A5

Phil Nowack

Phil Nowack

Well-known member
I finally took my 1964 A5 outside. The rings are CLEARLY not the right ones for AA's. I connected with about 50% of the clays. (Kodi brought back the misses) I started off testing out the Tactacam with the SBE, then moved to the A5. I was AMAZED how soft shooting it is. While the AAs have no punch, I would say the felt recoil of the A5 is half of the SBE. I start out missing everything, then improved the more I shot the A5. I still am not a fan of the 30" full choke.

I still LOVE my SBE.. but if I could find a WELL USED A5 with a 26" or 28" modified choke... I could see me liking shooting Cans in the snow, with it.. and of course my faithful chessie would be retrieving them!
 
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Gunbroker can be your friend when looking for gun related stuff!! Lots of Browning stuff on there.

Order pieces and parts and even a Marlin 55 Super Goose 10 gauge off there and have never had a problem!


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I switched from an 870 to a SBE-I a couple of years after they came out when I picked on up out in Minot. I hunted occasionally with the son of a friend who was going through an anesthesia residency out at Dartmouth. Joe would show up when he came back here to visit his godmother. Initially he shot a Miroku A-5, but became enamored with my SBE. After a really nasty hunt out of pits we dug on a sand flat in the Bays de Noc, Joe decided to retire it and buy an SBE. The first comment he made after hunting awhile with it was, " three inch rounds really rock you around with these guns!" I told him I wouldn't know, since I graduated to mine from shooting a 3" 870 Remington. They (A5's) are 'soft shooting' guns!
 
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Funny story. I do not think SBE kicks hard even with 3 & a half-inch shells unless they're turkey loads
 
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Phil,honestly, the only time I have noticed the recoil of my SBE was while jump shooting ducks in a drowned rivermouth section of the Laughing Whitefish in my Poke boat. Its a short paddle from the put-in spot down through some fast water that zig-zags through some large rocks prior a short turn and a large marsh hidden from the wind inside the dunes. When I started to work through the marsh I paddled past three mallards hiding in a small cut in the bullrushes, mesmerized by some geese I was trying to ease into on a distant log. I keep my gun between my knees on the spray skirt and toss my tethered paddle to grab it and shoot. The mallards jumped off my left should behind me, I turned to see two of them were drakes and decided to take 'em. Oops! I hit the first bird, swung and fired on the second without realizing how far the boat had heeled over. I quickly jammed my right arm down into the substrate,which luckily turned-out to be an inch of organics with sand underneath and stopped my roll. I ended-up with only a wet arm...and no geese. I did get two mallards for my efforts. In retrospect, I think that the angle obligated me to shoot with the gun butt out on the ball of my shoulder, which torqued my upper body around on the shots, and nearly rolled the Poke boat.
 
The light weight of the SBE is what creates felt recoil. When I bought my first one years ago I was so use to shooting duck guns in the 8 1/2 lb. range I couldn,t swing mine fast enough to connect on long shots. At that time I was shooting a lot of sporting clays with the gun to get use to it. Decided to add weight to front end via long mag extension with 6 oz recoil reducer in end of it. Succesfuly made that gun swing like my heavier guns and noticably decreased recoil. Did take some explaining to DNR officers why I was hunting waterfowl w a mag extension though! When I latter sold that gun & purchased an M2 I did same thing to get frontal weight to gun. Since then i,ve took a short mag extension and put molten leads in it to get same effect without all the extra tube out front. Added about a lb. of overall weight to gun and its a pleasure to shoot. No problems w extra weight causeing cycling problems from trap loads thru duck loads. Friend of mine who gunsmithed for Benelli said the SBE w 3 1/2 max turkey loads generated same recoil as 458 big game caliber when shot from staionary positions. The one I owned did just that. 3" turkey lds. patterned better anyway.
 
Funny - of all the duck guns I've owned and shot over my lifetime, I always come back the Auto 5. I've owned SBEs, Xtrema's, 391's, Browning Gold's, 870's, BPS', model 12's, plenty of doubles and even the new A5. The gun I would trust over all of them - one of my trusty old Belgian made Auto-5s. Just had a really nice one from '71 fitted with the hard to find Browning factory synthetic stocks (off of their stalker model from the late 80s early 90s), had the choke on the barrel opened up and forcing cones lengthened, then had the entire gun cerakoted.
 
Scott, where did you have this work done? My duck gun is a magnum... I have the Japanese made barrel on it and many years ago installed an aftermarket black stock. It is not yet bad enough looking to warrant refinishing, but would consider the cerakote when I do.
 
Dave,
I had the forcing cone lengthened and choke opened up by Briley.
The cerakote I was kind of skeptical about because there are so many places that do it and I wasn't convinced they would do it well. Also, most of the cerakote places specialize in ARs and pistols. Didn't want some knucklehead who didn't know what he was doing taking apart an A5 for the first time. So I went with Midwest Gunworks out of MO. They are a browning authorized repair center and specialize in restoring A5s. It was a little more expensive, but it was done right and I'm very happy with the end result.


Would send you a pic, but most of my guns are at my brothers right now because I'm in the process of moving.


Scott
 
Just Curious... how does the new A5 stand up next to the older models? Do they still have the same quality and reputation?
 
I have one and have used it quite a bit, nice gun, reliable, soft shooting. But like Hank said - nothing like the original, not even in the same ballpark.
 
I hunted this year with a guy who has one. He likes it, good reliable gun. But the action is nothing like the old A5, just cosmetics.
 
Well it is tuff to beat the handsome looks of the original A-5. Would like to try and shoot one of the new ones just to see. I never owned an A5, but my first duck gun was a model 11.
 
So... I was gone all week for work. My barrel arrived and is installed now! It is now installed! It did require a good cleaning as the packing grease was thick!
 
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