An SD member asked this: Completely off topic - sorry, but what is the sweet 16 Browning A5 like. Are they really sweet, or are they not?? So here's some thoughts.
I have owned, off and on, maybe now a half a dozen or eight Browning Auto 5 shotguns both before and after the Tory 1988 Act that introduced magazine restriction. Of these I have all bar two or three in 12 bore. So what, of those in 16 bore which is what the member asks? Two were Browning, one was a Remington. One of the Browning guns I owned in the 2000s was a fairly late made gun with crinkle finish on the receiver rather than bluing.
There are THREE distinct variations of the 16 bore. Those that have the front of trigger safety catch, those that have the rear of the trigger safety catch and those that have the rear of the trigger safety catch and also the "speed load" feature introduced in the 1950s. I have had one of each. But only one chambered in 2 3/4" as the others were chambered in 2 5/8" which is the British 2 1/2" near enough.
I'll address the Standard Sixteen vs Sweet Sixteen later.
To my mind the only A-5 guns worth having and especially with the magazine restriction law are those with the speedload feature. These are the ones that have the two piece loading platform. With these if the gun is empty with the bolt back inserting a cartridge into the magazine will make the speedload feature. The bolt will close on its own and, as it does, it will take that cartridge up and into the chamber. So there's none of the silly daft cartridge "hokey cokey" with many other self loading shotguns where you drop the cartridge into the ejection port and then press a button to send the bolt forward.
There then are "standard" guns, "magnum" guns and "lighweight" guns. The lightweight guns are named as "Light Twelve", "Sweet Sixteen" and "Light Twenty". These guns have the inside botton walls of the receiver machined to lighten them. They also have wood removed from the butt under the buttplate and if correctly barrelled the barrel ring that fits over the magazine tube might either be drilled with lightening holes OR machined with a "waist". To again remove metal. Some have a gold plated trigger.
The standard guns don't have this metal, or wood removed. The magnum guns are chambered for 76mm cartridges? All the others bar those 2 5/8" guns in 16 bore are chambered for 70mm cartridges but will if the load gives enough recoil work with British 65mm or 67.5mm ammunition.
Right. Back to Sweet vs Standard Sixteen. The American "Art's Gunshop" on You Tube has a video on the differences as noted. My 16 bore is a 70mm Standard Sixteen with the rear of trigger safety and the speedload. My Remingon that was held on s1 for flocking gulls when I had a fishery was 2 5/8" chambered, had the front trigger safety and no speedload. It was being a Remington of standard configuration.
I also have a Light Twelve. So what are my thoughts? The Light Twelve weighs the same as my Standard Sixteen to near enough a couple of ounces. In fact I think that the Light Twelve is lighter than the Standard Sixteen. Both are bored out to improved cylinder at some past time...the 16 guage by me. Both have plain twenty seven inch barrels with no top rib. I shoot as I always do from "gun down" be that on clays or on anything else.
With the usual tight chokes that most seem to have I find that all the criticisms of them being hard to hit anything with are quite accurate as some are choked ridiculously tight.
So why have a "16" (in 70mm) that weighs more than a "12" (in 70mm)? A cunning plan! British 16 guage guns are mostly 65mm. So when 2 3/4" 16 guage cartridges come up at auction, as they do, they make not a lot. Indeed I bought one thousand 70mm 16 guage at Holt's in December 2026 for £180 the thousand. And in my 70mm Standard Sixteen they work a treat and I can use when I can find then the old 16 guage Alphamax load of 1 1/8 ounce aka 32 gram.
But how do they shoot? For me, again both have the standard "hunting" stock configuration as against the less usual "trap" stock configuration I find that the Standard Sixteen handles better, for me, than the Light Twelve. This is with both firing a 28 gram load with plastic wad of English #6. But for others they may find different. The "trap" stocked Standard Twelve that I had had I didn't find handled as well.
So that's that really. If they don't have a speedload they are without much merit to me. But in 16 guage 2 5/8" chambereing in the UK we "Brits" have the benefit that for us 2 1/2" cartridges are an off the shelf product in 16 gauge.
