Browning double auto

quail hound

quail hound

Moderator
So in my search for a new barrel for my a5 and looking at schematics to make sure my friction ring was setup right I stumbled upon an oddity, the double auto. I know it's an oddity because I've never heard mention of it on here despite nothing but glowing reviews I've read about it. Now I've never wanted a twelve gauge gun before but all of the sudden I find myself really wanting to handle one of these in "twelvette" and "twenty weight".

So Browning guys, no double autos in the safe? Ever handled or shot one? Why don't I need one?
 
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I have never owned one but I have handled a few. The 20 weight did catch my eye. If I ever got one though I would want it to be in one of the weirder colors.
 
They were called Double Autos because they only hold two shells. If you like the A5, you will probably like the Double Auto too. They were made by FN in Belgium and are a bit trimmer and lighter than the A5. They were made with both steel and aluminum receivers. Twentyweights were aluminum receivers with a lighter barrel. The anodized aluminum receivers were dyed several different colors, but mostly black.

Quite a bit of information and some very knowledgeable people here:

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=107555&sid=534f229ca67e6e84500924c07814023d

Jerry
 
I've owned one for years. Mine is a steel receiver gun. It was turned into the "Cadillac" of 1950's skeet guns at some point. It has a solid rib and a Cutts Compensator on it. Shoots really well. The workmanship is superb and I always get comments when I take it to the range. The two shot limit probably hindered it ever being popular, but at skeet, its a beauty.
 
I own seven Browning Double Auto's (1 Standard steel receiver, 5 Twelvettes and a Twentyweight). The Twelvette's are the best version for upland hunting. The standard model is great for the skeet or sporting clays range. I find my Twentyweight to be too light for most shooting. Do not shoot many high velocity or magnum shotgun shells in the Twentyweight. It can crack the receiver. The "channel" or "u-shaped" ribbed barrels are very interesting. There are also vent-ribbed and plain barrels (with and without top of barrel matting. All of my DA's are silver or blacked receivered guns.
 
Every Double Auto I have seen has a rounded receiver and Wikipedia says they were made from 1955-1971, but I found one on GunBroker that has a humpback receiver and the seller says it was made in 1974.
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/597249621

Anyone have any insight on this?
 
My friend had one and sold it to get into a different gun for waterfowl. I loved it and shot it a few times. The only issue was we were checked by a local game warden and he tried to check for a plug and thought we were full of it telling him it only held 2 rounds. He played witht hat gun for 20 minutes trying to figure out where the other shells were hidden.:D
 
BleuBijou said:
My friend had one and sold it to get into a different gun for waterfowl. I loved it and shot it a few times. The only issue was we were checked by a local game warden and he tried to check for a plug and thought we were full of it telling him it only held 2 rounds. He played witht hat gun for 20 minutes trying to figure out where the other shells were hidden.:D
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That's too funny! Oh of the things that came up. While talking about these guns with my brother was the exact subject of handing it to a confused warden.:cheers:
 
A516 said:
I own seven Browning Double Auto's (1 Standard steel receiver, 5 Twelvettes and a Twentyweight). The Twelvette's are the best version for upland hunting. The standard model is great for the skeet or sporting clays range. I find my Twentyweight to be too light for most shooting. Do not shoot many high velocity or magnum shotgun shells in the Twentyweight. It can crack the receiver. The "channel" or "u-shaped" ribbed barrels are very interesting. There are also vent-ribbed and plain barrels (with and without top of barrel matting. All of my DA's are silver or blacked receivered guns.
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I was thinking a twenty weight would be sweet for 1 or 1 1/8 oz loads.
 
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I have one . It was a gift from my 5th grade teacher when he passed away. I love everything about it but the safety. In a trap or skeet situation,it's fine. In a hunting situation, it messes me up every stinking time. Haven't broke it out for the year yet, but will before the season ends. Cool piece.
 
A good article on the Browning Double Auto (DA) was in the The Upland Almanac. There was information in the article attributed to Glen Jensen, the Browning Historian at that time, that the DA was originally designed as a pigeon gun. This intrigued me as I had never heard this information in the past. Unfortunately, Mr. Jensen, a contemporary of Val Browning (the inventor of the DA), has passed away.

I called Mr. Jensen several years ago. What a fine gentleman to talk to. He indeed confirmed that Val Browning designed the DA as a pigeon gun. According to Mr. Jensen, the gun was introduced in England and was well received. Browning then decided to introduce the gun in the United States. Two or three 20 gauge prototypes were produced over the years but never put in production. Mr. Jensen said at the time of Val Browning's death, he had sitting on his workbench a DA that he was working with trying to redesign it to hold three shells. He said he considered the DA one of the best pheasant guns ever made. The problem was that the hunting public just didn't accept a 2-shot semi-auto.

I appreciated the time Mr. Jensen took to answer my questions.
 
quail hound:

It is just personal preference between the Twelvette and the Twentyweight. I am an old geezer that needs a shotgun to weigh between 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 pounds to be able to hit anything with it. Too light and I am all over the place. Someone had installed Briley thin wall choke tubes in the Twentyweight I own. Feels great when handling it in the "mancave" but too light for me to control in the field. I like the weight distribution of a ribbed DA over a "plain" barrel DA even though I grew up shooting non-ribbed shotguns (and still do shoot them in other brands).

A516
 
Thanks for the info A516. I'm an instinct or snap shooter so I don't mind a light, whippy gun and I also don't mind a two shot capacity. The DA is one sweet looking autoloader.
 
If you want one than you need it and should probably buy 1 or 3 but In reality it's got all the disadvantages of an auto with none of the advantages.
 
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