Browning Auto-5

In January 1902, John Moses Browning walked into Winchester's offices in New Haven after a 19-year partnership to offer them his revolutionary self-loading shotgun -- and walked out forever when they refused to pay per-unit royalties. He went to Remington next; while waiting in the outer office, Remington's president collapsed and died of a heart attack. Within weeks Browning was aboard a steamship to Belgium, where FN Herstal accepted his terms and launched the design that defined the semi-automatic shotgun for the next 97 years -- the longest continuous production run of any sporting firearm in history and the origin of Browning's century-long partnership with FN.

The Auto-5 was originally offered to Winchester in 1902, but when Winchester refused to pay royalties on each unit sold (demanding a flat buyout instead), John Browning walked out of their Connecticut offices -- ending a 19-year business relationship -- and took the design to Remington in New York. Browning was waiting in the Remington president's outer office when the president died of a heart attack, so he boarded a steamship to Belgium and struck a deal with FN Herstal, establishing the partnership that would define Browning's brand for the next century. The long-recoil action requires tuning via the friction ring stack around the magazine tube: rings arranged one way for light loads, inverted for heavy magnum loads -- failing to adjust correctly could damage the stock or cause failures to cycle. The 'humpback' receiver profile is so iconic that the 2012 modern A5 retains the silhouette despite using an entirely different short-recoil Kinematic Drive action. Military trench shotgun variants featured shorter 20-inch barrels, bayonet lugs, heat shields over the barrel, and military sling swivels. The Remington Model 11 was the first autoloading shotgun manufactured in the United States and was the standard U.S. military combat and training shotgun through WWII. Clark Gable, Ernest Hemingway, and John Wayne were all prominent Auto-5 owners. FN produced the Auto-5 from 1902 to 1975 in Belgium (interrupted only by WWII German occupation), after which production moved to Miroku in Japan from 1976 until the 1998 Final Tribute run. The Auto-5 was briefly revived for commemorative production but the line remained closed after 1999.