Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Browning Double Auto

Why do we hear so little about them...I get the only two shot issue, however would take a Double Auto over an A5 everytime. For looks alone, without that wall in front of your eye, Along with a short recoil system that mostly eliminated the double shuffle....

They seem to have a cult following. They talk about the various colored receivers. Collect them accordingly.

DF

Pretty rare in my neck of the woods. I'm in Browning country, folks around here put Browning guns on a pedestal. Especially so the shotguns and most especially the Belgian guns. And the Double Auto just isn't found even though there are a lot of used Auto Fives around.

I shot one in skeet configuration way back when. I liked it and it has been on my want list for awhile but my gun fund is usually depleted when I fine one.

Don't blaspheme here.....

Glad you like them, and it looks like you shoot one well. So, happy trails with your A5’s. 👍🏻

Myself, I’ve shot them and the only way I would spend money on one is if I could turn it quickly for a profit.

Nice! A Sweet Sixteen was my dad's favorite shotgun. Dad seemed magical with that Auto Five, he just never missed. Or so it seemed as a kid growing up. I've always had a special fondness for the Auto Five and have an especially well preserved 1967 20 gauge in the safe. I shoot it well and enjoy the feel and looks of the nice walnut and pretty blued steel.

Wild bird hunting in the south ( around here anyway ) has devolved from the genteel sport of yesterday into modern guerilla warfare. What wild birds that remain today are quite different from dad's birds that would flush as a covey, fly a hundred yards, and set back down as a covey. Today's quail flush wild, and tend to hole up in the meanest, nastiest cutovers and briar thickets they can find.

Double autos are neat little guns but there is no way I would limit myself to two shots while hunting wild birds today.

Heresy in this thread. I love my A-5's.

Never shot a double auto. One of my friends had one but preferred his Citori, and a guy brought two of them out to Scattergun Lodge one December and couldn't make either of them work.

I have a pair of Double Autos, one mod plain barrel with a grey receiver and one black one with a vent rib IC barrel.

The grey one is older with slightly different stock dimensions and fits me perfectly. The day I bought it we went to shoot trap and I ran 49 straight with the first 49 shells I ever loaded into it. It’s my serious pheasant gun and gets used on doves when conditions are tough with high winds or scarce birds.

The black one I have killed a few pheasants with and a handful of quail but I don’t get it out much since I prefer the grey one.

I bought both of them back before anyone wanted them for a little bit of nothing, gave $400 for the grey one in as new condition and $200 for the black one in decent shape.

Nice 👍👍

Your hunting pics with your crew are some of the best here!!!!

I use to collect them. had every bbl ever made for them. every color too. well, not all of them. many never made it out of the factory.
I do have a factory lettered red one. anyone care to part with 5 digits...lmk.

Dang! This is a shotgun that I have never come across. I bet they uphold the Browning reputation nicely.

Honestly the only reason I ever tried one was because when I was about 9 my grandparents got me a gun values book. In the Browning section it had a black and white photo and a brief description of the Twelvette. I had always been curious about them but never saw one in person. One day me and the wife were in a gun shop we frequented and there was the grey one I ended up with.

It looked brand new and I handled it and put it back on the rack at least a half dozen times before she told me I’d better go ahead and buy it. I had the clerk call the consigned party and make an offer but he wouldn’t budge so I paid him his $400. It shows some age now because I use it as it was intended but I’m glad I bought it. My favorite feature is the safety, perfectly placed and ingeniously simple and sure in design.

After I got a couple and showed them to my friend two of them had to have one. One has since passed on but he had a nice solid rib that had a grey receiver and had been to a Briley for tubes. The other bought a steel receiver model with a rib and uses it regularly on his annual pilgrimage to the pheasant fields.

the gun was first marketed in Europe and failed. Europe at the time didn't like semi autos. the gun was designed to comply with euro rules of only 2 shots allowed at a bird. euro shooters tended to have smaller hands, so the early small pistol grip was offered. when it failed, they brought it to usa and it failed again because hunters in the usa preferred 3 shots or more. and we had bigger hands. in 1960, the grip was enlarged on all models. in the 20 years it was offered, less than 50,000 were made. wasn't very popular and tended to kick the snot out the owners.
the wood had to be redesigned 4 times to address the cracking issues. it ended up being loved or hated. well built indeed. pointing and swinging top notch. a bit light but a nice gun. many complained about the weight on the early steel receiver, and the lightweight was created. in the late 50's and early 60's, the advent of non recoiling bbls spelled doom for the gun.
and to add to the curse of the gun, val browning got caught breaking international law by attempting to side step the double auto import laws from Belgium. it cost him his position at browning.

The first Double Auto I saw and handled I bought. It's a "Twentyweight" solid rib-cylinder choke gun. I like it and the light weight is nice for packing up mountains. I have found when other people shoot it if they dont have a solid hunt to their shoulder it can fail to extract or chamber the next round. but with proper mount and hold it functions perfectly. Like stated above the safety is nice, especially for a lefty (like me). The safety was a big selling point for me.

speed loading was a great feature on them.

The most recent article on the Browning Double Auto that I'm aware of was in Guns Magazine, December 2020. Have never heard that Val Browning lost his position at Browning......I do know that when he died, he still had a work bench at the factory, on which was a Browning Double that he had mounted a Broadway rib on----he tinkered with them for his entire life.

https://gunsmagazine.com/guns/shotguns/browning-double-automatic/

it was the only gun he designed.

heres my double auto collection going out the door. I traded them for a 40 acre farm with a skeet/trap range. they were either nib or 2 bbl cased sets in every color made.