Someone help me figure out what I've got here. I bought this A5 at a gunshow a while back. I've done a little research and I haven't been able to find one like it. I'm a gun enthusiast but have not seen an A5 such as this.
What's the issue? It looks like a normal Light Twelve made between 1951-'57. The wood is lighter than usual. What am I missing?
I was just having trouble finding one that looked like it with the light wood and the solid rib barrel. What kind of wood is it?
Can anyone explain to me the solid rib barrel and the light wood? I'm not familiar with the combination...how about approximate value?
Solid ribs (actually hollow) were an option by 1923. Vent ribs were offered a few years later. In my opinion your shotgun would sell for $400-$600, depending on choke and condition. You get a lot of shotgun for the money, and vice versa.
Thanks for the info. Just curious as to why this particular gun is worth half of what most other A5's are?
In my experience, that's what fixed choke, 1950's Auto-5's sell for. $1200 guns have screw-in chokes and are safe for steel shot. If you go to GunBroker you'll see that prices are all over the place, but to get an idea of value you have to look at the actual bids. As I said, this is just my opinion. YMMV...
I feel that gunbroker typically boosts prices a great deal because of the larger selling area covered. I expect to pay more if I find something I want on gunbroker simply due to competition. I only view shotguns for turkey and squirrel hunting (although I haven't done either since at least 2010) so I only want full chokes. That is a very pretty shotgun and I hope you enjoy it for years to come. I grew up hunting with an old (and abused/neglected) 870 Wingmaster but the friend that taught me how to hunt had an Auto 5 in 12 gauge. His dad had ordered it as a Sweet 16 but was sent that Light 12 instead. My friend hunted the heck out of that shotgun and I found it to be intriguing. It had a magazine cut-0ff and all that engraving......I was really interested. New A5 prices were just too high for me and they stopped making them in 1999. In 2003 I bought my first A5, from gunbroker, a 12 gauge, for around $500 or so. It was a C&R, so I could use my license, but it has the single piece loading gate. It's a re-blue, but must have belonged to someone of means or style, as it is engraved with initials. I used it on just one hunt, killing a squirrel from high out of a tree in the fall of 2004 with one shot. Do you intend to hunt with this shotgun?
Beautiful gun you have there. I have a 1971 Belgium A5 Light 12 with the same wood. I've always been curious as to why it has such light colored wood when compared to my other A5's. Does anyone have an answer to this mystery?
I have a guess. After 2 World Wars, Europe's supply of walnut was running low. At the same time, demand for Brownings was very strong. I think they switched from heart wood to sap wood to keep up. Edit: Changed hard to heart.
Might be the right answer. I know Germany was so out of walnut they went to laminated wood by mid war and then to a type of synthetic for stocks. I know Sweden used maple for M96 stocks during WWI.
