Name is Joe. I am a soon to retire, 63 years old, software engineer. I have been into guns for quite a while and as a do it yourself kind of person I am a bit of a tinkerer. I used to do well in competitive pistol shooting about 10 or 12 years ago. One year I made 12th in the state of Oregon as a civilian member of OPSA, Oregon Police Shooters Association. Shot a little IPSC and other stuff. Since I am a tinkerer I like to work on my own stuff. I do not think I have graduated to BUBBA GUNSMITH quality yet but you never know what the future will bring. I recently bought a 1928 model of a Browning A-5. Took it apart and put it back together several times and it still worked. That is until my last shooting incident. A friend and I, we both have Brownings, went to shoot some clays. We have our own electric thrower. Went through 250 rounds of 12 gauge and 200 clays. Remember I said I was pretty good with a pistol? Anyway I had shot 100 rounds my gun stopped wor4king. The trigger would not pull. Did I tell you I got the A-5 with two barrels and it only cost me $375.00? Some of the wood is cracked but the gun functioned fine. Did I tell you it was made in 1928? The side screws that hold the carrier have have matching serial numbers. Everything has matching numbers! I was not thrilled that it cycles different than my friends 1956 A-5. But thats life. So I stripped the gun down to figure out what is wrong I found the mainspring tip was broken. I mean 88 years old and the mainspring breaks. Shoddy manufacturing! So Looked up and found the part. Ordered one and it did not fit! The web site said fits all, but not mine??? So more research and I found this forum. It has already been helpful. Someone recommended a place to order on and suggested that with so many similar models maybe Numrich sent me the wrong part. While things were stewing I decided to try something. I ordered a cheep replacement plastic stock so I could save the original wood. I also ordered the two piece carrier. I already have these things in and everything seems to be working great, except of course for the mainspring. I know a bit about lots of guns, I do maintenance and simple repairs for many of my friends and co-workers.
