Browning A 500 R
I have the chance to buy an A 500 R in 12 ga., 3" chamber, blueing is perfect, wood is 90-95% for $350.00. I know this is not an old A5 that browning made for years and that it is of lower quality. It is tough to find info on the A 500 R and I was wondering what the quality of them are. I have heard they have problems cycling low brass but what about other shells? Are there any other typical problems of these? Why were they only manufactured for a few years in the early 90's? Is this a good gun or not, is it worth buying? Need some help from you knowledgeable browning guys! Thanks for any help!
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Anyone? 0 -
I almost bought one of these jamb-o-matics new. Two fellas here did and never got them to cycle reliably. Talked to another dealer friend who had one. He really liked the feel of the gun and the handling, but he told me he traded it off to another store within a month as he could never get it to function reliably and the malfunction was never the same twice. It was sort of an in between of the B2000 and A5 and the newer Gold. That is why you don't see them much. The Gold replaced it and even that had it's early problems. It really had no relation to either of the other guns and was made to compete with Remington, probably, but just never worked very well. 0 -
Hey Allechalley,
Yours is the first post that I have seen that mentions the B2000.
Could you tell me why these shotguns are so unpopular/inexpensive ?0 -
I have had some experience with the Auto 500 G and it was a decent gun. I have heard similiar concerns about the 500 G and low powered shells. 
Any politician who doesn't trust me to own a weapon is not someone worthy of my vote, my respect, ~~ or my tax dollars.0 -
They seemed to have a conundrum about what type of action to use on the 500 as there were both gas and recoil operated. The old A5 had worked for years but the design was somewhat dated and all the other manufacturers had some new whiz bang shotgun that was racier, newer, ect, ect. The main reason these are less expensive is they simply were not all that well tested and wouldn't work first time, everytime. As I said, a couple experienced guys bought them thinking they had a modern reliable gun and were disappointed to find it had lots of function problems. This was about the time period of the first Benelli and Berretta autos. It just didn't work reliably.
Apparently, Browning started looking at the competition and got their act together, sort of, with the Browning Gold. They had some problems with firing pins and gas pistons, but seem to have most of it worked out now. If you can afford the Benelli, that would be the premium route for a do it all, never fail. The Beretta 390 is probably a next choice, with the newer Remington auto to follow. Then the Gold, altho some like the new Mossberg auto and Franchi. The only bad I've heard on the Franchi is they are so light that they can be a bit punishing on recoil.0
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