Since many of us have quite varied interests, I am taking the liberty of asking for recommendations for someone to lap or hone the bore of a pitted 12-Gauge Browning A5.It dates to 1927-28 and is in good condition. I'd sure like to restore it to full function if possible. Thanks in advance.

Mark Novak (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) Check out Anvil on youtube.

A ball hone can make the bore smooth, but will be tough to keep it consistent sized. The flex hones are better at avoiding ripples in the bore.

Cleaning up a vintage pump or auto I would run a brushed rod on a power drill . Solvent first & possibly light abrasive paste on a shop towel wrapped around the brush.  Then pattern the gun & look for stray pellets outside the pattern. If a few pellets out leave it alone.  Shotguns not very bore condition critical. Particularly with modern shot cup wads. 

Take too much out of the muzzle likely to loose choke construction. Worse get a bit of out of round point of impact can change and they don’t have sights to adjust out the error 

I’ve owned a number of obscure pumps, bought mostly to figure them out, all sorts of complicated mechanicals. Never did more than a good cleaning. Many fine SXS guns have been point of impact ruined by muzzle and choke alterations. Parker for example barrels cut or chokes opened sell for less than half unaltered gun for good reason 

Boats

I honed the chambers of my double 12 coach gun as the skeet loads would stick (full loads were ok).  Use a VERY fine grit.

Sure shot wrote on Mar 27^th, 2025 at 12:24pm:
   

I have seen several 2- and 3-sets of screw-in chokes in recent auctions, pretty cheap. If you could get your muzzle threaded that would breathe new life into your gun.

jfeldman wrote on Mar 31^st, 2025 at 8:59pm:


Depends.  Others look at it as a haggling point.  It is a period correct classic  accessory-adds value in the haggling process.

[quote author=4E5D4C191E1F191D2D0 link=1742959608/13#13 date[/i][/i]=1743525088]The war years' American Brownings were made by Remington. I knew an American officer who was an inspector[i[/i] in the Remington plant that was producing military shotguns. He said the "Brownings" were just coming out of an area in the plant that did better quality output. I have one of the 12 gauge ones which they marked "Auto 3" instead of the European "Auto 5". I also had a 20 with a Cutts. [/quote]

Your Auto 3 “should” only hold 3 rounds in the magazine tube, rather than 5. It “should” have a shorter magazine tube and correspondingly shorter forearm, but who knows what has been done to it over the years.

Those varying length mag tubes were offered on different versions of the Remington marked shotguns, but only offered for a very short time on Browning marked shotguns.

I “thought” all the Browning made Auto 3 variations were both post-war and Belgian production, but apparently that is not the case.