Browning stamped Special Steel to indicate premium steel the barrels were made of, not steel shot safe. My Mag 12 was Japanese made and had harder barrels than Belgian. My gunsmith claimed if you used smaller shot sizes you "should" be ok shooting in the full choke. I had mine opened up to Skeet 2 and hunted with it for 20 years with no barrel issues. I personally would not use steel in the Belgian barrel especially Full. Carson's Barrels on the web has used barrels for sale. The inventory changes as to what he gets in. What you have may be perfect for Bismuth as it usually works better with tight choke constrictions. I tried 20 gauge Boss shells last year and was very pleased with their performance. I got in a case of Boss 16 gauge shells last week to use in my Sweet 16 and my old Winchester Model 12 in 16 gauge. Congrats on having the best semiautomatic shotgun ever made!

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Posted by dwr353

Member since Oct 2007

2130 posts

Posted on 6/11/23 at 2:25 pm to dwr353

I will add that I have two barrels for my Sweet 16. A Modified for lead and a Full I opened up to Skeet 2 over 30 years ago. I have shot steel #4s in it for 30 years off and on with no barrel damage. Never shot steel in the Modified.

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Posted by BorrisMart

Member since Jul 2020

8842 posts

Posted on 6/11/23 at 3:44 pm to dwr353

quote:
Browning stamped Special Steel to indicate premium steel the barrels were made of, not steel shot safe. My Mag 12 was Japanese made and had harder barrels than Belgian. My gunsmith claimed if you used smaller shot sizes you "should" be ok shooting in the full choke. I had mine opened up to Skeet 2 and hunted with it for 20 years with no barrel issues. I personally would not use steel in the Belgian barrel especially Full. Carson's Barrels on the web has used barrels for sale. The inventory changes as to what he gets in. What you have may be perfect for Bismuth as it usually works better with tight choke constrictions. I tried 20 gauge Boss shells last year and was very pleased with their performance. I got in a case of Boss 16 gauge shells last week to use in my Sweet 16 and my old Winchester Model 12 in 16 gauge. Congrats on having the best semiautomatic shotgun ever made!

Thanks for the quick response, I appreciate it. I have a newer model a5 I hunt with some like a 2016 or something but it doesn't come close to the feeling of the older ones and I have started wanting to pick up more wooden and older shotguns when I come across them just because. I assumed that the steel stamp was for the gun, but couldn't get a super clear answer, but did see where people were saying bismuth would be ok. I'll probably pick up a new barrel to be safe, and it would be a fun gun to shoot buckshot with deer hunting.

To the post above, I appreciate that comment as well. I came across a ton of people saying they've ran cases of steel through pre steel shot A5's and had no problems with certain sized loads.

Sorry for the old bump but the info is much appreciated.

This post was edited on 6/11/23 at 3:47 pm

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