40+ year old shells

[moooose102]

took my dad's browning auto-5 out yesterday for the first time in at least 15 years. i put it in deep long term storage after he died. i have many old shells that he bought, some when he was duck hunting in the sixties. all of the shells i loaded shot just fine, although 3 of them did not eject. i am assuming they didnt have enough power to operate the gun. it still shot great. man i love that gun. to bad i couldnt find anything to kill. the woods were silent. i saw lots of fresh tracks, must have been the wrong time of day. or 50 round of target practice scared them back to their nests!

 

[Javelin]

Don't mean to get off topic but were the shells paper or plastic?

 

[308win]

If they were paper hulls they may have been swollen from moisture. They should be fine. My limited evperience with old paper hulls is they seemed a little stouter I believe because the powder had dried out and generated a little more energy. The ones I found were in a dark dry closet. Also, did you check the orientation of the gas rings on your A5; they may have been in the heavy load position and your loads may have been light loads although my dad's A5 functions fine in this configuration. Had you cleaned it as some gun oil gets gummy and stiff with age.

 

[Owen Sparks]

My Dad has an old Remington model 11 that is a built under license replica of the auto 5. He has had it for about 50 years. I contacted Remington and talked to the company historian. This thing was made in 1910! It still shoots great but I only feed it field loads now.

 

[rcmodel]

all of the shells i loaded shot just fine, although 3 of them did not eject.

You have to set the friction rings for the power of the loads you are shooting.

If it is set up for heavy duck loads, it won't eject light trap & field loads.

If it is set up for light loads, heavy loads will knock the snot out of you and the gun.

http://www.browning.com/faq/detail.asp?ID=105

PS: Disregard any referances to steel shot loads in these instructions. Your old Browning should never be fired with steel shot. The barrel is too thin at the choke constriction.

It is perfectly safe with any modern Magnum or high-brass lead shot loads, as long as you have the friction rings set correctly for them.


rcmodel

 

[moooose102]

there were both paper and plastic shells, i did not check the load selector. to tell you the truth, i had forgotten about it intill i had shot 10 or 15 rounds, and then i wasnt sure which way was which. i am going to have to dig out the owners manual and check. it has been lots of years since i have shot it. and yes, i cleaned the snot out of it before and after shooting it. to me its a family heirloom, and i will try to take care of it the best i can.

 

[308win]

If you cleaned the mag tube that the friction bearing slides on you want to re-lube it. I would check the recoil reduction set up and lube the mag tube and try them again.

I am thinking about taking my dad's Auto5 rabbit hunting this weekend; I am hesitant because I don't want to take a chance that anything could happen to it. I don't have much that was his thanks to a step parent.

 

[ImARugerFan]

If it is set up for heavy duck loads, it won't eject light trap & field loads.

Wow, this is amazing information for me. I've always thought that my sweet 16 just wasn't good at ejecting light loads so I only used it for heavy load applications, I had no idea about this adjustment, thanks!

 

[rcmodel]

If you cleaned the mag tube that the friction bearing slides on you want to re-lube it.

That's only true up to a point.

That point is when you go to 2 3/4 Magnum loads.
Then you want all the friction you can get, so leave the tube clean & dry. It helps a lot with recoil reduction.

Actually, oiling or not oiling the tube can even be used to fine-tune with medium recoiling hunting loads. (IE: dry tube with light friction ring setting - oiled tube with heavy friction ring setting - dry tube with heavy setting, etc.)


rcmodel

 

[2RCO]

Bingo RC--Friction rings one of brownings greatest innovations you can shoot anything out of an auto 5 with a little minor adjustment.

 

[308win]

rcmodel

Not to nitpick but his orginal issue was a failure to cycle (actually eject) so too little friction isn't the issue. We have been assuming all along or at least I have that the extractors and ejector are functioning.

IAMARUGERFAN

Go to the Browning site and there is a downloadable manual that you need to have around.