Browning Auto-5 Sweet Sixteen

About the Browning Auto-5 Sweet Sixteen

The Browning Auto-5 Sweet Sixteen is a lightweight 16-gauge, long-recoil semi-automatic shotgun, a variant of John Browning's Auto-5 introduced by Browning in 1937. Distinguished by its gold-plated trigger and the marketing promise that it would 'carry like a 20 and hit like a 12,' the Sweet Sixteen paired the Auto-5's signature humpback receiver and moving-barrel long-recoil action with the trim balance of the 16-bore. Built by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, it became one of the most beloved upland and small-game autoloaders of the 20th century.

The Sweet Sixteen earned near-mythic status among bird hunters for splitting the difference between the fast handling of a 20-gauge and the pattern density of a 12, and its gold trigger made it instantly recognizable in the field.

Browning Auto-5 Sweet Sixteen specifications

The Sweet Sixteen name branded the lightweight 16-gauge Auto-5; Belgian FN production of the classic model ran until the mid-1970s. Browning later revived the name on a short-recoil A5 Sweet Sixteen in 2016.