I have never seen one and don’t think they ever used a mid bead, but I have an older solid rib barrel that has a hole for a mid bead. Did browning ever have any auto 5 with a mid bead?
I have at least one. Off the top of my head, I think is my Japanese 20 gauge. (The only NON-BELGIAN one I own, for the record.) I don't recall any of my Belgian ones having one, but in my advanced years......
It may have been special ordered. But more likely someone did it later. And since the “solid rib” is actually hollow, it’s no wonder the bead is missing.
yep, damn hackers! is there a fix that you know of to fill in the hole, looks like damn near impossible. only thing I can think of is new rib put on it. ouch! And that's if I can find find someone to do it. If special order is there any way to confirm that. This is a 1929 grade II.
You can get a letter from Browning, but I doubt it would mention a mid bead. There’s a good chance that the hole goes through the rib and into the barrel. If so, a bead with an extra long threaded portion will work.
so little update on the mid bead. I will have some proof that it was a $2 option in 1935 for a set of ivory beads. I can only get a picture of an old Browning catalog, hopefully today.
Ok this is how tackled similar problem on a nice B3 grade B25 superposed O/U with a successful outcome. Removing a rib was not an option. Mindful it was a rare medium width vent rib barrel. Made a small precision backing strip that was correct thickness between gap in rib and barrel. Slid in position under unwanted bead hole with bit of CRC. Then under bench magnifier and barrel in vice felt grips. Used toothpick minute rub of flux and with a electric soldering iron and steady hand did a semi cold lead wipe into bead hole to make a plug . Neatness paramount .patience and time essential. Then with needle files and head loupe dressed and super patiently hand scraped and worked the slug until blended and matched other file cut cross hatching without touching bluing. Also ground various needle files into scraping gravers. Slid out block and touched lead dot with Nikko pen. Presto a reasonable repair that stayed put and looked acceptable . But, very time consuming. Hope this gives ideas
Auzzie: Damn it, lets see some pictures of that. I did do a little research on it last night just to see if anything is available. Wow, there are lots, but nothing specific for the auto 5. I am assuming that the mid bead was just pressed in, and is smaller then the front bead for obvious reasons. Then I wondered if it was an ivory bead? Well you can still get an ivory bead that was made with tusk, before they banned it. My 410 citori has a mid bead, looks like it would work perfect, but no one has them. So little more or lot more research, thought it was funny, but found a couple post about big brother coming to get you if you have a true ivory bead now days, hence, the look alike beads. I can just see it now, running a straight 25 and on station 8, big brother shows up with a pair of needle nose wanting my mid bead. Well there goes that round!!!! not really I don't see those beads anyway.
Will do tonight, I will say I wasn't all that impressed with the grade II before, then when I had it up close in my hands it was a different story. I'm really not a fan of the grade IV at all, but guessing that would change if I ever had one.
No email from Browning as of this post. FYI Lenny is no longer there. They have a new guy, younger, and he does not have the knowledge that Lenny had, but he is a nice guy and offered to dig in some stuff, while I waited on the phone. He said he is doing lots of letters and 6 months behind... He works 2 days a week. Now that would be an interesting job to have! Guess between all of us here we could keep the light burning well into the late night hours.
Ranger, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of end result as that beauty gun got moved on long long time back in favour of a speedboat in my early 20”s . What was I thinking !!!! Parties, Beer and Bikini at the time. Been looking for it for sale ever since never to be seen again.
Ranger that repair was very successful and I was able to set the barrel up in mill and precision re drill the centre hole in the lead plug repair with a tiny number drill like a mini bushing Setting up true in mill was the headache to make sure the drill was spot on central and didn’t wander. From memory the mid bead shank was tap in taper fit. There was option of straight or taper fit beads available then Also remembered it was a 1973 year and definitely used non ivory bright white from factory because we looked at older guns for research and the ivory is more Matt and tarnishes slight yellowing even on the mid bead. Used nano smeare of loctite 680 to make sure it was there for keeps. Guy that helped me was into model railroad stuff so he was used to fiddley micro stuff and knew lots of tricks. Nothing you or your buddy with the machine shop couldn’t do if required. Brownells also do a parallelogram rail drill jig for putting mid beads in ribs off the shelf. You may find mid bead off a B 2000 do the trick and be right scale/proportion.
Auzzie: thanks for the good tips. I’ve never seen a B2000 so I will check one out. Might have seen one last week while I was checking out the grade II. It’s on the back burner for now. Daughter ask me to take her deer hunting, so I got 3 weeks to get her comfortable with shooting a riffle. I have been waiting for a while for this opportunity so gonna take it while I can. We will be at the ranch until after Thanksgiving on the weekends. And from my experience those bikini’s and beer will get you in a lot of trouble.
I received some info today on the mid bead so thought I would share. Just when you think you have the auto 5 figured out, you find something that makes you scratch the ole noggin. Sorry it’s a crappy pic, but it won’t print any better. If you blow it up you can see a yellow sticky that list the ivory bead set for $2.00. As I continue the research, cause I haven’t seen a barrel with the actual mid bead yet, I found some reference to a skeet and trap model.
