My A-5 16 was made around 1930...the serial number is shown in the pictures....all A-5's that I have seen from that era and before have FN in a 'circle' above the number and a 'star' between the number and the FN circle......mine still has all the original factory Herstal blueing on the barrel and receiver etc.......
The barrel is marked 16 Special Steel with one star for full choke, with no chamber designation whatsoever......mine is a factory 2 9/16 chambered 16 gauge (and still is 2 9/16").....
All the Browning address sig lines from that era are St. Louis address lines of course......
The most prominant feature is the saftey in front of the trigger on ALL pre war Browning A-5's.....
that feature alone should tell you all you need to know about when it was made.........I believe Remington started the rear saftey arrangement during the war when Herstal was building guns for the Nazi's and Remington took over production of the A-5's.......
My Browning book shows serial number ranges as an average and mentions the actual Browning records were lost and these numbers are averages matched to dates from the Herstal manufacturing records on the A-5's.....
Hope this helps....
