I must admit I haven't posted in awhile, my divorce is all but final, and with the apparent proper alignment of the moons, I didn't lose any of my guns. (For some odd reason she did end up with a safe (??).) I kept the house, but will lose probably all of my military vehicles, but I digress...... Anyway, let's spice things up here, it's been kinda quiet. I was out shooting 5-stand the other night. (5-stand is when trap and sporting clays have a baby.) I grabbed a 1950 Auto5 I have gravitated towards whenever I shoot 5-stand, as it has a Poly-choke, which makes things a little bit easier. It is in excellent condition, and has---like every other Auto5 I have---proven to be the ultimate in reliability. Over the years I have stood there and watched guys trying to get their brand new inertia/gas operated whiz-bang $1500 shotgun to cycle while my 50-100 year old Auto5 is silently laughing at them in my hands. (I guess if an Auto5 can have a soul, they can also laugh, right? Customarily I shoot Federal 3 dram 1 oz low base #8s--which is usually what's on sale at the local Chinamart, however this time I was using Estate 2 3/4 dram 1 1/8 oz #8s. Those too have never been a problem in any of my guns. Never. So anyway, I called for the clay bird and pulled the trigger. (This thing shoots so good I could probably leave it in the rack back at the on-deck waiting bench, call for a bird and it would still break it!) The gun went bang, as expected---however it went bang TWICE!!!! It fired both rounds, much to my surprise. I dead-lined it, and used another Auto5 I brought. Afterwards, once I got home and disassembled it down to a bare receiver, I found absolutely nothing amiss. No unusual wear anywhere, the trigger sear surfaces look fine and dandy, even under a magnifying glass. I have been inside countless Auto5s, built several from nothing, repaired some that other's wouldn't touch, and without sounding arrogant, like to think I have learned my way around older Auto5s. The innards in this gun look fine. Is there any way it could have been ammo related? Maybe the first load was a shade lighter than it should have been, causing the breech block (why couldn't FN have named it a "bolt" like every other gun manufacturer in the world?) to move rearward only enough to cycle the second round into the chamber but not far enough to catch the sear? Nawwww, I can't see that happenin". However, if the gun has no apparent issues, ammo would be my next guess. (I have an old 9mm Sterling class three, and weak ammo will cause that to double and triple tap on its own due to the condition I described above.) Any guesses? Until I get a definitive "cause" it will remain off line from my 5-stand/trap/sporting clays adventures. And, BTW, it doesn't matter what's right, what's wrong, what's fair, what's equal, it doesn't even matter what the law says---all it boils down to is who's got the better lawyer. BTDT.
They say a mainspring screw that’s not properly tightened can cause an Auto-5 to go full auto. It never made sense to me, but “they” are Art Isaacson and the Field Service Manual. So who am I to argue? And the mainspring screw is the only one on the gun without a lock screw. EDIT: I just double checked the FSM. It also states it could be what amounts to a bump fire, which I find much more likely. It says “Trigger pull too light”. Which I suppose could be fixed by a new trigger spring. Another possibility is the “U gap in trigger too wide”.
I could see the mainspring screw causing an issue, however, never had it happen to me. The bump fire is a possible. The ammo would be a good starting place in my mind. I have had hang fire issues, with the cheap stuff from wally world, twice in the last couple months with different guns. The 525 lasted about 30 sec, which I didn't think it was going to go off at all. When I went to break open the gun, it went off. Thank god I was ready and no one got hurt. It still scared the shit out of me, and never care to experience it again. Keep us posted please!
What kind of ammo gave you the hang fire? I’ve been buying Federal from Wal-Mart, which I’ve always liked.
The Winchester universal. I also switched to federal now and no issues. Last weekend a friend of mine had the same Winchester's and caused a FTF, I loaded it in my Auto5 and tried three times with the same FTF. Primer had a good hit, several times.
I will double check the mainspring screw. I usually grab the Federal stuff at Chinamart. (Until the recent ammo shortage thing..) Winchester white box simply doesn't run well in many of my Auto5s- and numerous other guys I shoot with say they don't like the Win white box stuff either. The common complaint is failure-to extract. Most of the time the extractor pulls a chip off of the rim of the hull, leaving a spent hull in the chamber. (Trigger pull is average, not noticeably lighter than any of my other ones.) With as many rounds as I have through my Auto5s, I can't hardly think I would have involuntarily "bump-fired" it, but alas.......... I'm all ears.
I hate those, though I’ve never had a failure to fire, let alone a hang fire. The just never fed well in my guns. Probably QA is even lower now with the rush to production.
Very interesting . Don't know if this is any help. I have been playing around with a brand new Benelli Supersport Yuk! for a guy that did exactly what your describing by doubling intermittently one day and on five stand too!!!. What it turned out to be in the end was slightly excessive play in the sideways movement of the safety sear and not catching consistent. Depending on who shot the gun it would do it or not and was obviously how they leaned on the trigger and how much they released it after the initial shot had gone off. In the end once worked out, which took forever!! you could sort of feel what was going on and manipulate the trigger under live test fire actually to do it at will . Pretty poor for a brand new Ferrari gun that cost him over 5K our coin to import and process with zero backup. Over rated and boots. Give me a Browning any day.
