The Browning Automatic 5
John Browning began designing firearms when he was a young man and gained his first patent when he was 24 years of age. In 1898 he designed the first semiautomatic shotgun, the Browning Auto-5 that was patented in 1900. This recoil operated semiautomatic shotgun remained in production until 1998, almost 100 years. The designation of Auto-5 means that it is an autoloader with a capacity of five shots, four in the magazine and one in the chamber.
Easy to Identify
The Browning Auto-5 is affectionately referred to as the "Humpback", a name coined in recognition of its distinctive high rear end. The top of the action travels straight back level with the barrel before it sharply cuts down towards the buttstock. This is the feature that makes identifying the Auto-5 from a distance an easy task. Produced in a variety of gauges, with 12 and 20 gauges being prominent, the Auto-5s included 16 gauge as well. The Auto-5 was produced from 1902 until 1999.
The History of the Auto-5
He called it his best achievement when John Browning presented his model to Winchester, the firm that had purchased many of his designs. Unwilling to accept Browning's terms, Winchester declined and Browning approached Remington with his design. The president of Remington died from a heart attack before the company could respond to Browning's offer, so he took his design overseas to produce it. FN of Belgium, a company that had already produced Browning-designed pistols, began manufacturing the Auto-5 in 1902. Remington, who later purchased the design, produced the same gun as their Model 11 and continued doing so from 1905 through 1948. The Remington Model 11 was the first auto-loading shotgun made in the US. The design was also licensed by Savage who produced it as their model 720 from 1930 to 1949, and their model 745 with an alloy receiver and 2-shot magazine from 1941 to 1949.
US Production
After the start of the Second World War, Browning moved the production of the Auto-5 from Belgium to the US, where production continued in the Remington Arms plant. It was produced alongside the Remington Model 11, the same design, until after the war when FN could resume production. The difference between the Remington Model 11 and the Remington-produced Browning shotguns was the magazine cutoff on the Browning. By the time production ended in 1947, around 850,000 Remington Model 11 shotguns had been produced. In 1952 FN resumed Browning model production and it continued there until the end. In 1975, even though production was still being done in Belgium, the majority of it had been moved to Japan. In 1998 production of A-5s stopped, except for some commemorative models. After the Remington 1100, the Auto-5 was established as the second-best-selling auto-loading shotgun in the history of the US.
Operation of the Auto-5
The Browning Auto-5 is a long-recoil operated semi-automatic shotgun. A tubular magazine under the barrel stores the shells. When the shell in the chamber is fired, both barrel and bolt recoil together and recock the hammer. When the barrel returns to the forward position the bolt stays behind then the spent shell is ejected. Then the bolt returns forward and another shell is fed from the magazine into the action. Patented in 1900 by John Browning, this long recoil action was the first of its kind ever designed.
In order to load an Auto-5, the shells are fed into the bottom of the action and from there are pushed into the magazine. In order to comply with US Federal laws for migratory waterfowl and some state hunting regulations, most Auto-5s have removable plugs in the magazine that prevent more than three shells from being loaded - two in the magazine and one in the chamber. Without the plug, the capacity is five rounds.
The rate of recoil is governed by a system of friction rings. It is important that these rings are set properly in order to have good shotgun performance and to ensure the longevity of the gun. Controlling excessive recoil helps to keep the gun operating for a long time.