Ding ding ding

No they won’t. Not to 1,500 plus rounds a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

I wonder what sort of shell counts those guns see before they wear out. About 400,000ish+/- yearly with those numbers.

Sure. Ok

Looks like I done stirred the pot

My Beretta 391 has both a chrome lined chamber and bore. So it's basically impervious to internal wear. It is made for high volume shooting.

2 dogs. I have a Belgium made 28" VR 20 gauge humpback that was passed down to me by my grandfather. I love that gun and won't hesitate to take it on a dove shoot here in the states. I've killed truckloads of doves with it over the years. But, I can promise you, in Argentina, that same gun would be in pieces getting a full gas system cleaning or you'd be shooting one shell at a time, 2-4 hrs into the first day's shoot. It will hold up as far as not physically breaking (unless you get the barrel so hot that the rib detaches) but the gas system isn't robust enough to keep functioning properly while shooting 750-1000 rounds a morning. Berettas and Benellis will.

Aw no. Say it ain't so.

Go to South America on a pigeon hunt and borrow one of their lease guns, those numbers will make a bit more sense. Referring to a reply to doekiller’s comment.

Trust me you can't convince browning bob any different.

Franchi is hard to beat

Gas system cleaning ? Browning A5s are not gas operated .

Predictable.

Best shotgun I ever owned was a Berretta with a broomhandle stock. I couldn't miss with it. Like an idiot I swapped it off.

I’m not crazily opinionated about much, but this is one issue I am. A man has to be a fool to go buy a damn turkish made shotgun, current era Remington, etc. for $500 when it is so easy to find a like new Franchi or Beretta (talking newish guns with interchangeable chokes to meet his do it all requirement) for the same or if you’re really patient, less money. Blows my mind. A slightly used Browning or Winchester SX would be great choices too.

Solid advice.

You're correct. Excuse me for calling it something that it is not. I should have said operating system rather than gas system. I call all internal components of auto shotguns gas systems because in my mind, gas runs all autoloaders in one way or another, be it a true gas system or thru recoil. With the A5 it's the gas that generates the felt recoil which starts the process. When the A5 is fired, the barrel and bolt recoil while still locked together. At the rear of the stroke, the barrel unlocks and comes forward, driven by its spring, the one under the barrel. As the barrel moves forward, it pulls away from the fired shell and the ejector kicks the fired shell free and out the ejection port. As the barrel returns forward, it trips the bolt release, letting the bolt, driven by the butt return spring in the buttstock, come forward and chamber the next round.

On an A5 it's a spring and friction ring set up. Maybe not all are like mine, but at least in my 20, it has to be adjusted to properly shoot/eject whatever load your using, be it low brass or high brass. Variations in recoil cause it problems, as does a gummed up mag tube (which is what I was referring to having to be broken down an cleaned mid-shoot). With my 20, high brass 1 oz Rios it will kick out every single time regardless of setting. But if I am mixing in shooting 2.5 dr 7/8 oz AA's in with them, it will sometimes hang them up unless I adjust it down for lighter loads and even then, it doesnt like the mixed rounds. With the Beretta or my Browning Gold, I can shoot 00 buck with 7/8 AAs right behind it and both guns never have a problem or need any adjustment. The A5 is a very simple design, probably the simplest autoloading design ever made with regard to # of moving or integral parts, and a damn fine shotgun, but it's not perfect for high volume shooting with different shell brands, loads and less than reliable "dirty" shells. My cousin had a A5 light 12 that he never could get to reliably eject light skeet loads, regardless of set up. It shot anything that was high brass flawlessly but low brass 8's would not properly eject on every 5th or 6th shot.

Here's another little tidbit a lot of people dont know about A5s. The recoil system in an A5 needs a firm backstop to function properly since everything in it recoil/spring driven. Hold it away from your body and shoot it from the hip with nothing behind the butt of the gun and some will not eject reliably. Put it firmly on your shoulder and hold it firmly and it will perform perfectly. I've never seen it myself but I've heard from others that if you put a super soft gel type recoil pad on one and use it in combination with a shoulder pad (common in high volume situations), the recoil is cushioned so much that the gun will not properly eject.

Anything derived from the 390 series is great. I would rather have the cheaper and simpler 390 however. I think the only reason Beretta changed them was because they were too cheap and worked too well.

Recoil operation is pretty predictable and reliable, but not necessarily ideal. Not to mention that an all day shoot with an A5 with loads heavy enough to make it function reliably will result in a boogered up shoulder. But I love an old A5.. Not a better looking shotgun out there, bumpback and all.

I never use heavy oil on mine , something like LPS #1 and I change out the bronze ring when worn. It'll shoot. They can be rough on your shoulder if not set properly and you don't get it up on the shoulder and fairly firm against it. I have a 69 model standard weight I'd shoot all day Saturday and Sunday and go to school on Monday with a multi colored shoulder. That would happen every weekend , but I loved it !

I would not call them a great all around shotgun by todays standards , they are heavy by todays standards , can't mix loads as you mentioned can be rough on the shoulder. However, when it comes to reliability they will always be on the short list.

That's because it's a benelli