A Tried and True Classic, Browning's Humpback A5 Gets a Camo Facelift And More

By Chad Carman Published on October 17th, 2023

For waterfowlers, there is no place like Canada.

I had dreamed of hunting the fields north of the border since I returned from my first duck hunt, beaming with joy at the ugly bag of birds we had taken that morning. Although it consisted primarily of shovelers, a few gadwalls, and a widgeon, I was smitten with waterfowl.

Since that hunt, I immersed myself in duck and goose hunting. Inevitably, as all hunting does, that led me to pipe dreams of far-off lands, specifically, Canadian skies where birds rain down like flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. I could only hope to make it there one day.

The Call!

I received a phone call in late June of 2022. “Chad, do you want to go on a waterfowl hunt in Canada?” An enthusiastic “I'm in!” was out of my mouth before Browning’s Rafe Nielsen finished the sentence. I didn’t know where or when. I didn’t care, and it didn’t matter; I would make it work.

How could I pass up my bucket list hunt? We would be taking the brand-new Browning AURIC camo for its inaugural field test in the prairies of Canada to see just how well the new pattern fared against the sky pandas and early-season mallards to the north.

Our choice of weapon was the indispensable Browning A5.

The Wicked Wing Difference

If the A5 is the ‘67 Mustang of the waterfowl world, the Wicked Wing is the candy apple red paint job and chrome emblem version. Featuring a Burnt Bronze Cerakote finish on both the receiver and barrel, and a slick Wicked Wing mallard logo emblazoned on the left side, this shotgun will withstand Mother Nature’s worst moods. Oh, and it just looks so damn good, too.

Three extended Invector-DS Goose Band choke tubes give you the extra patterning power to quickly adjust for birds in close or afar. At the same time, the Briley^® oversized bolt release ensures you can send the buttery-smooth bolt forward even with the burliest of mittens.

New-Age Features in a Classic Design

If you want a shotgun that people will know at first glance, the A5 is your piece. Suppose you want a shotgun that proclaims the planet’s most reliable, fastest-cycling, best-balanced, and softest-shooting recoil-operated autoloader. In that case, the A5 is your huckleberry.

Making a difference when you first load the shotgun, the Speed Load Plus system will have you quickly back in business between volleys of birds. When swapping between goose and mallard loads, this is an absolute must in the fast-paced Canadian wheat fields.

Browning’s patent-pending feed system slides your first shell loaded into the magazine directly to the chamber without hitting the bolt release. Once perfected, it makes quickly loading three shotshells and being ready to fire almost as second nature as tying your shoes. It works incredibly well for the one-handed Hail Mary load when you’ve expelled your first three rounds. The Plus system denotes the quick unloading feature that circumvents the repetitive working of the action to eject shells. Without this feature, shells typically end up at the bottom of your layout, which you don’t want or need.

The consistency and reliability of the A5 come from the Kinematic Drive System that harnesses the recoil energy produced by your shotgun shell and sends it to an internal spring that ejects the shell and cycles the action. Three days of fast-paced Canadian action amongst six shooters resulted in zero misfires or stove pipes. The system is so reliable that Browning offers a 100,000-round/5-year guarantee on each unit sold.

Perhaps one of the most welcome features of the A5, and most important for those launching the heaviest of 3.5-inch loads, is the Inflex II Recoil Pad. I’ve jerked the trigger on many firearms in my 20-plus years of hunting waterfowl, upland, and big game. There’s a reason that nearly all my guns feature this pad, which collapses and deflects energy down and away from the cheek, nullifying even the heaviest of loads and allowing for faster follow-up shots when moving from bird to bird.

The New AURIC Camo

Browning’s latest launch in the waterfowl world, the AURIC camo system, is intended to blend wetland and dry grass patterns in a way that explicitly displaces the human shape from even the wariest mallard. I was shocked to see how well the design disappeared into the prairies of the Canadian farm fields. The color patterns work to confuse waterfowl in a very John Cena “You can’t see me,” kind of way.

While I was fortunate enough to sport the complete AURIC head-to-toe set with a matching shotgun, it’s not the only camo available for this timepiece. Browning offers the A5 Camo in AURIC, Vintage Tan to complement your grand pappy’s coat, Realtree Max 7, Mossy Oak Bottomland, and Shadow Grass Habitat. The Wicked Wing series comes with unique features in all the same camo options plus the protection of Cerakote on the barrel and receiver. The Stalker is available in basic black with composite furniture. To excite the traditionalists that appreciate the feel and beauty of wood guns, they have their pick between the Hunter and upscale Ultimate models. Barrel lengths for the A5 range from 26 to 30 inches in 12- and 16-gauge varieties.

In The Blind

Having a place for multiple A5s in my gun cabinet and having been introduced to them by my father nearly a decade ago, I was no stranger to cycling in shells in preparation for the morning flight. After all, would I want to fiddle with a new shotgun as birds were raining down on us?

It was no sooner shooting light than the first sortie of a dozen Greater Canadas was upon us, and I had the opportunity to crack the trigger on my 28-inch barreled 12-gauge. In almost no time, we amassed a six-man limit of monstrous Canada geese, specks, and several Ross’s geese. Bright smiles and plenty of snapshots memorializing what took less than an hour and a half to muster capped off the day. This was Canada. This was what I dreamed of. The best part? The day wasn’t over.

Round Two

Our guide invited us back to the cabin to rest from the hard morning’s grind before the evening duck hunt, where they had scouted hundreds of pintails only the night before. By 5:18 PM that evening (with a photo on my phone to prove it), we had finished off our limit of ducks from the morning and had our fill of pintails. Seriously, it was incredible. This was the first time I had been a part of something like it.

After the long, arduous day (all kidding intended), we retreated to the cabin for great food, fellowship, and plenty of stories from our camp companions on how many birds they shot that day. It was the stuff of legends.

Of course, this allowed me to question Rafe why he had chosen me, a random waterfowl hunter from Montana, a nobody, to accompany this crew of high-caliber outdoor professionals on the hunt. His response: “Well, we needed photos of the new camo. You’re not a bad-looking guy, but you’re not a great-looking guy, either. So, people will focus on the camo.”

Not to embellish the story in the slightest, the next day included more and more of the same. We finished each of the three days with our complete duck and goose bag limits. Canada did not disappoint, and neither did the A5. Over the course of the trip, we plowed through cases of ammunition, with each A5 performing flawlessly. No jams, no sore shoulders.

The downside to Canada? No sleep. With early sunrises and late sunsets still cresting in September and often hour-long-plus drives each morning and evening, you’ll find that your time for dreaming is short. Combined with the echoing honks and quacks from the thousands of birds heard overhead each morning, quality sleep seldom comes readily when chasing feathers up north. But that is the way of a waterfowler and well worth the baggy-eyes.

The Browning A5 has long been my first shotgun out of the safe when I need reliability and my highest chance of accuracy — and no other gun shoulders for me the way the A5 does. When combined with the AURIC camo pattern, this deadly combination can be trusted to serve you well in your hunt-of-a-lifetime, too.