Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen

About the Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen

The Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen is a recoil-operated semi-automatic shotgun chambered in 16 gauge, reintroduced in 2016 to revive Browning's beloved 'Sweet Sixteen' name on the modern A5 platform. Unlike the original long-recoil Auto-5 that wore the Sweet Sixteen badge from the 1930s, the modern A5 uses Browning's Kinematic Drive short-recoil action, in which the breechblock and a recoil spring housed in the buttstock drive the cycle while the barrel remains fixed, delivering reliable function across a wide range of 16-gauge loads without friction-ring adjustment. Built on a lightweight aluminum alloy receiver sized specifically to the 16-gauge hull, the gun preserves the iconic flat-topped 'humpback' receiver silhouette of John Browning's original design while shedding weight, with the 28-inch-barrel model tipping the scale at roughly 5 pounds 13 ounces. It feeds four 2.75-inch shells from an under-barrel tubular magazine, wears a Turkish walnut stock with an Inflex recoil pad, a fiber-optic front sight on a vent-rib barrel, and the Invector-DS choke tube system. Marketed to upland bird and clay shooters who prize the 16 gauge's balance of light weight and effective patterns, the A5 Sweet Sixteen carries Browning's 5-year, 100,000-round reliability guarantee.

The 'Sweet Sixteen' nickname was earned by Browning's original 16-gauge Auto-5, prized by upland hunters for its uncanny balance between a 12-gauge's payload and a 20-gauge's carry weight. When Browning revived the A5 line in 2012, the 16-gauge chambering returned in 2016 wearing the same affectionate name, even though the action beneath the familiar humpback receiver had been completely reengineered from long recoil to a modern short-recoil Kinematic Drive.

Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen specifications

The modern A5 (introduced 2012) shares almost nothing mechanically with the original long-recoil Auto-5 despite the deliberately retained humpback receiver profile; it is a short-recoil Kinematic Drive design. The Sweet Sixteen name dates to the original Auto-5 16-gauge models and was revived for marketing the 16-gauge A5 in 2016. Wicked Wing waterfowl variants add Cerakote metal finishes and camouflage composite or coated stocks and weigh slightly more. Like all modern Browning long guns, the A5 is manufactured by Miroku in Japan.