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I grew up with an A-5 16 gauge (pre-war, safety in the front of the trigger guard, 2 9/16" chambers) which had belonged to my grandfather. I loved it until I had occasion to shoot other semi-automatics. Compared to the other guns (Remington 1100, Browning Double Automatic, Winchester 50)the A-5 action cycles incredibly slowly and I felt as though I could hear the parts sloshing around inside the action each time I fired it.

I have to admit that the Remington 1100 is a cheaply made piece of engineering and that most shooters I knew who used it on the skeet field routinely kept a replacement trigger group handy to use when the one they had in the gun broke down, but when it worked right, it had pretty fast lock time and cycled as quickly as my M1A service rifle. It was also the predominant American skeet gun of the 70's.

It's all in my head, I know, but decades of shooting skeet, first with a Winchester Model 12, then with a Browning Superposed, and finally with Perazzis and Merkel O/U have made me used to an instantaneous second shot, and yes, I do believe my Model 12 Winchesters are faster than an A-5.

I admit to being hypersensitive. On Thursday I was shooting a sporterized SMLE, not quite a Lee Speed, and I was aware with each shot of feeling something like a spring vibrating. I finally realized that it was the magazine spring I was hearing, as it seemed to resonate with each shot.

Still, I have an A-5 in my safe: a very early European model, with a cheekpiece stock, extremely low serial number, and chambered for the 16/65mm shell. I am not immune to nostalgia. (I also have a Double Automatic, a Remington 58, an 1100, a Winchester 50 and even a 59, complete with fiberglass barrel and choke tubes.) Chacun à son goût!

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