Browning a5 barrel id
 

My 20 ga a5 that my grandfather gave my has 2 barrels. One says astrick astrick. 20 ga. Special steel. The other says astrick astrick. 12 ga. Special steel. Both are chambered in 20 ga!? What's the difference? Is the second a slug barrel?

Thank

Is there any difference in the length of the barrels? Prior to the invention of screw in chokes,the most common method of changing chokes was to change barrels.

30 inch barrels were commonly full choke
28 inch barrels were commonly modified choke
26 inch barrels were commonly improved cylinder choke

Most serious shotgunners had at least two barrels for their shotgun.

Or they had a gun for each barrel. :D

The choke should be stamped on the barrel near the receiver, Full, Mod or Imp Cyl, unless this has worn off. Some stampings were more defined than others.

Special Steel
 

Borrowed this off the interwebz:

This goes back to the beginning of the auto 5 production in 1903. John Cockerill was a British Industrialist whose company supplied high quality steel to Fabrique Nationale (FN) which was the maker of the A-5.

The Cockerill name was first used on Browning barrels stamped "cockerill steel". The steel was a very strong quality that met the proofing requirements of guns that were shooting smokeless powder. Eventually the Cockerill name was dropped from the barrels and "special steel" was used instead.

The FN guns that were not sold to Browning in the US, uses the barrel stamp of "acier special" which means special steel in the French language.


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_Browning_special_steel_shotgun#ixzz27isU rS3o

The astricks determine the choke. two of them means improved I think. I can't find anyone to tell my why I have I 20 ga barrel stamped 12 ga though.

Could just be a factory error.

A factory error on a old a5 might be a good thing.