Free Republic

Browning's light and balanced A5 shotgun lets you to shoot the old 'gentleman's gauge' in a technologically updated package. As an aspiring curmudgeon (my wife might suggest that I’m already there), I frown disapprovingly when I hear that someone is remaking a classic. Be it a movie, a song or a firearm, some things are just so iconic that you simply shouldn’t mess with them. If you do, you'd better get it right, or you’ll catch hell from people whose hearts were captured by the original. Sadly, and all too often, "new and improved" translates into "new and cheapened and...

The Browning Automatic 5, most often Auto-5 or simply A-5, is a recoil-operated semi-automatic shotgun designed by John Browning. It was the first successful semi-automatic shotgun design, and remained in production until 1998. The name of the shotgun designates that it is an autoloader with a capacity of five rounds, four in the magazine and one in the chamber. The Remington Model 11 was the first semiautomatic shotgun produced in the United States. After the Remington 1100, the Browning A-5 became the second-best-selling auto-loading shotgun in U.S. history. Here’s an animation of the cycling operation of this awesome shotgun. This...