The story of how the Browning Auto-5 entered production

John M. Browning considered the A5 to be his best design. Up to that point he was selling many of his designs to Winchester on a flat fee. With the A5 he decided he wanted a fee plus royalties from the gun. He met with Winchester to discuss building the gun and they would not agree to royalties, so he went elsewhere. This disagreement effectively ended his relationship with that company (Later, Winchester also didn’t really want a semi-auto gun that would compete with the Model 12).

So then JMB set a meeting with Remington. He was in the waiting room to discuss the project when the president of Remington died of a heart attack, so the agreement didn’t happen at that time.

Finally he approached Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and worked out a deal to build the gun. They manufactured and sold it as the Browning Auto 5. Much later production was handled by Miroku in Japan.

Soon after Remington contracted to build a version of the A5 known as the Model 11. This Remington was the first American made semi-auto shotgun. Savage later built a couple of versions as well. These guns are long gone from production.

I believe the last Auto 5 was sold by Browning in 1999 as the ‘Last Tribute’ guns, almost 100 years after the model was introduced. Somewhat curiously no other companies have built a version since.

If you have ever shot an old ‘Humpback’ you know it is a unique feel from other shotguns with the movement of the action (barrel moving back into the receiver!). If not, give it a try. You might get hooked.