[dogtown tom]

impalacustom: Lance, that's not quite right.

According to my JMB book and this Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning_Auto-5

History
John Browning presented his design (which he called his best achievement[3]) to Winchester, where he had sold most of his previous designs. When Winchester refused his terms, Browning went to Remington. Tragically, the president of Remington died of a heart attack as Browning waited to offer them the gun. This forced Browning to look overseas to produce the shotgun.

It was produced by FN (a company that had already produced Browning-designed pistols) starting in 1902. Remington would later license-produce it as the Remington Model 11. (It was also license-produced by Savage and Franchi.[3]) The Model 11 was the first autoloading shotgun made in the USA. Production in Belgium continued until the start of World War II, when Browning-marked examples were produced by Remington Arms in the United States[4].

Unlike the Remington Model 11, the Remington-produced Browning shotguns had magazine cutoffs. Some 850,000 Remington Model 11 shotguns were produced before production ended in 1947. In 1952, production returned to FN, where it continued to be produced until the end. However, the majority of production moved to Japan in 1975. Finally, in 1998, manufacture of A-5s ceased except for a few commemorative models created at FN in 1999. By that time, it was well-established as the second-best-selling autoloading shotgun in U.S. history, after the Remington 1100.[3]

JMB's disagreement with Winchester had to do with licensing- he wanted to retain the rights to the design, Winchester wanted to buy them outright. Apparently FN was happy to let JMB license the production to them. If you read the history of JMB, you'll see his skill in marketing and sales. He would license FN for production of firearms in Europe, and license virtually the same design with Remington for sales in North America.