5ĭeveloped in 1902, Browning shopped the design around, Winchester refused his terms and an agreement with Remington came unglued when their president died of a heart attack as they worked out terms. Tools are important to us, meant to be used. Some uncovered, some lost in the ether forever. All family pieces with unique stories to tell. Nostalgia.įour of them take up space in my cabinet. They may not be elegant, or carry an air of sophisticated aesthetic, but there aren’t many heirloom semi-autos in the shotgunning world that hold a candle to John Browning’s Auto 5 (now affectionately known as the A5) in many categories. Do-it-all tools for any species on the wing. The Browning Auto 5 holds a legacy inside the upland hunting community for American shotgun designs
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