ORIGINAL: bigcountry
My grandfathers Auto-5. I loved it. I like the feel of the forearm. It has heft to it, but other than that, handled like a dream. Never missed a beat. Best times I remember with it is going to the old coal mine sludge ponds and shooting bats at dusk when I was around 12. I know most people don't do that. But for some reason those memories stick out in my head.
Now that poor gun is argued over and taken by my uncle even though my grandmother told me it was mine several times. Beutiful gun is a major source of contraversy with my family.
I never actually shot a A-5 but did shoot a friend of mines UMC which looked identical to a A-5, that old UMC fits exactly what you described about your grandfathers gun. The gun was a great shooter with trap loads, but obviously was not made to shoot 2 3/4" turkey magnums my buddy and I went on a turkey hunt he brought that UMC, the first morning of the hunt I called a decent tom in my buddy lined up on it and fired and the rear stock split in two, we determined the force of the turkey load broke the spring retainer in the stock which led to cracking the stock aswell. he was bummed big time since that shotgun was originally his grandfathers, who had bought it new when he was 19 just before being drafted to army in the early 40's.