No, I haven’t shot it because it didn’t look right. The barrel ring is different than my other Belgium a5s that I have. Looks more like my Japanese 20. I’m suspecting that you are correct that the forearm is forcing the barrel back too far. I tried a forearm from my dads Japanese 12 and although the fit was much better the barrel extension was still protruding more than I normally see with the bolt open.
The early 16’s have that same ramp style barrel ring. I put a later production forearm my 1910 16 and had the same issue FWIW
That amount of extension visible looks normal to me. What matters is the bolt/barrel lockup. Close the bolt and, holding the gun by the barrel, push a dowel down the bore. If you can’t push the bolt back, it’s locked and safe to shoot. Then if the shells feed and eject, you’re good. Normal wear on the forearm will allow the barrel to sit further forward. Too far and you’ll get damage to the receiver where the operating handle slams into it. Ask Biz about his “Mystery Notch”. But most likely the forearm will split before that happens.
I found the Mystery Notch conversation: https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/very-early-auto-5-mystery-notch.433327/#post-3516554
Got back to this a5 again today. The forearm appears to be the issue. It won’t allow the shotgun to go into battery unless I loosen the forearm. I think my solution is to take some material from the forearm so it doesn’t push the barrel down as far. Now I need to figure out how to do that and make sure I don’t remove too much material.
This is indeed the issue. I’ll have to find a new forearm or find a way to remove some material to make this one work.
Was able to remove enough material from the forearm to get the bolt to lockup properly. It shoots flawlessly now. While I had it apart I checked the stock and trigger and the serial numbers match. Only the forearm doesn’t match the shotgun.
