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Member Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 371 Location: mpls mn

went out a tried to shoot my sweet 16 and it would'nt cycle
1. its clean and the mag tube is wipe very very lightly with brake free
2. I tried the spacer ring on top of the mag tube and spring and on the bottom
3. It works with 1950's eley high velocity 1 1/8 of 4s
but not remington gl 7/8 or fiocchi 1 oz game loads or superx game loads

seems like it will not kick the bolt back enough to eject the empty

where do I start to take care of this?

thanks rp

Generally speaking, A5's don't like light loads very much. I have 4 of them and they are very fussy with low pressure, light shot loads. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won't.

A few things you might try are putting a bit more lube on the magazine tube, I have had some luck with stuff called STOS which supposedly stands for Slicker Than Owl Stuff. Second, try loading your GL's a little hotter so you have enough recoil to cycle the bolt. These guns are recoil operated and if you go light there is not enough force to push the barrel back, eject the empty, load a new round into the chamber and reset the firing pin.

The load that I have used is from Lyman's 5th Edition, Pg. 184. 18 grains of Green Dot, Rem 209P primer, Rem SP16 1 1/8 oz. wad with a 20 ga. felt under shot wad. I have substituted the Rem R16 1 oz. wad which is an acceptable substitution. This load has a muzzle velocity of 1266 fps and a pressure of 9800 LUP.

It's a bit stout but it should cycle your gun. If you have been shooting 1 1/ oz. loads it probably won't bother you too much.

Good luck.

Member Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 161 Location: New Mexico

I'ver had a number of them that exhibit this symptom. Jeff M. advised me to wrap some 0000 steel wool around a bronze bore brush and chuck it in a drill on a section of cleaning rod. Polish the chamber throughly. Worked every time for me.

Member Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 781

While your polishing the chamber (ala Slim), check to see if the forend is rubbing on the barrel.

Use a piece of dental floss or some such run back and forth flossing bwetween the barrel and forend to see if or where the wood is rubbing. Touch up the high spots with a little 600 grit wet dry paper, using the barrel as a form.

Jeff

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 1257 Location: Nebraska

My light reloads of 7/8oz won't fully cycle my standard A5, and a friend of mine suggested removing the friction pieces entirely. That's what he's done to get lighter-than-light reloads to cycle his A5, but I've not tried that. I also wouldn't recommend it for your gun as factory GL and Winchesters should cycle with the light load arrangement as indicated by Browning. They cycle my A5 just fine, and I'd go with the cleaning recommendations.
kgb

Member Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 781

The rings are there for 2 reasons.

The first is to slow the barrel under recoil. With really light loads you can get an A5 to cycle by removing the rings and the recoil does no real harm.

The second reason for the ring is to slow the barrel as it moves forward back into battery. With no rings it slams into the wood as fast as the spring can move it and it will eventually split the forend at the front.

They look sort of like this:

If you have an endless supply of forends, or want to pay someone to repair them go ahead take out the rings.

On the other hand, if you insure that the gun is very clean, including the action spring tube and chamber it will probably cycle 7/8 oz loads as long as you get them up to about 1200 fps.

Jeff

Member Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 371 Location: mpls mn

Last night after our skeet league I checked out shooting sioux's 16 gauge A5. My friction ring was a hell of a lot tighter on the magazine tube-we swapped just to see how they fit his fits a lot looser on my gun although we did get to test fire. We tried opening mine up with a flat blade screw driver but no luck the spring around it refused to cooperate- I may need to order a new one
We also pulled off the stock and trigger group just for the hell of it- gotta say I am always impressed with the cratfsmanship of the a5s