doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT - browning gold auto 3.5" mag reliability

how well do the 3.5" mag gold auto's cycle 1oz target loads? and in general how reliable are they period?

my limited experience with magnum gas guns is that the wider range of shells they're intended to feed the more reliability suffers at the low end.

on a similar note, a winchester super-x i just got reliably cycles baschierri & pelligri 2.5" anagrina's and that's the first auto i've had that would feed them.

roger

No matter how much gas I have my SXS seems to always function.

thanks. can't tell you how much value that had to me.

Have owned both a Sporting Clays and a 3.5 Gold. Great for low recoil but both failed when put to heavy use. Friends had two in Cordoba and both failed on the second day. My Sporting version, used for skeet, required me to carry a second gun to a match because of massive function failures at the 20,000 shell level. I now use a 391.
bill

thanks! i found a hunter model quite cheap and only want it because i never had one. i no longer think i'm that curious about it.

i had a 391 and loved it altho it didn't like cycling some of my low pressure 1oz loads. it was filthy when i got it and i ran maybe approaching 2k rds thru it and never did clean it and it was still running.

think i'll stick w/ the super-x's and auto-5's.

roger

There is no be all, end all in gas operated semi's. Then add in hi-volume with crappy shells? Sheesh.
If you need to shoot 3.5's and 1oz target loads in the same gun, you are out of luck. Better to get 2, a target gun with light springs, and large gas ports, and a goose gun with small ports and heavy springs in the same model.
The gun co's should just quit the light load nonsense altogether, they just keep digging the hole deeper.
There are a lot of good semi's out there now, but when they try to do too much with the same gun, it just makes guns available on the secondary market. And disgruntled former customers.

had the same conversation w/ the cabelas guy last night. isn't about what i "need" to shoot. the only reason for wanting a gold auto is "i never had one" and the only thing i shoot are clay targets. so if i have the gun and want to shoot it that's what i shoot it at. nothing to do with the guns purpose.

but i agree, you're not going to find a gun that's reliable completely across the spectrum of all available shells. systems just can't accomodate that kind of variation. i can't even imagine why people would want a gun that could accomodate it without making some kind of adjustment, like on an auto-5, or the early remington gas guns (58?). who ever needs to instantly switch from a 3.5" magnum to a 1oz load such that he doesn't have time to fiddle with something. somebody's goose hunting and "OH! there's a woodcock! let me change loads real quick!" that is just not a reliable scenario.

more probably it's people who are so uninterested in the guns themselves or of such little technical acumen that they can't deal with making adjustments on the guns.

You are looking at a great target gun. Easy to clean, soft shooting. The receiver is very long, so it's a long package, esp w/ extended chokes.
It has a shell stop for when the woodcock ( more likely doves while goose shooting) show up.

But, you know, it has to work for you.

Gold 3.5" don't work with 1oz loads, but that's why most guys own several guns for different guns for different applications.
Hope this helps.

My Gold 3.5" would not work reliably with 2-3/4", 3", or 3-1/2" shells regardless of brand or shot charge. Three times back to the warranty gunsmith. Still failed to fire and failed to cycle with any level of predictability. Had a nice feel and was pleasant to shoot (when it actually would shoot). In short, a nicely balanced POS. I sold it and went with Benelli.