Book Review: Browning Auto-5 Shotguns
Forgotten Weapons
•
5m 0s
I am normally more interested in military small arms than sporting ones, but the Browning Auto-5 is such an important firearm that it deserves the recognition of and proper small arms enthusiast. It was not only the first long recoil firearm, but also the first viable semiautomatic shotgun - and it remained very popular for many decades. H.M. Shirley, Jr and Anthony Vanderlinden teamed up to write the definitive reference work on the gun, covering everything from prototypes and Browning's patents as he designed it to the Japanese production almost a century later. The book begins with an excellent extended overview of the history of FN, John Browning, and their collaborations - a section which will be excellent reading for anyone not familiar with that history (and with lots of detail that many folks probably don't know). It then explains really every aspect of the gun's production and variation - proofing, barrel marks, different grades and options, mechanics, serial numbers and date codes, special models, engraving, and more. This really is a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in the FN production of the Auto-5!
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Book Review: Arming the West
Published in 2008, "Arming the West" is, as it self-describes, "a fresh new look at the guns that were actually carried on the frontier." Herbert Houze used the sales records of the Shuyler, Hartley, and Graham company to compile a survey of the makes and models of firearms actually shipped to th...
-
Book Review: US Aerial Armament in Wo...
Aircraft armament is an area of firearms study that is vastly under appreciated by most people, largely because it's difficult to study aircraft guns without the aircraft themselves (and those take up a lot of storage space, among other things). William Wolf's book on US WWII aircraft armament is...
-
Does the Boberg/Bullpup9 Design Reduc...
If you ask Bond Arms, they will tell you that their Bullpup9 (previously the Boberg XR9S) gets multiple benefits from its unique operating mechanism. Most everyone familiar with the gun knows about the idea that it provides and extra cartridge-length worth of barrel for the same overall length as...
