Gun Report

Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen No. 0118005004 16 Gauge, $1700

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GUN TESTS GRADE: B
This is the new Sweet Sixteen, which gave us a bit of sticker shock from its price, plus several malfunctions during the test runs on the sporting clays course. Though this new offering from Browning ranked the lowest of our test trio, we should note that the new Sweet Sixteen did handle better and was more comfortable to shoot that either of its veteran predecessors.

Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen No. 0118005004 16 Gauge, $1700

Gun Details

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Home Defense
Hunting
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Choke Tubes
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Veteran fans of the A5 will note the absence of a visible spring on the magazine tube of the new Sweet Sixteen, which utilizes a short-recoil Kinematic Drive system rather than the heavy-spring long-recoil system of the older A5 semiautomatics. We felt this new system did help tame the recoil of the shotgun better than the other two A5s.

Malfunctions like this failure to eject a spent round in the new Sweet Sixteen occurred a half dozen times in the first two boxes of shells. A light coating of oil applied into the receiver and on the magazine tube solved the problem.

We appreciated the thick recoil pad on the new Sweet Sixteen, which helped tame shoulder shock better than the hard-plastic buttplates on the other A5s.

The new Sweet Sixteen utilizes Browning�s Invector Double Seal interchangeable choke system, and we found the shotgun excelled in the patterning tests.

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