Browning 2-shot semi auto

[4406v]

My local gun shop has a Browning Belgium made 2-shot shotgun on the used gun rack.What is the purpose of the 2-shot shotgun? It is an older model with the rounded knob pistol grip.The gun is 12 ga. and overall really nice shape.He is asking $500 is this a good deal?

[oneounceload]

Is this a Browning Double Automatic? Since most locales limit the amount of rounds a hunter can legally use on some game, this gun came around - IIRC, it holds two in the mag and one in the chamber for a waterfowl legal limit of 3.

They are asking anywhere between 600 and 1000 on some sites

From an old F&S article I found:

The short-recoil action Double Auto came in three versions, all 12 gauge – the standard model, with a steel receiver: the alloy-framed Twelvette, which I had, weighing 6 and 3/4 pounds or so, and the stripped down Twentyweight, a 6 pound wand.

It also came in different receiver colors: black (mine), gray, brown and green.

Browning advertised it as “Tomorrow’s Gun Today” and it looked like no other shotgun. It had a safety on the back of the trigger guard convenient to left and right handed shooters alike, and a pivoting forearm that latched to the bottom front of the receiver. If you unlatched the forearm and swung it down, you could slide the barrel off, leaving the gun instantly taken down into two pieces.

A lot of people look at the Double Automatic and see a solution in search of a problem. My more charitable view is, the Double Auto was an attempt to put a truly light and spirited bird gun in the hands of hunters for much less than the cost of a double and with a little less recoil.

[seansean1444]

my winchester model 1400 is like this only 2 in the mag and 1 in the chamber. but in your case not sure if you ment only one in the mag and one in the chamber, in that case it may have been made for sporting clays like skeet or trap? just an idea

[rantingredneck]

I thought the Double Automatic only held 2 shells. As in one in the chamber, one in the mag??

An uncle had one years ago. I seem to remember a rather comical sight of a game warden trying to find a way to fit a 3rd shell into it in a dove field way back when. I think I was around 7 at the time, so I may be completely wrong........

[grousehunter49]

Browing Double Auto ,2 shells total, one in mag, one in chamber. Green ones go for a bundle.

[oneounceload]

Thanks for updating me on the round count!...I thought it was only two, but then the specter of doubt crept in and I THOUGHT I had remembered correctly....appreciate the clarification

[jmr40]

I always thought they were intended for the clay shooting games where there are never more than 2 rounds allowed anyway.

[4406v]

It looks unusual since the receiver has an ejection port on BOTH sides of the receiver.It is an interesting looking gun and I will probably end up buying it.I am just trying to justify why I have to have it.

[jaguarxk120]

If you don't have one then you need to buy it!

Over on www.shotgunworld there is a Browning forum that some of the members collect the DoubleAuto. Several posts about the gun and the colors it came in.

[4406v]

That web site was VERY helpfull Looks like I HAVE TO BUY IT!!! since I don't have one.You guys are the best.

[rem1858]

I own 2 Double Autos and an A5.

One is a 1961 Twentyweight(aluminum receiver).

The other is a 1954 Standard weight(steel receiver).

Excellent shotguns all three of them.

They all have the speed loading feature, where you slip a shell into the loading gate and it scoops it up and chambers the shell, then just add the other and it is ready to go(make sure the safety is on just in case).

I have shot skeet with all three of them and they are fun to shoot.

Buy that Double Auto and enjoy it.

Clarence

[silvercorvette]

I just got one from Gunbroker, I wanted one since I was a kid making about $50 a week take home pay. One of these things would have set me back a few months pay back then

Here are pictures of the gun scroll down to the bottom of the page , it looks better in person. I just got the gun a while ago and haven't shot it yet.

[silvercorvette]

I have shot skeet with all three of them and they are fun to shoot.

Buy that Double Auto and enjoy it.

Clarence

One of the reasons I got my gun was to give skeet shooting a try, when I was a cop I shot skeet at the police range with an 870 and couldn't hit a thing. Technically I think it was clay targets and not really considered skeet

Now all I need to do is find a place to shoot

[4406v]

I went and looked the gun over carefully last night.It is the standard model with a plain barrel and appears to be choked ** whicH I think is modified??? The bluing is good with a small amount of pitting on the barrel just above the forearm and the wood is real nice showing a little use but no deep scratches.The asking price is $500 do you guys think this is a fair price?

[silvercorvette]

I went and looked the gun over carefully last night.It is the standard model with a plain barrel and appears to be choked ** whicH I think is modified??? The bluing is good with a small amount of pitting on the barrel just above the forearm and the wood is real nice showing a little use but no deep scratches.The asking price is $500 do you guys think this is a fair price?

Did you look at the pictures of the gun (post number #13 this thread)I bought at gun broker? The cost was $500 plus $16 shipping plus $25 FFL transfer the seller included a very nice Browning case so I am happy with the deal.

