Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A-5's

I have only two both Belgiums..12+20 3"..ugly?? Maybe,but they have always been damn dependable for me...Made like old cars lots of metal and no plastic!!!

Benelli SBE's and 90's (12ga) (M1,M2,M3) use inertia actions, unlike gas or recoil, and are designed to function with shells 1 1/8oz shot or heavier. You almost never have to clean them, and that is why they are popular with military and LE, as well as hunters. They are the "Glock" of shotguns, and I like them, but A-5's are the "1911's" of shotguns IMHO.

I have my Grandfather Belgian A-5 12 gauge that my Grandmother gave to him as a first wedding anniversary present in 1948 and shooting ducks down there in South Texas was what it was used for. It has one of the old polychokes on so it's not factory anymore.

When I started duck hunting out west I used it for a season but then started hunting salt water a lot so bought an 870 SPS more suited for the task and the A-5 sits in back of the safe.

I bought a A5 20 gauge magnum in 1974 for $225.00 new. It was a good price even then. After shooting an 870 for 10 years, it was hard to hit with. I'd bring it up and see a wall of blue steel. Sold it sometime later. Never wanted for one since.

I have two round knobs with ventilated ribs. A 12 and a 20, but I am looking for a 16 to complete the set. Use them exclusively for bird hunting. How the hell anyone could [bleep] up such classic lines with a polychoke or recoil pad is beyond me.

Nothing sounds as sweet as the chamber closing on a nice old humpback when the dog is on point.

Pat....if you're happy,I'm happy!

I have a 1932 or 33 vintage 16 ga. that is the smoothest mechanical device I've ever owned.
It has been used but not abused - handled so much there is almost no bluing left but not a single ding anywhere.
Chamber lengthened to 2.75. Improved cylinder 26" barrel.
I try to take it out dove shooting at least 1x/yr.
It cries for a quail hunt but they are a rare commodity these days.

When I was a kid starting out duck hunting is the late 60's all of the serious old dudes shot A5's. All I had to use was dads old L.C. Smith hammer gun...
Same for the quail hunters, too. Though I must admit that the old hammer gun with 32" barrels was not the best for quial....

I love me an old A5 and would pick another one up if the price was right - in a heart beat.
I've seen friends of my son who have never seen an A5 in their life brighten up and say "cool" when they handle that old dog of mine.

Not the gun that I grab for everyday shooting and hunting, but certainly on my list of favorites.

I have a 1920's vintage Belgian 12bore A5 with 29" barrel; it's my favorite trap gun, because it's the only one where I've shot more than 50 straight.

I also have a 1930's vintage Remington Sportsman 11 in 20bore for the kids.

The A5 was an amazing technological achievement and can do things that modern auto loaders just can't do. The A5 is the invention that Browning was most proud of; rightfully so if you ask me.

I don't see the point in lopping it off and then backboring at this point. It's functional and I don't mind it that much. They are functional and a part of the time period, so I let it be. I do not like stock compasses or see thru rings. Don't care for the Polychoke II's. If I have removable chokes in a gun, see no use in adding a polychoke, just don't mind them if they are already there.

My cousin hunted with a Model 11 for several years, until it got completely worn out, and started doubling and going full-auto sometimes. It wasn't his, but a family friend who left it with them to use as they liked. Yeah, it had a Poly Choke on it, too.

And my step-nephews great grandad left each of them Auto5s, with solid ribs, about 15 years ago, they still have them, but use other guns. And yes, they're Poly-Choked as well, probably factory done. The Poly-Chokes were popular in rural Missouri, I suppose. No choke tubes or wrenches to keep track of, that sort of thing.

Been lugging my 12ga around the desert for quail and up the hills for chucker since i get mine from my dad for my 17th birthday. Have shot many others but always come back to it cause it never has let me down. Bought my son a mag 20 for his 13th birthday, knowing he would want a 12ga soon i knew i would get that 20 back. He will get to trade me that 20 back this fall for a new 12 silver hunter, bad trade on his part but he wont figure that out till its to late, i love it when a plan comes together! I thought i would never find anything i liked shooting birds with better than my a-5 12ga. Turns out i was wrong that a-5 20ga is sweet.

Back in the early 80's I wrote an article for Soldier of Fortune Magazine(I was younger and stupid) about a guy that was running personal protection classes. He had been in the Marine Corps in Viet Nam and was Elsworth Bunker's body guard for awhile. After the Corps he went to Rhodesia and eventually became a Selous Scout and shot on the Springbok team in the IPSC World shoot--it was all a matter of public record, not a mall-ninja--he was the real deal.

He mentioned during this personal protection class that if he could only have one gun it would be a Browning A-5 which surprised the entire class. He said that in one day he had killed a duck a dik-dik and a Charlie Tango (phonetics for Communist Terrorist--read black, tribal insurgent) with his A-5. I don't know why, but his comment always stuck with me, "there aren't too many guns that you can do THAT with!"

Another close friend from the Corps was older than I and had been one of the early advisors sent to Viet Nam. He said that his weapon of choice was a cut down A-5 that he bought from the fellow that he replaced--worked everytime and he carried it on every patrol during his tour--sold it to his incoming replacement--according to him, it probably was sold off/handed down during the entire Viet Nam war and is still there.

Shot my Belgium 16 in sporting clays just a few weeks back.... there are 3 of the A5s in the safe....

I've a 1964? Light Twelve. I have two barrels for it, and I do really well with it at trap and skeet. It has slain more than it's fair share of ducks as well. And that speed-feeding feature helped me shoot four singles out of a flock of mallards one beautiful morning a few years back . . .

Great guns. Built like a Swiss bank vault.

I really like the A-5s made in Belgium.

Back in the early 80's a friend of mine joined a club in S. Ga. and the pushed deer through pulpwood land with dogs. If you didn't have an A5 and a Ford truck you couldn't join.

Interesting the comments on poly chokes. Seems like they would be the best of all worlds, without having to pack around a tool and various choke tubes.

I wish I had one on a couple of guns, as some mornings in the blind the birds refuse to decoy and there you sit pulling one choke out and putting a long range one in, when instead you could just give it a twist.

Its evident, just as with cars and other items, some folks become vain on what they want, looks is more important than performance, and then there are others that the only important thing is how it works. Which is what I fall into.

Sure glad though that everyone doesn't like the same thing, the world would be boring at that point.

Bet those that dislike the looks of the polychoke don't care at all for muzzle breaks and or that browning tuning device on teh end of barrels. Or even flash hiders or some guns.

Of course if I had a really nice gun, deeply blued with great wood and all, I"d be like Leighton, it would stay in the safe and as such, thats a useless gun to me. I have one commemorative 94 in the safe but its not worth enough to worry about, when Win was doing that kind of thing to sell guns I was a young sucker... soon enough it'll get out and shoot some deer and I ain't gonna worry about it much at that point.

Jeff

I've owned and used a lot of new stuff.


Nothing matches an A-5...

Mine is kind of odd. It is a Browning but it was made by Remington. 1946 production. The buttstock has been cut and it has a poly choke. I got it for free when a friend's uncle died. The uncle bought it right after WW 2 when he returned from the Pacific.

Ernie

We always called polychokes a "dial-a-duck".

I hunt upland birds exclusively, so while I love the A-5, the Browning Twelvette is my idea of perfection. My Twelvette is semi-retired due to steel shot issues and the only shotgun that comes close to the handling characteristics is the Benelli Ultralight.