Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire And yet another 520A back to work

This one was in bad condition when I got it. It sat disassembled in a box for quite a while. Then I found a buttstock for it, replaced numerous internal components,,.. copious quantities of cold blue.

This one has a 26" IC barrel, which is fairly unusual. Most of their commercial models came with 30" full choke barrels. Also, this one has a serial number that dates it to 1942,..which is a bit odd because the military took every 520A pump shotgun Stevens had in inventory in 1941 and supposedly, their entire 520A pump shotgun manufacturing was dedicated to the military during WW2. The military models had 20" barrels and a heat shield with a bayonet lug.

Somehow, this one escaped conscription. Due to it's manufacturing date, it's uncommon IC choke, and less than common 26" barrel, I think somebody at the factory may have built one to their personal favorite configuration and slipped it out the back door. Of course, I have no way of knowing.

I spent quite a bit of time on this one's action and it's very slick.

That's a fine looking bird gun....

That's an interesting shotgun and thanks for letting us common folks know about it.

Nice work.

I have one of those in a box... thanks for the inspiration.

I occurred to me that it was probably originally assembled with upland bird hunting in mind due to its IC choke and shorter barrel.

They're not too bad to work on. When you get ready let me know and I'll walk you through the process.

Used to be a lot of quail in KY.

How's the bird hunting now?

Given the work you put in those, this might be a dumb question,
But I ask them all the time.



Do you really like the 520A.
Or, did you just stumble across some projects?
How do they stack up against the M12, or M31.

I'm curious. I would walk right past them, but you posts
make me wonder if I've been missing something.
Yours sure do look nice.

Very few quail here these days.

I bought one of the later variants several years ago and dug into it. They're a Browning design, although Stevens made many modifications to the original design as years passed.

I don't know how they shape up against a model 12 or a model 31. But they're all forged steel and walnut and very well machined. A lot of hand fitting went into each one so replacing bolts and carriers in them can be a bit tricky. Many new, old stock parts are still available for them because Stevens ran off a lot of spares for the military during WW2. So it's possible to get the actions back into good operating condition.

The shell lifter spring and the slide lock spring will often need to be replaced in one that has seen a lot of use. But they're available and don't cost too much. The firing pins won't take much dry firing and, while not particularly fragile, will break if not treated right. I always put a new firing pin and a new firing pin retaining pin in any that I go through.

There's a couple of little things that you need to pay attention to, but they're not particularly finicky old guns. Once you get them right, they should hold up for quite a while if you lube them up and don't dry fire them.

I’ve got an old Stevens 720 (semiauto, looks like an old Auto 5), of roughly the same vintage. Picked it up real cheap at a local gun shop that’s notorious for over pricing their guns.

They just thought it was a run-of-the-mill old Stevens.

Joke was on them. On close examination, it’s got the “flaming bomb” stamped on it.

It’s not any kind of riot gun or anything. Looks like a standard 26” hunting shotgun. As you probably know, the military bought lots of them for recreational use for the soldiers, and also for gunnery practice, to teach folks how to shoot at moving targets.

No other “military” markings on the gun, other than that small “flaming bomb”.

Yeah, I knew that the military bought many shotguns with standard length barrels to train aerial gunners.

Good stuff.

From what I've read, quite a few of the old Stevens 520 trench guns were still in inventory and got sent to Vietnam.

Here's an old WW2 vintage Stevens 520 in military configuration being carried in Vietnam.

Looks good. Very nice job.

They weren’t all that old, then.

Good article on shotguns used in Vietnam.

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2016/4/22/combat-shotguns-of-the-vietnam-war/

I like keeping things all original but if you could find one that was truly ragged out, it would be cool to rebuild one in that configuration.

Faux or not.

There's a company that makes reproductions of the heat shields,..a bit pricey. Also, the military stocks and fore ends have no checkering, so to look authentic you'd have to come up with the furniture, also. I've seen the parts necessary to assemble a reproduction around here and there.

Also, quite a few fakes have been put together and sold as originals. Genuine Stevens 520A military shotguns (520-30) go for about $4000.