[Slimjim]

I just picked up an auto-5 tonight, its a belgium made gun. And the serial number is 849** Can someone give me the date of manufacture.

[Dionysusigma]

Can someone date my auto-5?
Sure! :)

*reads post under title*

... oh... :uhoh: :o

*walks away, tossing flowers and 12ga into the bin* :(

[Imshootin]

There a "Date Your Gun" service right on the Browning website.
http://www.browning.com/services/dategun/index.asp

[Slimjim]

Yeah, i found it was made between 1903 and 1939. Wow..Pretty old. I bought it as a shooter, should i just store it now that its this old?

Also, can anyone tell me about the cutts comp it has installed on it?

[Dave McCracken]

It's still a shooter,Jim. Like all JMB designs, it's nigh immortal.

New rings and springs ought to keep it perking along well into the century.

The Cutts device turns kick into noise. Skeet shooters used to love them.

I'm going to be at PGC Saturday, probably working with the kid program. Bring it out and we'll wring it out. Been too long since we shot together anyway.

[mswestfall]

I see the Browning Website says that serialization before WWII is just a guess. The Blue Book of Gun Values guesses that serial numbers between 79,151-88,000 were made in 1926. (Assumes it's a 12 gauge.)

You see alot of A5's with Cutts Compensators and Polychokes.

The A5 is one of the most innovative designs in Shotgun history. Shoot the heck out of it.

Most of them make a distinctive metallic "ping" when fired.

I use an 1950's era field A5 as my first choice for pheasants.

[Capstick1]

The front wood forend on my old Auto Five cracked when I started burning up lots of rounds in Trap shooting. If you look around on the websites you can still find the more durable synthetic stocksets for this shotgun. If you plan on doing some heavy shooting with this gun it wouldn't be a bad idea to atleast replace that wood forend assembly with a synthetic one. From asking around I've been hearing that the Auto fives are notorious for cracking wooden forends with heavy use. It will probably make the shotgun look a little ugly but you shouldn't have any problems with cracked forends. Other than that I think the Auto Five is one of my favorite shotguns.

[Big Az Al]

My trap A5 is on it's third or is it the fourth forend,

I traded off one forend along the way, the throws my math off A little.

I also made a forend and put that one the Trap gun, the synthetic ended up on the skeet A5. But hech they are a mix master set to me no telling what will end up were, when I am in the mood, although the TRAP gun is pretty well set as it stands right now