What do you mean by "choked ** whicH I think is modified??? " my gun has a threaded barrel with a choke screwed in that can be removed. I am no expert but I think they were all made this way

PS my gun looks better in person than in the pictures

[4406v]

There isn't a poly choke or other choke system on it.Just a regular bead on the end of the plain barrel.I saw on the shotgun website that they marked the choke type with *'s and the number of *'s would tell you what the gun was choked.
Check out shotgunworld.com and use double auto as a search word

[oneounceload]

'**' designates modified choke (M).

HTH

[zippy13]

Originally Posted by silvercorvette

my gun has a threaded barrel with a choke screwed in that can be removed. I am no expert but I think they were all made this way

With the age of the gun, I suspect you either have an old school Cutts type choke or modern screw-ins were added later.


Lyman Cutts Compensator Barrel Adapter

[rem1858]

Choke of barrel codes for Browning:

* (F)
*- (IM)
** (M)
**- (IC)
**$ (SK)
*** (Cyl)

Silvervette;
If it has a screw in choke, then the barrel was threaded for it and not original.
Not that it is a bad thing.
My 1954 standard weight double auto came with a modified barrel.
I bought a separate full choke barrel and fitted it.
I am going to have that full choke barrel threaded for screw in chokes.


4406v;
If it is in good shape overall, I would not mind dropping $500. on it.

Clarence

[Sand Creek Kennels]

Can't go wrong with a Browning period!

[dgludwig]

I bought my first Double Auto (DA) new, during the winter of 1961 @ Jim Flynn's Sporting Goods in Dayton, Ohio as a youngster, a few months before enlisting in the United States Air Force, for the (at the time) heady sum of $149.99 (there was a trade involving my Ithaca Model 37 as a part of the transaction).
It is thought that European elitists, who would never dream of hunting with anything but their status-steeped doubles, prompted Val Browning, son of famed firearms inventor John M. Browning, to develope a semi-auto shotgun that was limited to two shots to serve as an affordable alternative to the expensive twin barrels. This shotgun was dubbed the Double Automatic or Double Auto. Only made in twelve gauge with 2 3/4" chambers, the DA operated with a novel short-recoil system and was introduced to the European market in 1952. Though it only held two shells (in an effort to appeal to Europeans who believed that 2+1="unsportsman-like conduct"), the DA failed to gain the popularity in Europe that Val had hoped for. Always manufactured in Belgium, in 1954, the Browning Company began importing the DA to the United States.
Many (I count myself amongst them) consider the DA to be the best handling semi-automatic shotgun ever made. With its short receiver and magazineless forearm (fully loaded, one shell was chambered and the second stowed in the open receivered "magazine"), the DA came in three models: the conventionally blued, steel-receivered "Standard" model weighed about 7 1/2 pounds; the alloy ("hiduminium") receivered "Twelvette" model weighed between 6 3/4 and 7 pounds and the alloy receivered "Twentyweight" model weighed approximately 6 pounds. All DAs came with tastefully done, hand-engraved receivers, similar to that found on Auto-5s of the era.
The DA was offered in many different stock configurations and barrel choices over time, including Trap, Skeet and Buck Special models. A "speed-load" feature (akin to A-5 shotguns) was deemed a "necessary selling point" to compensate for the DA's lack of a third shot. The DA's safety is located on the rear of the trigger guard where the second finger of either hand can easily access it.
Sadly, the DA never became popular in the U.S. either. Apparently, American hunters never warmed up to the idea of a repeating shotgun having only two shots. In 1971, after only 67,487 were produced, the last DA rolled off the Belgium assembly line.
Savvy hunters who appreciated the fine handling qualities of the DA sought them out but those most interested in them are serious collectors. In addition to the usual variations most firearms generate over the course of their lifetimes that forever intrigue collectors, the alloy receiver DAs offered something few other guns ever have: it came in different colors! Satin/Velvet Gray, Jet and Dragon Black, Maroon, Red, Royal and Light Blue, Autumn Brown, Forest Green and Gold are the primary colors that could be had. Some colors are far more scarce than are others and, to add spice to the "hunt", there are many different hues and shades of colors within colors. Factory installed recoil pads, Cutts Compensators and Polychokes were optional and there is evidence that a very few DAs were made with extra-fancy engraving as well as "English" style straight stocks.
The Double Auto makes for a splendid upland gun for the hunter (two years ago, after decades of many attempts, I scored my first "double" on ruffed grouse in a Michigan cedar swamp using a "Standard" model DA) and because there is such a plethora of DA variations, collectors have a lifetime of hunting opportunities to complete a collection.

[staplecow]

My double automatic (the only one I have ever seen) holds one in the chamber (auto load) and 1 in magazine. It is a Twentyweight, black with gold scrolling & script. It has a Cutts Compensator & I think what they are talking about is the choke screws in to the compensator. The compensator is made on the barrell and I have a skeet tube and a full choke tube that each screw into the compensator. I assume other chokes are available. Hope this helps.