I know this is an older thread, but the info here will really help A-5 owners never the less. Now I am not an officially licensed GS but I own, have shot thousands & thousands of rounds through my vintage A-5 and have worked on many of these shotguns (many friends of mine own them) as well as having repaired, manufactured parts and rebuilt them to get them back shooting again. Here are a few tips...........

1) The A-5 has a Friction Ring that must be set to the proper shell type being fired - Target or Hunting loads. The instructions are usually on a piece of paper inside the for-end and if they are missing, Google it and you will see how to set them. Now a lot of people make the common mistake of over lubricating these Friction Rings which is one reason they fail to eject and feed in a new round. The Friction Ring MUST HAVE FRICTION for proper operation and using a lube that is too slippery is just as bad as not using lube at all. I have found that STRAIGHT 30 WEIGHT NON DETERGENT Motor Oil is what works perfectly. Lube the outside of the magazine tube, lightly wipe off the excess and you are done. This will let the Friction Ring work the way it is suppose to..... NOT too fast, NOT to slow.

2) Some of the promotional low brass (or aluminum) shells have been cranked out in such numbers and on high speed machinery that the lip or edge that the extractors catch on is not a sharp edge anymore. They are too rounded and a quick test when buying Shells for your A-5 is to use your thumb nail and pull against the edge like an extractor does. If your thumb nail slips off easily then most likely your extractors will also. When shooting the vintage A-5's you must buy better quality Shells that have sharp edges. Now this does not mean you need to spend a lot of money on ammo, just test different brands of shells to find the one that has been made with newer dies and has sharper edges and it will work properly. The premium grade shells I have used are always made to the correct spec's and never has caused any problems. The Winchester AA's are great - for example. Now even though the AA's work great, they are expensive - so I just check to make sure the promo grade shells I use for informal skeet and trap are sharp before buying them. Sometimes the Remington Gun Club Shells are good, sometimes not. The Federal's (in the blue Champion marked box) seem to be consistently good) but the Winchester promo grade Shells are usually not great (silver box). AGAIN, just check with your nail first because the manufacturer's do change production dies from time to time when they are aware that they are worn.

3) If you have the original action and recoil springs on your vintage A-5 call Brownell's and order replacements - they are cheap. They are recommended replacement parts by both Browning and a few of the Browning Service Shops that work on them. I can tell you that not only will you improve function of old & sluggish sprung guns, but your guns will suffer less wear under constant firing and felt recoil might be reduced slightly. While you are at it, replace the wooden spring plug (the older ones were made of wood) to the new plastic type. The wooden ones are usually worn, cracked and saturated with oil.

4) When cleaning your A-5 use a toothbrush and solvent to clean under the extractors - inspect them to make sure they are still sharp and not chipped. replace them if necessary (not too often, but on rare occasion I have had to).

These are the most common reasons that A-5's have failures to eject, feed or work properly. If you address these issues your vintage A-5's should be completely reliable, and a pleasure to shoot. Oh....... don't neglect your magazine tubes. Remove the spring retainer, spring and follower and clean the inside of the tubes. This is one area that a lot of Shotgunner's neglect.

I hope these tips help some of you that have been frustrated with the A-5, but they should resolve the most common feeding and operating issues as I have experienced among my circle of shooting and hunting buddy's.

Regards,

Chief38