1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Talk about 10 12 & 16 gauge shotguns here.
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Antleraddict82
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1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by Antleraddict82 »

Good evening my grandfather bought this shotgun for my dad when he graduated high school in 1975 and my dad gave to me, it has been taking very good care of. It’s extremely special to me brace I never had an opportunity to meet my grandpa and this is the only I have of his.I have the original 28 inch barrel that I took off and purchased this 24 inch barrel which is a Japanese Invector Plus, i’ve never killed a turkey with it my grandpa was a huge turkey hunter Image
and I would love to take it in the woods this spring my question is I have a jebs .685 high voltage waterfowl tube already. I have never used a choke this open before, I have heard of a lot of people shooting TSS with a 670 to 685 before? If recommended to go to a 660 or 665 that’s no problem either? My other question is what are your thoughts on the old magnums handling heavier loads like this or should I stick to maybe 2 3/4in or 3in 1 5/8oz tss or am I good to go with the 2oz tss loads ? It is the A5 Magnum and I have killed a pile of ducks shooting 3 inch magnum’s in my life with this thing no problem but we are talking about turkey loads? Image


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decoykrvr
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Re: 1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by decoykrvr »

I started turkey hunting w/ a 3", A-5, sporting a 32" full barrel which was my primary waterfowl shotgun. You should have no problems shooting 3", TSS loads through your A-5 since you won't be shooting many of the heavy loads, but I would consider buying a .665 choke tube. Make sure you have the magazine tube well lubed and properly set for magnum loads and, most importantly, insure the forearm is properly aligned and the magazine cap snuged down. I've had to rebuild a lot of A-5 forearms due to splitting, usually from a steady diet of magnum loads or misaligning of the forearm when installing it. If you have any forearm splitting issues PM me, and I'll walk you through a fix. Good luck and practice mounting and shooting at stationary targets w/ field loads a bunch before you start turkey hunting. You'll really appreciate how that old hump-back mounts and the sight picture for turkey hunting.
What are the specifics of the patterns in your pictures, ie. choke, load, distance.
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Antleraddict82
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Re: 1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by Antleraddict82 »

decoykrvr wrote:I started turkey hunting w/ a 3", A-5, sporting a 32" full barrel which was my primary waterfowl shotgun. You should have no problems shooting 3", TSS loads through your A-5 since you won't be shooting many of the heavy loads, but I would consider buying a .665 choke tube. Make sure you have the magazine tube well lubed and properly set for magnum loads and, most importantly, insure the forearm is properly aligned and the magazine cap snuged down. I've had to rebuild a lot of A-5 forearms due to splitting, usually from a steady diet of magnum loads or misaligning of the forearm when installing it. If you have any forearm splitting issues PM me, and I'll walk you through a fix. Good luck and practice mounting and shooting at stationary targets w/ field loads a bunch before you start turkey hunting. You'll really appreciate how that old hump-back mounts and the sight picture for turkey hunting.
What are the specifics of the patterns in your pictures, ie. choke, load, distance.
This actually are from my 20g Franchi Affinity shooting 1 5/8 #9s now it’s a tack driver, but I really wanna bring out the ol A5 an have a piece of History in the spring turkey woods with me


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decoykrvr
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Re: 1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by decoykrvr »

I shot the old Federal 2 oz. #4's, waterfowl loads out of my A-5 for turkeys for several years w/ no problem and they thumped at both ends. The factory 2 oz. TSS, loads will kick a little more due to their increased velocity.
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Spuriosity
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Re: 1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by Spuriosity »

Try the choke you have. I shoot a .675 in two different 12 gauges, and those patterns are plenty tight with 50% of the pattern in the 10" and 80% in the 20". A two oz load should have plenty to fill out the 10 while giving you a more forgiving pattern than a .665.
decoykrvr
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Re: 1975 A5 Belgium 12ga? TSS Miroku Barrel

Post by decoykrvr »

Rereading your initial post, I assume that the Miroku barrel in Invector Plus is back-bored which should give nice even patterns w/ a .685 and agree w/ Spuriosity that the .665 may be too tight for TSS. I would deep clean the barrel and choke tube. I've got a 3 1/2" BPS which is Invector Plus and back-bored which produces the best patterns w/ MagBlends utilizing an IC .675. The same gun w/ the HW 7's produces the best patterns w/ an IC .665. . I have no idea what the BPS would do w/ TSS, since I started hunting w/ a 20 gauge and TSS last year. The only gobbler I killed w/ a 12 gauge last year utilized a hand load of 2 oz. TSS, 8's over 9's w/ an IC .660 in a 3" Ithaca Turkeyslayer and at 30 yards the head and neck of the gobbler looked like a bird I killed several years ago w/ the same gun and choke shooting a 3" MagBlend at @ 17 yards. I save all my gobbler heads/necks for trade w/ a taxidermist and the head of last years 12 gauge gobbler was unusable. Good luck w/ your A-5 this year and report your patterning results w/ TSS.
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