I have owned, off and on, maybe now a half a dozen or eight Browning Auto 5 shotguns both before and after the Tory 1988 Act that introduced magazine restriction. Of these I have all bar two or three in 12 bore. So what, of those in 16 bore which is what the member asks? Two were Browning, one was a Remington. One of the Browning guns I owned in the 2000s was a fairly late made gun with crinkle finish on the receiver rather than bluing.
There are THREE distinct variations of the 16 bore. Those that have the front of trigger safety catch, those that have the rear of the trigger safety catch and those that have the rear of the trigger safety catch and also the "speed load" feature introduced in the 1950s. I have had one of each. But only one chambered in 2 3/4" as the others were chambered in 2 5/8" which is the British 2 1/2" near enough.
I'll address the Standard Sixteen vs Sweet Sixteen later.
To my mind the only A-5 guns worth having and especially with the magazine restriction law are those with the speedload feature. These are the ones that have the two piece loading platform. With these if the gun is empty with the bolt back inserting a cartridge into the magazine will make the speedload feature. The bolt will close on its own and, as it does, it will take that cartridge up and into the chamber. So there's none of the silly daft cartridge "hokey cokey" with many other self loading shotguns where you drop the cartridge into the ejection port and then press a button to send the bolt forward.
There then are "standard" guns, "magnum" guns and "lighweight" guns. The lightweight guns are named as "Light Twelve", "Sweet Sixteen" and "Light Twenty". These guns have the inside botton walls of the receiver machined to lighten them. They also have wood removed from the butt under the buttplate and if correctly barrelled the barrel ring that fits over the magazine tube might either be drilled with lightening holes OR machined with a "waist". To again remove metal. Some have a gold plated trigger.
The standard guns don't have this metal, or wood removed. The magnum guns are chambered for 76mm cartridges? All the others bar those 2 5/8" guns in 16 bore are chambered for 70mm cartridges but will if the load gives enough recoil work with British 65mm or 67.5mm ammunition.
Right. Back to Sweet vs Standard Sixteen. The American "Art's Gunshop" on You Tube has a video on the differences as noted. My 16 bore is a 70mm Standard Sixteen with the rear of trigger safety and the speedload. My Remingon that was held on s1 for flocking gulls when I had a fishery was 2 5/8" chambered, had the front trigger safety and no speedload. It was being a Remington of standard configuration.
I also have a Light Twelve. So what are my thoughts? The Light Twelve weighs the same as my Standard Sixteen to near enough a couple of ounces. In fact I think that the Light Twelve is lighter than the Standard Sixteen. Both are bored out to improved cylinder at some past time...the 16 guage by me. Both have plain twenty seven inch barrels with no top rib. I shoot as I always do from "gun down" be that on clays or on anything else.
With the usual tight chokes that most seem to have I find that all the criticisms of them being hard to hit anything with are quite accurate as some are choked ridiculously tight.
So why have a "16" (in 70mm) that weighs more than a "12" (in 70mm)? A cunning plan! British 16 guage guns are mostly 65mm. So when 2 3/4" 16 guage cartridges come up at auction, as they do, they make not a lot. Indeed I bought one thousand 70mm 16 guage at Holt's in December 2026 for £180 the thousand. And in my 70mm Standard Sixteen they work a treat and I can use when I can find then the old 16 guage Alphamax load of 1 1/8 ounce aka 32 gram.
But how do they shoot? For me, again both have the standard "hunting" stock configuration as against the less usual "trap" stock configuration I find that the Standard Sixteen handles better, for me, than the Light Twelve. This is with both firing a 28 gram load with plastic wad of English #6. But for others they may find different. The "trap" stocked Standard Twelve that I had had I didn't find handled as well.
So that's that really. If they don't have a speedload they are without much merit to me. But in 16 guage 2 5/8" chambereing in the UK we "Brits" have the benefit that for us 2 1/2" cartridges are an off the shelf product in 16 gauge.
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