It is quiet lately on this forum. I thought we can test your Browning auto 5 knowledge. Something doesn’t fit on that auto 5. Will give an handicap to Rudolph as he is to good. He can’t comment before 5 responses.
Wow Biz that's a good one. I've been looking and not really sure, but don't want to waste a reply before Rudolph gets in there, so I'm going to say the safety. I can't get to one right now, but don't think those lines on the safety button is something I've ever seen. Thats my guess and I'm sticking with it.
When I first looked at it, I thought 1904. Then I saw the 1903 serial number. I remembered something called a “Service Pack” by Martin so I looked it up. Sure enough, he calls guns like yours 1904B’s; 1903 guns with the ‘04 service pack consisting of the new safety and magazine cutoff. His posts on SGW are the Bible when it comes to pre-1909 Auto-5’s. https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/timeline-for-the-browning-auto-5-1903-1940.216472/
I understand that someone may want to have the magazine cutoff installed but in order to change the safety you have to change the trigger group. What is the advantage of that. Was the suicide safety that problematic? Remington kept it until around 1930.
I think 1927 was the last year for the Remington safety, but point taken. Keeping your fingers outside of the trigger guard wasn’t a thing, to my knowledge, until the 1980’s. It certainly want mentioned when I was in the Army in the 70’s. So why did they change it? I don’t know. Maybe there were reports of accidental discharges. Also, I doubt that people sent their shotguns in to be modified, though it’s a possibility. My guess is that these guns remained in inventory in 1904 and were updated. Of course, that would mean that they weren’t shipped in serial number order.
That Browning is in France. My understanding is the first few thousand examples were shipped to the US. Therefore your statement "My guess is that these guns remained in inventory in 1904 and were updated. Of course, that would mean that they weren’t shipped in serial number order." is in my sense very relevant. I don’t know what our friends think but I would question the "service pack" idea. I do not believe the FN ever change any trigger group or even modify a ready to go gun by adding the magazine cutoff. They had the receiver made and serialized in the stock room and they were assembled following the new design of the month. We have to keep in mind that all those changes took place over a year or so. It would be interesting to know if the trigger guard is serialized to the gun.
The serial number on the trigger plate is something I was going to mention. If it was swapped at the factory, it would most likely have a matching number. But since you don’t have the gun, we’ll never know. I think the modifications were done at the factory. Milling the receiver for the cut-off seems like a big deal for the average gunsmith. And I doubt it had a lot of demand. To this day shooters don’t understand what that lever does, and I’m talking about Auto-5 owners! Then there’s the fact that there are enough of these guns for Martin to have noticed them and put them in a class by themselves. The example he shows has a serial number close to the one you pictured, if that means anything. My guess is that FN manufactured the parts in batches, then assembled the guns but not necessarily with regard to the serial numbers. I’ll bet it was chaotic that first year. We’ll probably never know.
As a hunter I love that lever. I’ve been tempted to make an enlarged lever that could be operated with gloves
Another possibility is that FN held some of the early production guns back, then sold them later. It’s reasonable to assume that they’d update the guns first. It’s possible that the trigger plates weren’t swapped out, but modified. All of the sliding safeties worked the same way, by sliding under a “shelf” on the front of the trigger. So it probably wouldn’t be a big deal to do at the factory.
On the lever subject it's amazing for something thats been around and standard fit for 100+ yrs how few actually know what it's for and what it does.
